Wednesday, March 7, 2007

Forskningsfrihed? is a Danish science policy blog

The blog Forskningsfrihed? (“Freedom of research?”) aims at investigating, commenting upon, and criticizing the current conditions of free inquiry and research at the Danish Universities. Formerly the Danish Universities in the 1970s and 1980s were democratic institutions, having abolished the professorial hegemony of classic elitist universities, and could in principle pursue free research in the interests of a plurality of social classes. Now, a top-down government of universities has been installed, with a focus on commercial interests, and potentially constraining the rights and possibilities of free research and speech of the employees. The blog prompts Danish researchers to contribute and counter the dominant discourse of management, and participate in experimenting with this blog as a medium of contest and new answers.
This post is editorial. Go to main blog here.

If you are interested in reading a recent analysis of the current situation for Danish university government, a special issue, partly in English, of FORSKERforum (no. 203) is recommended. See also the paper by John Krejsler (2006): “Discursive Battles about the Meaning of University: the case of Danish university reform and its academics”, European Educational Research Journal 5 (3-4): 210-220 (pdf), and Ard Jongsma's report “Denmark: Academics feel the nose”, in University World News, January 13, 2008 (here) on the debate following a study by Terence Karran placing academic freedom in Denmark, the Netherlands and the UK at the bottom of 23 European Union countries.

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