Knowledge Politics and Policies

Knowledge, understood to be the foundation on which societies coalesce and economies thrive, has become central to contemporary politics and policymaking across governance levels. This Section is interested in theoretical, empirical, and comparative contributions that investigate the role of politics and policy in the multi-level, multi-issue, and multi-actor governance of knowledge. In focusing on role, we refer to effects that ideas (including political ideologies), actors (both individual and organisational, including political parties and transnational entities), policy instruments, and institutions have on the governance, creation, dissemination, and transfer of knowledge. Panels will be oriented around these roles, key empirical questions, theories or methodologies. The Section continues the work on knowledge policy domains from the past ten ECPR conferences (previously under the titles ‘Politics of Higher Education, Research and Innovation’ and ‘Europe of Knowledge’). It continues to welcome scholars, globally and interdisciplinarily, from all theoretical and methodological approaches. Proposals should have a clear conceptual framework, describe research design, data and methods, as well as highlight the expected contribution. The following Panels have all been pre-proposed by the Chairs listed: The role of higher education during and after major crisis Chairs: Iryna Kushnir (Nottingham Trent University) & Mari Elken (NIFU) This Panel invites both conceptual and empirical papers that explore the role of higher education during and after major crises. This includes wars, conflicts, protests, revolutions and other major societal restructuring processes. Relevant questions to explore include but are not limited to: How do major societal, political and humanitarian crises shape the role of higher education and its relationship to the state? How do such crises shape the governing and organisation of higher education? What kind of consequences do major crises have for higher education in terms of its societal position? Shaping knowledge policies in a globalized world – Actors, structures, and policymaking dynamics Chair: Jens Jungblut (University of Oslo) This Panel focuses on how knowledge policies in today’s globalized higher education world come about. Growing internationalization and regionalization as well as global collaboration and competition have expressed themselves in growing interest by international organizations in higher education, the creation of inter-governmental coordination processes, and mushrooming of (international) networks of universities. Papers presented in this Panel can focus on certain aspects of the policymaking environment of global knowledge policies, while reflecting on (parts of) this complex interplay, highlighting dynamics e.g. between actors, countries or levels of governance. Cannibal Capitalism and Higher Education: Diagnosis and Prognosis Chair: Susan Robertson (University of Cambridge) This Panel invites Papers which bring the insights of Nancy Fraser's new book, Cannibal Capitalism (Verso, 2022) to bear on developments in higher education. Papers might engage in diagnosing how contemporary higher education dynamics are contributing to the ongoing destruction of our planet, democracy and care, or outline political projects and social movements advancing an ongoing engagement in collective transformation. Critical perspective on politics and policy of Artificial Intelligence Chairs/Discussants: Inga Ulnicane (De Montfort University), Tero Erkkilä (University of Helsinki) and Ronit Justo-Hanani (Tel Aviv University) This Panel examines recent developments in politics and policy of Artificial Intelligence (AI) through a critical lens. AI is emerging as a highly contested technology associated with hopes and fears related to its actual as well as perceived impacts. Against this background, this Panel invites to Papers exploring AI development and impact through political and policy concepts such as power, voice, representation, democracy, fairness and justice. Possible foci of interrogation include well-known, revised and new questions like: Who governs? Who benefits? Who gets what, how and why? And who is left behind? Governing Vocational Education Training as policy Chair: Alina Felder (University of St Gallen) While VET systems differ greatly across Europe, they are faced with similar challenges. VET has served and ought to serve as a policy tool to tackle societal and economic challenges, yet it can only assume this role if there is a sufficient demand side for VET, and that has been decreasing as the vocational track appears less attractive for learners. This Panel addresses questions of governing the different expectations of VET, how the role of VET as a policy influences its governance, and how different approaches to the organisation and content of VET influence the adaptation of VET systems to challenges such as migration. Interest organizations in knowledge politics and policies Chair: Michael Oduro Asante (University of Bergen) The Panel focuses on organizations representing interests of various stakeholders in the knowledge policy domain. This includes, but is not limited to, professional associations, trade unions, student organizations, associations of higher education institutions, etc., operating at various governance levels. The Panel is particularly interested in studies that analyze the role of these organizations in the policy process, how they develop their policy agendas, how they relate to their members, their internal organization and operation, as well as their positioning towards other state and non-state policy actors. European Universities Initiative – taking stock and looking forward Chair: Martina Vukasovic (University of Bergen) This Panel focuses on the European Universities Initiative (EUI) – a flagship project of the EU that since 2019 has been supporting the establishment of transnational alliances between universities. Developed rather quickly (in less than a year), it has garnered significant EU-level support and funding despite (a) concerning an area in which the EU has only supporting competence and (b) the overall crisis of the European integration project. The Panel welcome studies analyzing various aspects of the EUI, including: its development, relationship with other EU programmes in the area of knowledge, characteristics of universities that form transnational alliances and their rationales, EUI’s impact on universities, etc.