Europe of Knowledge (Education, Higher Education and Research Policy)

Following the 2011 inaugural section, which compared the variety of governance mechanisms activated towards institutionalising a ‘Europe of Knowledge’, scholarly interest in European knowledge cooperation is growing. At the same time, political interest remains high as policy-makers turn to ‘bringing ideas to the market’ as a key strategy to innovate out of the current crisis. For 2013, this section invites theoretical reflections and empirically comparative contributions to investigate the institutionalisation of the ‘Europe of Knowledge’ at times of crisis. Here, crisis is defined broadly and should be approached from multiple angles (e.g. political, economic, institutional, governance, social). Potential papers could explore whether trust between different actors involved in knowledge governance diminished, remains unchanged or increased. Trust is especially important for European knowledge cooperation given that voluntary compliance has been the dominant modus operandi for integrating knowledge systems and practices. If there are no variance observed, this would indicate that European knowledge cooperation is generally robust and scholarly debates concerning its legitimacy are encouraged. Another avenue of investigation is the impact of the crisis on distinct policy domains – education, higher education and research – making up the ‘Europe of Knowledge’: to what extent are the effects similar? Has the reallocation of resources substantively altered the different pathways towards the ‘Europe of Knowledge’? Who are the winners and losers? Have knowledge policies become secondary to, for instance, the core European agenda concerned with regulating the financial sector? Or are knowledge policies exported/integrated as solutions to address challenges in other sectors? More broadly, to what extent has the notion of the ‘Europe of Knowledge’ been revised from the ambitious and optimistic Lisbon Strategy to the now reserved vision of Europe 2020? This section welcomes all scholars, theoretical and methodological approaches, to continue the discussion on the reconfiguration of European knowledge systems.