While recent concepts from the sociology of science stress novel sites of knowledge production (e... more While recent concepts from the sociology of science stress novel sites of knowledge production (e.g. government, industry), they ignore international organizations’ (IOs) growing research capacity. Conversely, prevailing theories of IOs stress their regulative and normative influence in national policymaking, equally neglecting their scientific work. Using bibliometric data for a large sample of 1,325 international organizations, this work examines, for the first time, the evolution of scientific output from international intergovernmental research organizations, intergovernmental organizations and non-governmental organizations in the period 1950-2015. Analysis finds a striking increase in scientific activity since the late 1980s and particularly since early the 2000s across organizational types, sectors (e.g. law, nutrition), research fields (e.g. life science, social sciences), output formats (e.g. articles, books) and geographic areas. Indeed, some of these organizations are among the most productive science producers worldwide. Additional analyses of IOs’ research collaborations suggest strong cross-organizational diversity reflecting wider trends of scientific internationalization and integration. We argue that IOs’ scientization require a thorough revision of theories of institutional change in science and research systems and of theories about the nature and role of IOs. IOs reflect and, indeed, spearhead, wider trends of the rationalization of social order and evidence-based global governance.
Research evaluation systems in many countries aim to improve the quality of higher education. Amo... more Research evaluation systems in many countries aim to improve the quality of higher education. Among the first of such systems, the UK's Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) dating from 1986 is now the Research Excellence Framework (REF). Highly institutionalised, it transforms research to be more accountable. While numerous studies describe the system's effects at different levels, this longitudinal analysis examines the gradual institutionalisation and (un)intended consequences of the system from 1986 to 2014. First, we analyse historically RAE/REF's rationale, formalisation, standardisation, and transparency, framing it as a strong research evaluation system. Second, we locate the multidisciplinary field of education, analysing the submission behaviour (staff, outputs, funding) of departments of education over time to find decreases in the number of academic staff
This article puts forward two claims. First, it argues that, historically, the rationale for educ... more This article puts forward two claims. First, it argues that, historically, the rationale for education has shifted from religious and national indoctrination to, in the more recent neoliberal period, human capital and the related notion of individual empowerment. The article argues, secondly, that the recent shift towards individual empowerment is reflected in international organizations' changing emphases (IOs) in education. IOs' educational agenda has undergone various changes since their early work in the 1960s: from the structural expansion of national education systems to the measurement of individual educational achievement through a focus on competencies and, most recently, individual psychosocial development. Based on a content analysis of 60 documents from 38 IOs involved in international education networks between 1990–2015, this work identifies an expanding field of IOs directing attention to the mental capabilities of the learner. The proliferated model of individual actorhood reflected in these novel assessment designs will be presented and embedded in wider discussions about the cultural construction of the individual in contemporary world polity.
Educational research in Norway has experienced unprecedented structural expansion as well as cogn... more Educational research in Norway has experienced unprecedented structural expansion as well as cognitive shifts over the past two decades, especially due to increased state investments and the strategic use of extensive and multi-year thematic programs to fund research projects. Applying a neoinstitutionalist framework, we examine institutionalization dynamics in cultural-cognitive, normative, and regulative dimensions over the past two decades using interviews, research program calls, policy documents, and funding data. In the cultural-cognitive dimension, we find references to the knowledge society, the importance of evidence in policymaking, and ideas of quality, excellence, and relevance. In the normative dimension, we find the introduction of new professional and methodological standards, reflecting broader global patterns of academic and epistemic drift. In the regulative dimension, the strengthened role of both government and the Research Council of Norway is manifest in substantial growth in both funding and large-scale, long-term planning, including thematic choices—evidence of 'programification'. The importance of external models has grown in an era of internationalization, yet translation occurs at every level of governance of educational research. This results in a specific Norwegian research model, guided by a mode of governance of programs, that maintains social values traditionally strong in Nordic societies.
This article investigates the precipitants of the diffusion of lifelong learning among 88 governm... more This article investigates the precipitants of the diffusion of lifelong learning among 88 governmental and nongovernmental international organizations from 1990 to 2013 within an event history framework. Research on the diffusion of educational ideas among and within international organizations usually uses small-n approaches. This work looks at the large-scale interorganizational diffusion of lifelong learning, an important concept that has until now only been analyzed at the national level where worldwide adoption has occurred around the millennium. This study identifies astonishingly rapid and wide contagious diffusion of lifelong learning originating in core large, global, and Northern organizations with a long history before spreading to smaller, regional, more peripheral and younger ones. Recently, established organizations enter a world rife with legitimized educational models ready to be adopted. This article argues that the massive interest in lifelong learning needs to be explained by the highly institutionalized character of education and the hierarchical organization of the field around core and peripheral knowledge producers.
