The purpose of this chapter is to shed light on the ontological assumptions that underlie the idea of a contract in Academic Capitalism. Far from being “simply a metaphor”, there are now concrete examples of real contracts in Swedish universities, which we here designate “academic contracts”. In investigating the perceived function of academic contracts, we will try to answer this fundamental question: For which problem, in what conception, is signing a contract between a student and an academic teacher a solution? By analysing four existing academic contracts from Swedish universities through the lens of a very influential economic theory of the nature and function of contracts, New Institutional Economics (NIE), we will argue that the implementation of academic contracts is totally at odds with the Humboldtian tradition and the classic university. Our contention is that the introduction of academic contracts does not facilitate, but rather undermines, the academic teaching and learning process.

In the light of some recent transformations in higher education, a moral governance of university teachers is starting to emerge, suggesting a decrease of professional autonomy. By drawing on the idea of Gilles Deleuze’s ‘clinical analysis’, the aim of this article is to re-problematize the increasingly common moral image of students’ problems in the light of these recent developments in higher education. The first part of the article focuses on students’ victimization, which is followed by an analysis of the rhetoric and practice of transparency. The third part investigates the relationship between widening participation and the entry of the market model in higher education. The findings suggest that university teachers could benefit from applying a holistic, self-reflective perspective – as a contrast to many policymakers’ reductive individual perception. This perspective enables two practices: (1) the critical ethos concerned with the limits and potentials of professional identity and (2) the political mobilization of university teachers as a profession.

In An Expedition Between Innovation Politics and Anthropology, Torbjörn Friberg systematically discusses and analyses several specific political phenomena, which are later drawn together to deliberate the general notion of ideology, power, and possible anthropological escape routes in the context of innovation politics. Drawing on fieldwork in the innovation political world (policy model, mediator company, networks, meetings, conferences, events, documents, observations, and interviews), Friberg reconsiders and develops the work of Laura Nader, Manuel DeLanda, Marilyn Strathern, Martin Holbraad, William Graham Sumner, Pierre Bourdieu, Ghassan Hage, and Eric Wolf. In line with this reasoning, Friberg considers the innovation political world as constituted by a new form of structural power and ideology: a political context in which the anthropological world becomes encapsulated by political processes.

This article aims to understand how burn-out became an object of thought, through the study of certain processes of legitimization. It traces the genealogy of the burn-out concept from the initial article from 1974, via its confirmation as a “disease” in the 1980s, to its appearance as a legitimate diagnosis in Sweden in 1997. The theoretical framework is that of applied metaphysics, which means a study on how a specific phenomenon came into being. Consequently, I take departure from ontology in motion with an approach that concerns the legitimization processes. The conclusion will show the underlying processes of legitimization in relation to the making of a psychiatric object of thought in Swedish society.

The purpose of this article is to explicate the cultural boundaries present in the early history of anthropology through the study of its rhetorical forms. The theoretical framework utilized is the cartographically approach, which means studying scientific facts as boundaries on a cultural map. The study takes its departure from the late 19th century with a primary focus on Sir Edward Burnett TylorŽs (1832–1917) writings. After a close and critical reading of Tylor’s texts, certain conclusions are reached about his direct influence on the anthropological space on the cultural map. The findings suggest a more critical cartographical approach to the study of the rhetorical forms present in contemporary multi-disciplinary creation of cultural boundaries.

The article attempts to elucidate tensionless ethnography against the backdrop of three contemporary processes: STS ethnography, innovation policies, and the Mode 2 society. An ethnographic approach was utilized to generate the initial problem of the ‘tensionless’, which is continuously resolved by close readings of research literature and documents on innovation policies. Tensionless ethnography is described as a method in which the conceptual objects and attitude are conceived as similar among the ethnographer and the Others. As the academic world of ethnography becomes an assimilated part of the world of policy and industry, it could be argued that we are about to lose a self-reflexive qualitative approach. Therefore, it seems urgent to re-establish an ethnographic world in which we can exercise critical inquires in innovation policy.

