Session Information
ERG SES C 02, Poster Session
Poster Session
Contribution
Entrepreneurship has become one of the main themes in European higher education policy and the role of education as a promoter of entrepreneurship has been widely acknowledged. Current European HE policy encourages universities to develop entrepreneurial culture and mindsets among academia in any discipline (see European Commission 2011). Along with this tendency, the education of more entrepreneurial individuals has become a major trend in higher education particularly in recent years (Fayolle 2013). Entrepreneurship education (EE) aims at developing entrepreneurial skills and mindsets which are on macro level connected to general economic well-being (Rae et al. 2012) and on micro level related to both new venture creation (Galloway & Brown 2002) and employability of graduated (Rae 2007).
Entrepreneurial ethos in HE policy is related to dramatic shifts in HE policy in the past few decades and to the rise of the knowledge-based economy. In recent years neoliberal market ideals have started to challenge and re-define the university institution’s traditional principles and values, and to affect its culture of action. Changes have been so significant that some have talked about the birth of the whole new entrepreneurial paradigm in universities. (Rinne & Koivula 2005, 94.) The concept of entrepreneurial university has been used to describe entrepreneurial structures, values and actions taken place in the university (Clark 1998). According to Clark (1998) it is essential to motivate the whole academic field to entrepreneurial values, culture and ways of action. New higher education policy encourages entrepreneurial subjectivity of individuals; characteristics and skills such as risk taking, flexibility, agility, creativity, productivity and responsibility have been related to the ideal of an entrepreneurial individual (Komulainen et al. 2010; Gillies 2011; Rose 1992.)
In this study I will scrutinise the entrepreneurial ethos in European HE policy as a form of neoliberal governance. Theoretically the study leans on the foucauldian critical analysis and the concepts of governmentality and entrepreneurial self (Foucault 1982; Rose 1992). This foucauldian theoretical perspective offers a tool for problematizing the objectives and power of current higher education policy in terms of entrepreneurial ethos.
Aim of this study is to critically problematize the principles and ideals of current HE policy. I will analyze those fundamental aims and values intermediated by current rhetoric which are taken for granted. By analyzing the HE policy discourses and rhetoric I will make visible those discursive techniques which produce and legitimate the entrepreneurial culture and the ideal of an entrepreneurial individual. Moreover, my aim is to recognize other possible ways of interpretation about the objectives of HE.
The specified research questions are: How is the entrepreneurial ideal of subjectivity visible in the objectives of HE policy? How is the principle of being entrepreneurial argued and legitimated in political speech? What kinds of tensions and contradictions can be identified between the principles of the new HE policy and the traditional aims, values and principles of university institution?
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Clark, B.R. 1998. Creating Entrepreneurial Universities: Organisational Pathways of Transformation, Issues in Higher Education, Oxford: Pergamon Press for International Association of Universities. European Commission. 2011. Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the regions. Supporting growth and jobs – an agenda for the modernisation of Europe's higher education systems. Brussels, 20.9.2011. COM 2011. 567 final, Fairclough, N. 2013. Critical discourse analysis and critical policy studies. Critical Policy Studies, 7 (2), 177‐197. Fayolle, A. 2013. Personal views on the future of entrepreneurship education. Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, DOI:10.1080/08985626.2013.821318 Foucault, M. 1982. The subject and power. In Michel Foucault: Beyond structuralism and hermeneutics, ed. H. Dreyfus and P. Rabinow, 208–26. Brighton: Harvester Press. Galloway, L. & Brown, W. 2002. Entrepreneurship Education at University: A Driver in the Creation of High Growth Firms? Education + Training; 44: 398-404. Gillies, D. (2011). Agile bodies: a new imperative in neoliberal governance. Journal of Education Policy, 26(2), 207–223. Komulainen K., Keskitalo-Foley, S., Korhonen M. & Lappalainen S. 2010 (toim.) Yrittäjyyskasvatus hallintana. Tampere: Vastapaino. Rae, D. & Lynn, M. & Antcliff, V. & Hannon, P. 2012. Enterprise and entrepreneurship in English higher education: 2010 and beyond. Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development; 19(3): 380-401. Rae, D. 2007. Connecting Enterprise and Graduate Employability: Challenges to the Higher Education Culture and Curriculum? Education + Training 49(8): 605-619. Rinne, R., Jauhiainen, A., Simola, H., Lehto, R., Jauhiainen, A. & Laiho, A. 2012. Valta, uusi yliopistopolitiikka ja yliopistotyö Suomessa. Managerialistinen hallintapolitiikka yliopistolaisten kokemana. Suomen kasvatustieteellinen seura: Kasvatusalan tutkimuksia 58. Rinne, R. & Koivula, J. 2005. The Changing Place of Higher Education and a Clash of Values. The Entrepreneurial University in the European Knowledge Society. Higher Education Management and Policy 17 (3), 91–124. Rose, N. 1992. Governing the enterprising self. In P. Heelas & P. Morris (eds.) The Values of the Enterprise Culture: The Moral Debate. London: Routledge.
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