Philosophical Perspectives: Research in Higher Education

Towards a theory of transnational academic capitalism

This article draws attention to the relative lack of theoretically and methodologically elaborated approaches to understand and explain the complex relations between transnationalization of higher education and globalization seen especially from the point of view of global capitalism. The main aim of this article is to contribute to the construction of a theory of transnational academic capitalism (TAC). A theory of TAC argues that those networks, practices and activities that are blurring the boundaries between higher education, markets and states are increasingly becoming transnational without supposing that this transformation implies that local and national levels are insignificant in s…

A Shift Towards Academic Capitalism in Finland

Academic capitalism is currently a widely studied topic amongst higher education scholars, especially in the United States. This paper demonstrates that the theory of academic capitalism also provides a fruitful perspective for analysing the restructuring of Finnish higher education since the 1990s, although with reservations. It will be argued that many reforms in Finnish universities since the 1990s, and especially in the early 2000s, have integrated Finnish universities more tightly with the new knowledge-based economy. As some recent empirical studies indicate, activities and practices related to academic capitalism remain, however, unevenly distributed among different disciplines, and …

Academic capitalism and the informational fraction of the transnational capitalist class

This article is based on the idea that if we are witnessing an on-going shift towards the transnational phase of capitalism, this objective structural change should also be taken into account in higher education studies. In this sense, this article reflects the increased scholarly attention into the relationship between globalisation and higher education since the 1990s. The main purpose of this article is to contribute to these discussions by developing dialogue between global capitalism theories and the theory of academic capitalism. In order to achieve this, William Robinson's concept of the transnational capitalist class (TCC) will be amended to include also the informational fraction. …

Kevyttä ruokaa ja vahvoja arvostuksia : moraalinen toimijuus vegaaniuden kontekstissa

Moody habitus: Bourdieu with existential feelings

Tiedon omistaminen on valtaa : globalisoituvan patenttijärjestelmän poliittinen moraalitalous ja globaali kapitalismi

Globalisoituvassa patenttijärjestelmässä ei ole kyse globaalin kapitalismin teknisestä yksityiskohdasta, vaan merkittävästä yhteiskunnallisesta kysymyksestä. Tämän havaitsi Ilkka Kauppinen sosiologian väitöskirjassaan tutkiessaan globalisoituvaa patenttijärjestelmää ja Maailman kauppajärjestön (WTO) vuonna 1994 hyväksymää sopimusta teollis- ja tekijänoikeuksien kauppaan liittyvistä näkökohdista (TRIPS).Kehitysmaissa elävien ihmisten kannalta ongelmallisimmat patentit koskevat esimerkiksi maataloutta ja lääketeollisuutta, koska patentit mahdollistavat näillä aloilla tuotettavien elintärkeiden hyödykkeiden monopolihinnoittelun. Patenttijärjestelmällä on yhteytensä myös ilmastonmuutokseen, kos…

Social mechanisms and strategic action fields: The example of the emergence of the European Research Area

The point of departure of this article is Fligstein and McAdam’s A Theory of Fields. It is argued that their theoretical framework would be strengthened by a more systematic focus in social mechanism-based explanations since this would increase understanding of how new strategic action fields (SAFs) emerge. This argument is illustrated by exploring the emergence of the European Research Area (ERA) as a SAF. In identifying social mechanisms the article draws both on Fligstein and McAdam’s studies and on academic capitalism literature. The main conclusion is that the emergence of the ERA was brought about by multiple social mechanisms such as collective attribution of threat/opportunity, soc…

The European Round Table of Industrialists and the restructuring of European higher education

The restructuring of European higher education (EHE) since the 1980s is a widely studied subject. However, this paper argues that previous studies have paid insufficient attention to the role of transnational policy-making groups in this complex and multilevel process. This argument is supported by focusing on how the European Round Table of Industrialists (ERT) has participated in this restructuring since the mid-1980s. This paper's focus is especially in two ERT documents that were published in the 1980s. The main finding is that the current restructuring of EHE reflects interests of the ERT that represents the emerging transnational capitalist class (TCC) at European level.

A moral economy of patents: case of Finnish research universities' patent policies

The primary objective of this paper is to demonstrate the usefulness of the concept of moral economy for higher education studies through a study of Finnish research universities' patent policies. Patent policies not only stimulate the commercialization of research, they also set norms for behavior and aim to clarify how to distribute rights and responsibilities during the commercialization of research results. My main research finding is that even though institutionalized university patenting is a very recent phenomenon in Finland, policies regulating it have significant similarities to the US case. The main conclusion of this paper is that the question of university patent policies should…

Traces of peasantry and post-socialism : researching realities with Ilkka Alanen

Different meanings of ´knowledge as commodity` in the context of higher education

Commodification has been and still is one of the key processes within capitalist market economies. Since the 1970s, different forms of knowledge have increasingly been subjected to this process. In this paper the commodification of knowledge in the field of higher education is defined in a broad sense as an example of the intensive enlargement of capitalism. I argue that knowledge shares some features of public goods and can be subjected to commodification both as an educational product and academic research itself. However, the simple dichotomy of public vs. private good is not nuanced enough to understand the status of knowledge within higher education. How to reconstruct this dichotomy,…

Blurring Boundaries and Borders: Interlocks Between AAU Institutions and Transnational Corporations

In the contemporary knowledge economy, higher education has become an integral part of national innovation systems and is supposed to help attract globally mobile capital. From this perspective, the key organizational actors of the knowledge economy are universities and transnational corporations (TNCs). Our chapter draws on previous research on interlocks between universities and corporations, as well as on broader studies on the internationalization of higher education and global capitalism. We seek to identify the connections of TNCs with the prestigious Association of American Universities (AAU) member institutions through the individuals who simultaneously serve on the university board…

Changing the heart and soul? Inequalities in Finland’s current pursuit of a narrow education policy

The Finnish educational system is well known for its excellent learning results, highly trained teachers and egalitarian values. However, when the political leanings of the government change, its policies are usually altered as well. In this policy report we give an account of the recent changes and current trends in Finnish education policy. We analyse the characteristics of the Sipilä Government’s current education policy since 2015 and compare it to the Nordic welfare-state ideals of universalism, equality and social justice which have traditionally been the key building blocks of the Finnish education system. The Government’s policy appears to be narrow-minded and ignorant of issues rel…