This article is a response to the methodological problems I experienced during fieldwork. It follows that the article is an experiment of creating alternative possibilities for thinking about ethnocentrism as a phenomenon in transformation in a contemporary, innovative, higher educational setting. Throughout the article, I argue for the acknowledgement of policy-centrism as a phenomenon that has transformed out of classic ethnocentrism. The first part provides a reflective ethnographic background, while the second part focuses on sociologist William Graham Sumner’s classical work in order to disclose the constitutive principles of ethnocentrism as a phenomenon. The three following parts will, thus, discuss the transformation of the phenomenon’s four overlapping principles: conceptual, political, relational and expressional. The concluding remarks problematise policy-centrism as an emerging phenomenon in the new innovation policy research context.

As part of recent complex transformations, it seems that higher educational organisations are being forced to reorganise, standardise and streamline in order to survive in the new political and economic context. How are ethnographers in general going to approach these contemporary phenomena? By drawing on the conceptual history of anthropology, the aim of this article is to generate ethnographic-oriented research questions concerned with higher education. The first part of the article provides an ethnographic background, while the second part focuses on Paul Willis's reasoning on ethnographic imagination, as a prerequisite for generating alternative research questions. The third part makes explicit anthropologist Maurice Godelier's theoretical imagination, carving out some specific theoretical parts which may be used in the generating process. The conclusion then suggests a number of questions to be asked by future ethnographers of higher education. The questions are followed by a reflection upon the consequences of doing ethnography within contemporary higher education settings, which are increasingly dominated by policy-makers; ethnography is thus to be seen as an intervening instrument.

This article focuses on the intrinsic potential of ethnographic critique challenged inthe context of innovation political projects equipped with the harmonizing Triple Helix model.An ethnographic approach has been used to generate the initial problem of harmonization,which is discussed in relation to Henry Etzkowitz’ textual assumptions on harmonizationin the Triple Helix model, followed by two ethnographic cases concerned with the practicesof harmonization. Harmonization is described as making consistent different provinces ofmeaning or worlds, unrestricting them from conflicting structures of relevance. Therefore,the concluding remarks attempt to broaden the scope of critical ethnographic strategieswith the help of a Weberian differentiation between a political and a social scientific world.

This article is concerned with Ghassan Hage’s dialectics of anthropological critique—constituted by the tension between modernism and primitivism. Hage argues that modernethnographers who encounter other primitivist worlds become equipped with potential criticalthinking about politico-organisational matters of modernity. So far, so good. However, whatif there is a crisis of modernity, in the sense that “modern” political projects are inspired byprimitivism? As Strathern emphasises today, there seems to be a problem of pursuing the dialecticsof anthropological critique concerning the new imperialistic tendencies “at home”. Such a problem,I argue, can be observed by the emergence of the world of innovation politics that is constitutedby a form of primitivism. This leads to the question, How can we maintain the dialectics ofanthropological critique in the context of innovation politics? This article aims to explore thedialectics of anthropological critique by placing it in a dynamic, capitalist modern context

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to outline the operative meaning of collaboration in a life science network. Design/methodology/approach: Data were collected through participatory observations and interviews between 2014 and 2015. The data presented were derived from field notes from participant observations, interviews and documents within a life science network in the Öresund region (southern part of Sweden and the Copenhagen area). Findings: The findings suggest that collaboration within the life science network should be viewed as a lively, organizational assembly in the process of becoming, in contrast to the idea that it is operating on the basis of organic principles. Collaboration thus could be viewed as consisting of self-subsistent parts (participants and organizations) that are detached and plugged into different collaborative networks. Originality/value: In the context of the emerging idea of re-building the state welfare system with the economic support of producing and selling knowledge, there seems to be a growing interest, especially from the point of view of policymakers, in the phenomenon of collaboration. This paper offers exclusive ethnographic illustrations into the heterogeneity of collaboration.

This article concerns the (re)making of the flow of knowledge by structural biologists employed in a mediator company located between the university domain and the business world in Sweden. Drawing on Marilyn Strathern’s theory of ‘cutting the flow’, this article ethnographically studies the flow of knowledge: how it is locally made, stopped, and remade in the laboratory. The first part reflects on the author’s learning process during the fieldwork, while the second part discusses the hybrid position of mediator companies and the practices of associated researchers. The third part investigates the status of these companies among policymakers and life science stakeholders. The fourth and fifth parts ethnographically describe the cut and the (re)making of the flow of knowledge in everyday laboratory work. Taken together, these five parts will result in an attempt to extend Strathern’s theoretical approach.

