An Assessment of Knowledge Production in Brazilian Universities

• In Event: STS and Universities - I

Abstract

The hereby proposed presentation aims to assess the most recent expansion of higher education in Brazil, with special attention to the change of its research landscape, focusing foremost on three main aspects: (i) the rising importance of a “marketplace” inspired academic agenda and its possible constraints; (ii) the establishment of a national federal agency in charge of (quantitatively) evaluating graduate programmes and (iii) the plurality (or its lack) of knowledge making under such circumstances. Contributions by Syed Alatas (2003) and Wiebke Keim (2010) constitute the initial theoretical framework to help understand and reflect upon conditionalities of knowledge circulation and assymetries of knowledge production, especially the relational core and periphery dynamics (taking into consideration Global North and South).
To understand the recent expansion of Brazilian research landscape and HEI – focusing quantitative as well as qualitative aspects – I propose to take up and critically assess the concept of academic capitalism as proposed by Slaughter and Leslie (1999), along with the discussion on the triple helix model by Leydesdorff and Etzkowitz (1998). The idea is to, by giving an overview in regard to the Brazilian case, point out limitations of these latter interpretations, stressing current interpretations that should be taken into account, while also discussing how different factors such as increasing student loan financing alongside affirmative action have produced a different student body and, as such, influenced practice and content of knowledge production, with emphasis on the relations between teaching and research.

Author

• Stefan Klein, Universidade de Brasilia (UnB)