KNOWLEDGEINSTITUTIONSGENDER:an east-west comparative study

MODES OF ORDERING AND BOUNDARIES WHICH MATTER IN ACADEMIC KNOWLEDGE PRODUCTION

Ulrike Felt, Tereza Stöckelová

With contribution of Lisa Garforth, Magdalena Gorska, Luba Koba, Morgan Meyer, Seppo Poutanen, Mariana Szapuova, Veronika Wöhrer

Orders, audits, classifications, boundaries

• The image of seamless, universal science vs. boundaries within science

• Proliferation of policy ordering of academia

Power, Micheal. 1997. The Audit Society: Rituals of Verification. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Strathern, Marylin (ed.). 2000. Audit cultures: Anthropological studies in accountability, ethics and the academy. London and NY: Routledge.

“A key characteristic of neoliberal governance is that it relies on more indirect forms of intervention and control. In particular, it seeks to act on and through the agency, interests, desires and motivations of individuals, encouraging them to see themselves as active subjects responsible for improving their own conduct. By internalizing the external norms of management, ‘flexibilized workers’ transform themselves into governable subjects of managerial power and control.“Shore, Cris. 2008. “Audit culture and illiberal governance: Universities and the politics of accountability.” Anthropological Theory, 8(3): 278–298.

Multiplicity of orderings

Law, John. 1994. Organizing modernity. Oxford: Blackwell.

Vocation, Vision, Administration, Enterprise

Boundaries in flux

Drawing, undrawing and redrawing boundaries

Modes of orderings and boundaries which matter

Disciplines as cognitive

topographies

Europe & nation states

Centres/ periphery &East/West

Excellence & its others

Basic/applied research

Situating &

being situated

The excellent and the others

• As an boundary object travelling across the EU• Universal indicators favouring natural sciences’ epistemic

practices and patterns• Researchers’ attitudes

– internalization of the audit framework by most bioscientists

– critical voices in biosciences: appeal to alternative mode, to „good science“ (cooperation, students, freedom)

– moderate critique in social science (modified assessment)

• Funding scheme for excellent „risky“ research to mitigate perverted effects of audit culture