Over the past two decades, educational research in Germany has undergone unprecedented changes. F... more Over the past two decades, educational research in Germany has undergone unprecedented changes. Following large-scale assessments such as the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), and a political interest in evidence-based policy-making, quality assessment and internationalization, direct involvement of national decision-makers has led to the establishment of new organizations, programs, funding structures, professorships, and training programs. Thus, a markedly different educational research field has emerged in contrast to the traditional philosophy-rooted, hermeneutics-trained and humanities-based German pedagogy or educational science. Instead, the new paradigm refers to itself as empirical educational research (EER). Thus, we trace institutionalization processes of EER from 1995 through the foundation of the new Empirical Educational Research Association (GEBF), which rivals the long-standing German Educational Research Association (DGfE). Official documents shed light on policymakers’ and funding agencies’ motivations and rationales as they successfully engage in building new research infrastructure. Expert interviews conducted with (inter) national representatives illuminate perceptions of crucial actors involved in the organizational field’s institutionalization. What are the causes and consequences of the emergent EER field in Germany? Extending the neoinstitutionalist organizational field literature, particularly about incipient stages of such fields, we show that a new division of labor transcends national and international as well as governmental and non-governmental borders.
Scholarship on global educational governance and comparative education now systematically include... more Scholarship on global educational governance and comparative education now systematically includes international organizations in the analysis of educational policy-making. The World Bank (WB) has come to be recognized as one of the most important actors in global education due to its size, funding volume and scope of interventions. Much research on the WB's role in educational policy-making is focused on mechanisms such as funding, regulating and imposing educational policies. More recently, analyses begun to direct attention to the WB's role as an institutional entrepreneur and knowledge broker. I will further elaborate this perspective drawing on the main tenets of world polity theory. This work looks at the epistemic role of the World Bank in shaping globally-available and globally-applied educational knowledge. Instead of understanding the WB as an organization that funds, regulates and prescribes educational (policy) knowledge, I stress its role as a producer, manager and transmitter of educational knowledge. Based on analyzes of quantitative data on the evolution of the WB's research and publication record, its knowledge management system and project outreach, I will show that it is one of the world's most important research producers in the social sciences, especially in education. In addition, I highlight its role as a knowledge clearing house, a standardizer of educational indicators and a transmitter of educational knowledge through the dissemination, teaching, application and celebration of specific kinds of educational knowledge.
European Educational Research (Re)Constructed: Institutional Change in Germany, the United Kingdom, Norway, and the European Union, 2018
This book examines contemporary educational research and its governance, addressing key questions... more This book examines contemporary educational research and its governance, addressing key questions via a multidisciplinary theoretical framework of comparative institutional analysis with original data and applying multiple methods. The authors explore and explain important changes in the governance of educational research and the contents of scholarship in education and related disciplines across Europe since the 1990s. This volume synthesizes findings from a multi-year comparative research project, including in-depth empirical case studies of three distinct educational research cultures evolving in Germany, Norway, and the United Kingdom. The authors reconstruct and compare changing conceptualizations of educational research, embedded in increasingly internationalized contexts of research, and examine shifts in its governance, including patterns of funding, publication, and evaluation. They examine the producers of European educational research and the distinct role of the European Union in constructing a European Educational Research Area, in establishing cross-border networks, and in (re)shaping educational research agendas. Through innovative empirical analysis of programs of research on various levels and education researchers’ collaborations in scientific networks, they provide insights into (supra)national dynamics in education-related scholarship. Theory-guided content analysis of research projects funded by leading national funding agencies and by the most highly developed supranational research funding instrument – the EU Framework Programme – enables the authors to embed findings on Germany, the United Kingdom, and Norway in a broader European perspective.
While recent concepts from the sociology of science stress novel sites of knowledge production (e... more While recent concepts from the sociology of science stress novel sites of knowledge production (e.g. government, industry), they ignore international organizations’ (IOs) growing research capacity. Conversely, prevailing theories of IOs stress their regulative and normative influence in national policymaking, equally neglecting their scientific work. Using bibliometric data for a large sample of 1,325 international organizations, this work examines, for the first time, the evolution of scientific output from international intergovernmental research organizations, intergovernmental organizations and non-governmental organizations in the period 1950-2015. Analysis finds a striking increase in scientific activity since the late 1980s and particularly since early the 2000s across organizational types, sectors (e.g. law, nutrition), research fields (e.g. life science, social sciences), output formats (e.g. articles, books) and geographic areas. Indeed, some of these organizations are among the most productive science producers worldwide. Additional analyses of IOs’ research collaborations suggest strong cross-organizational diversity reflecting wider trends of scientific internationalization and integration. We argue that IOs’ scientization require a thorough revision of theories of institutional change in science and research systems and of theories about the nature and role of IOs. IOs reflect and, indeed, spearhead, wider trends of the rationalization of social order and evidence-based global governance.