Today anthropologists seem to be increasingly studying phenomena in their own societies. Many have a focus on policies in organizations and an interest in explicating cultural phenomena constituted by power and governance. Consequently, a recent interest has emerged in Michel Foucault's philosophy, especially as an inspiration for ethnographic analysis. However, this type of inquiry is problematic, because the Foucauldian perspective contributes to a pre-established idea of social reality, hence distorting essential aspects of the process of discovery. This article aims to provide an alternative to recent trends in Foucauldian-inspired analysis by showing how Eric Wolf's anthropological project can contribute to a more discovery-oriented ethnography. Wolf's concept formation of structural power, tactical power, chain of signification and cultural brokers is closely examined in relation to studying organizational phenomena. In particular, an analysis based upon Wolf's concept can be useful for an increased understanding of policy processes in the field of higher education.

The purpose of this article is to disclose the harmonisation processes that take their point of departure in the triple helix model of innovation, in order to increase awareness of critical resistance among university teachers. As this policy model intends to harmonise different sectors – universities, industry, and the state – it is relevant to study these processes both textually and practically. Knowledge production in this article is based on an ethnographic approach, as a generative source for the phenomenon under investigation (i.e., harmonisation according to the triple helix model). Against the backdrop of the emerging “Mode 2” society, the results outline policymakers’ prospects of disarming critical resistance. The implications of this analysis indicate possible critical resistance from future university teachers.

The purpose of this qualitative inquiry is to attempt to elucidate the policy attitude as it appears within the context of scientific innovation. A phenomenological anthropological approach to qualitative inquiry was utilized in order to explicate the human scientific meaning of a specific attitude driven by an interest in a sociocultural context. The policy attitude can be described as an attitude upholding a meaning based upon a collaborative ideal, marked by a hybridization of values and organizations. The policy attitude is thus submissive to political trends and business organizational structures, goals, and objectives. As the world of science becomes an integrated part of the world of policy and industry, it could be argued that policy attitude influences how we perceive knowledge, in which qualitative inquiry in the human sciences is by no means excluded.

The focus of this article is on changes of epistemic content in evaluating and controlling teaching at universities. Methodologically, in this study, we integrate macro-historical-political configurations with contemporary micro-social situations in contrast to a discursive-philosophical orientation. We strive for integration between historical processes and social practices. From the theoretical point of departure in the concept of epistemic drift, we want to investigate the changes and ambivalences that are the consequences when epistemic criteria developed in one social jurisdiction (research on teaching and learning in the 1970s and 1980s) are used in another social setting (teaching and learning in higher education, or TLHE, in the 2010s). The epistemic content discussed here is the qualitative turn of teaching and learning in the 1970 s and 1980s, a turn that paved the way for the conceptualization of constructive alignment (CA) later in the 1990s, the concept that is the object of analysis. As the text moves on, it will be shown how CA gradually merge with a managerial form of learning outcome, in various policy contexts on European, national (Sweden) and university levels. We describe how CA became institutionalized as the most common pedagogical model in Swedish TLHE courses. Against this background of historical processes – the theoretical pedagogical foundation of CA, Bologna policies in Europe and Swedish higher education policies and national institutionalization of CA – we illustrate ethnographically how CA is received in local, social situations.

This report analyzes causes for the decline in applications to Lund University by focusing on how incoming students make decisions about whether to attend university and what to study. Some young people (both before and during university studies) consider the university to be a place for personal development, while others see it only as a place to learn skills for getting a job. These two views reflect the kinds of choices they make, whether they remain or drop out, and how they choose courses or programs. Data is based on documents and interviews with gymnasie pupils, Lund students, visits to educational fairs, etc. Several conclusions and recommendations are directed toward better information activities, recruiting, and understanding why students are at university when they might choose to be somewhere else. In this way we can improve both recruitment and throughput (gennemstromning) of students. This assessment was financed by the Lund U. Information Dept. and led by Steven Sampson of the social anthropology department of Lund University.