Politics of Higher Education, Research, and Innovation

This Section is endorsed by a proposed new Standing Group on the Politics of Higher Education, Research and Innovation. Knowledge policies are at the forefront of contemporary global politics and are seen as the foundation on which societies coalesce and economies thrive. This Section builds on the previous four Sections on the Europe of Knowledge and invites contributions from around the world to consider the various dimensions of knowledge policy development. Specifically, we are interested in theoretical, empirical, and comparative contributions that investigate the role of the ‘four I’s’ – ideas, interests, instruments and institutions – in the global, multi-level, multi-issue, and multi-actor governance of knowledge policies, including failures and successes. By ‘role’, we refer to effects that ideas, actors (individual, organisational), policy instruments/mixes, and institutions have had on the governance of knowledge policies, and vice-versa. We focus on ‘roles’ to enable a multidisciplinary discussion on whether these factors share defining characteristics across different knowledge policy domains (i.e. research, higher education, and innovation), and between distinct governance levels and geographical regions. This Section continues to welcome scholars from all theoretical and methodological approaches to critically discuss the reconfiguration of knowledge systems around the world. Biographies: Meng-Hsuan Chou is Nanyang Assistant Professor in public policy and global affairs at NTU Singapore and her research interests lie at the intersection of public policy, regionalism, and international relations. Mitchell Young is Assistant Professor at Charles University in Prague focusing on European integration in higher education and research, public management, and policy tools for evaluating and funding research. They are both convenors of the proposed ECPR Standing Group on ‘Politics of Higher Education, Research, and Innovation’. Together, they have chaired the 2011, 2013, 2014 and 2015 ECPR sections on the Europe of Knowledge. The 2015 Section in Montreal ran 9 Panels.