The post-Cold War era spurred an extensive internationalization and cross-border cooperation in higher education and research in Europe and beyond. In Europe, the European Higher Education Area was launched in 1999 and the European Research Area in 2000 with the aim of creating a common European space for higher education and research enabling knowledge (and workforce) to move freely across borders. Meanwhile, the Brexit referendum, and various crises in the EU have fueled growing backlashes against europeanization, globalization and multilateralism, leading to a shift in the geopolitics of higher education and research. This changing landscape has been marked by the rise of illiberal ideologies, democratic backsliding, nationalism, populism, territorial conflicts, and an increased focus on security politics Brøgger & Dakowska, 2026; Douglass, 2021; Marginson, 2022; van der Wende, 2020, 2024), leading to a growing willingness among politicians and governments to influence, intervene in, or restrict the autonomy of universities and researchers (Brøgger, 2023; Douglass, 2021). As a result, recent decades have seen a decline in academic freedom and university autonomy across countries with diverse political and democratic systems (Brøgger, 2023; De Gennaro, Hofmeister, & Lüfter, 2022; Douglass, 2021; Hazelkorn, Locke, Coates, & de Wit, 2022; Lyer, Saliba, & Spannagel, 2023; Niemczyk & Rónay, 2023; Ren & Li, 2013; Slowey & Taylor, 2024). Once a cornerstone of policy-making, academic knowledge now appears increasingly implicated in these poly-crises and powerless to change the course. Even more troubling, this knowledge is being weaponized to sow doubt about the boundaries between scientific knowledge production on one hand and fake news and conspiracy theories on the other hand.

This symposium examines a shift from the knowledge economy, which defined the first two decades of the new millennium, into a new era marked by a re-politicization of higher education and research. Emphasizing different aspects of this unsettling development, we introduce the term ‘Politicocene’ to encapsulate the deepening entanglement of politics with education, science, and the multiple, overlapping crises—ranging from the erosion of democracy to the escalating ecological emergencies—that define our current era. We claim that the Politicocene engenders a new spatio-temporal era for the university by producing geopolitical and ideological shifts that impact academic freedom.

In this Politicocene, the lines between political agendas and academic inquiry are increasingly blurred, with political forces shaping and sometimes distorting the direction of research, the autonomy of educational institutions, and the public’s trust in scientific knowledge. This new era is characterized by the co-optation of educational and scientific domains by political interests, which in turn exacerbate the poly-crises we face: the undermining of democratic institutions, the intensification of climate change, and the deepening of social and environmental inequalities. This is further complicated by the growing public consensus about the modern/colonial roots of the university, including the acknowledgement that the modern/colonial cost of maintaining the universal epistemic relevance of Western knowledge has been the denial of the value – and even the existence – of other knowledge systems. By framing this era as the Politicocene, we aim to highlight the urgent need to critically examine and address the ways in which political dynamics and historical legacies are influencing and often compromising the ability of higher education and science to contribute effectively to addressing these global challenges.

The symposium will feature three papers based on ongoing comparative research projects anchored in qualitative data and methods from European countries. The papers will be followed by a discussion by Dr Anja Giudici who is known for her extensive studies of the manifestations of nationalism and populism in education.

Brøgger, K. (2023). Post-Cold war governance arrangements in Europe: the University between European integration and rising nationalisms. Globalisation, Societies and Education, 21(2), 278-292. Brøgger, K, & Dakowska, D. (2026). Academic Freedom, Openness and the Shifting Geopolitics of European Higher Education. In K. Brøgger, et al. (Eds.), World Yearbook of Education 2026 De Gennaro, I.,et al. (Eds.). (2022). Academic Freedom in the European Context: Legal, Philosophical and Institutional Perspectives. Douglass, J. A. (2021). Neo-nationalism and Universities in Historical Perspective. In J. A. Douglass (Ed.), Neo-nationalism and Universities. Populists, Autocrats, and the Future of Higher Education: Grosfoguel, R. (2013). The Structure of Knowledge in Westernized Universities: Epistemic Racism/Sexism and the Four Genocides/Epistemicides of the Long 16th Century. Human Architecture: Journal or the Sociology of Knowledge, 11(1): 73-90. Hazelkorn, E., et al. (2022). Unprecedented challenges to higher education systems and academic collaboration. Policy Reviews in Higher Education, 6(2), 125-127. Niemczyk, E. K., & Rónay, Z. (2023). Roles, requirements and autonomy of academic researchers. Higher education quarterly, 77(2), 327-341. Slowey, M., & Taylor, R. (2024). Academic Freedom in Higher Education. Core Value or Elite Privilege? van der Wende, M. (2020). Neo-nationalism and universities in Europe. Research & Occasional Paper Series: CSHE.7.2020.