RE-BECOMING UNIVERSITIES?: Higher Education Institutions in Networked Knowledge Societies (The Changing Academy – The Changing Academic Profession in International Comparative Perspective, 15)

This book provides an overview of the major findings of the comparative research project, Changes in Networks, Higher Education and Knowledge Society (CINHEKS). The main aim of this international comparative research project is the analysis of how Higher education institutions are networked within distinct knowledge societies in two key regions of the world: Europe and the United States of America. This research project was carried out in four European countries (Finland, Germany, Portugal and the United Kingdom) and in two different states in the United States of America. In addition, during the course of the research, a team from the Russian Federation joined the CINHEKS study. The analysis is contextually grounded in a comparative policy analysis focused on the main developments and understandings of the ideas surrounding the term knowledge society, in all countries concerned. Empirical elaboration is established via a series of sequential studies, each building, incrementally, on the previous study. These studies include institutional profiles of higher education institutions, institutional case studies, and an international comparative survey that illuminates academics’ social networks. The research findings broaden our understanding of the differences and similarities in how higher education institutions and individual academics are networked within and between societies that understand themselves as knowledge societies. The book introduces a novel analytical synthesis, which asserts contemporary societies have evolved into Networked Knowledge Societies. Methodologically, the book both challenges and raises the bar for previous approaches in comparative higher education, in terms of research design, execution and lays the groundwork for a new generation of international comparative higher education research. ​ Front Matter....Pages i-xiv Front Matter....Pages 1-1 Introduction to the Book and the Comparative Study....Pages 3-11 Higher Education in Networked Knowledge Societies....Pages 13-39 The CINHEKS Research Design: Taking Stock and Moving Forward....Pages 41-74 National Stories, Convergent Trends and Divergent Paths: Discursive Construction of the Higher Education and Knowledge Society – Nexus in Higher Education Policy Texts of Five Knowledge Societies....Pages 75-112 Front Matter....Pages 113-113 Diversity of Higher Education Institutions in Networked Knowledge Societies: A Comparative Examination....Pages 115-139 Why Public Policies Fostering Knowledge Networks in Academia Matter? Insights from the Portuguese Higher Education System until 2010....Pages 141-167 Transformation in the Knowledge Transmission Mission of Russian Universities: Social Versus Economic Instrumentalism....Pages 169-200 Changing Practices, Changing Values?: A Bernsteinian Analysis of Knowledge Production and Knowledge Exchange in Two UK Universities....Pages 201-222 Global, National and Local? The Multilayered Spatial Ties of Universities to Society....Pages 223-245 ‘World Class Local Heroes’: Emerging Competitive Horizons and Transnational Academic Capitalism in Finnish Higher Education – 2010–2012....Pages 247-282 Exploring Social Network Ties of U.S. Academics: The Importance of Employee Status, Institutional Type, Discipline, and Geography....Pages 283-308 The CINHEKS Comparative Survey: Emerging Design, Findings, and the Art of Mending Fractured Vessels....Pages 309-335 Front Matter....Pages 337-337 Main Findings and Discussion....Pages 339-361 Back Matter....Pages 363-490