Research evaluation systems in many countries aim to improve the quality of higher education. Amo... more Research evaluation systems in many countries aim to improve the quality of higher education. Among the first of such systems, the UK's Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) dating from 1986 is now the Research Excellence Framework (REF). Highly institutionalised, it transforms research to be more accountable. While numerous studies describe the system's effects at different levels, this longitudinal analysis examines the gradual institutionalisation and (un)intended consequences of the system from 1986 to 2014. First, we analyse historically RAE/REF's rationale, formalisation, standardisation, and transparency, framing it as a strong research evaluation system. Second, we locate the multidisciplinary field of education, analysing the submission behaviour (staff, outputs, funding) of departments of education over time to find decreases in the number of academic staff
This article puts forward two claims. First, it argues that, historically, the rationale for educ... more This article puts forward two claims. First, it argues that, historically, the rationale for education has shifted from religious and national indoctrination to, in the more recent neoliberal period, human capital and the related notion of individual empowerment. The article argues, secondly, that the recent shift towards individual empowerment is reflected in international organizations' changing emphases (IOs) in education. IOs' educational agenda has undergone various changes since their early work in the 1960s: from the structural expansion of national education systems to the measurement of individual educational achievement through a focus on competencies and, most recently, individual psychosocial development. Based on a content analysis of 60 documents from 38 IOs involved in international education networks between 1990–2015, this work identifies an expanding field of IOs directing attention to the mental capabilities of the learner. The proliferated model of individual actorhood reflected in these novel assessment designs will be presented and embedded in wider discussions about the cultural construction of the individual in contemporary world polity.
Educational research in Norway has experienced unprecedented structural expansion as well as cogn... more Educational research in Norway has experienced unprecedented structural expansion as well as cognitive shifts over the past two decades, especially due to increased state investments and the strategic use of extensive and multi-year thematic programs to fund research projects. Applying a neoinstitutionalist framework, we examine institutionalization dynamics in cultural-cognitive, normative, and regulative dimensions over the past two decades using interviews, research program calls, policy documents, and funding data. In the cultural-cognitive dimension, we find references to the knowledge society, the importance of evidence in policymaking, and ideas of quality, excellence, and relevance. In the normative dimension, we find the introduction of new professional and methodological standards, reflecting broader global patterns of academic and epistemic drift. In the regulative dimension, the strengthened role of both government and the Research Council of Norway is manifest in substantial growth in both funding and large-scale, long-term planning, including thematic choices—evidence of 'programification'. The importance of external models has grown in an era of internationalization, yet translation occurs at every level of governance of educational research. This results in a specific Norwegian research model, guided by a mode of governance of programs, that maintains social values traditionally strong in Nordic societies.
This article investigates the precipitants of the diffusion of lifelong learning among 88 governm... more This article investigates the precipitants of the diffusion of lifelong learning among 88 governmental and nongovernmental international organizations from 1990 to 2013 within an event history framework. Research on the diffusion of educational ideas among and within international organizations usually uses small-n approaches. This work looks at the large-scale interorganizational diffusion of lifelong learning, an important concept that has until now only been analyzed at the national level where worldwide adoption has occurred around the millennium. This study identifies astonishingly rapid and wide contagious diffusion of lifelong learning originating in core large, global, and Northern organizations with a long history before spreading to smaller, regional, more peripheral and younger ones. Recently, established organizations enter a world rife with legitimized educational models ready to be adopted. This article argues that the massive interest in lifelong learning needs to be explained by the highly institutionalized character of education and the hierarchical organization of the field around core and peripheral knowledge producers.
Over the past two decades, educational research in Germany has undergone unprecedented changes. F... more Over the past two decades, educational research in Germany has undergone unprecedented changes. Following large-scale assessments such as the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), and a political interest in evidence-based policy-making, quality assessment and internationalization, direct involvement of national decision-makers has led to the establishment of new organizations, programs, funding structures, professorships, and training programs. Thus, a markedly different educational research field has emerged in contrast to the traditional philosophy-rooted, hermeneutics-trained and humanities-based German pedagogy or educational science. Instead, the new paradigm refers to itself as empirical educational research (EER). Thus, we trace institutionalization processes of EER from 1995 through the foundation of the new Empirical Educational Research Association (GEBF), which rivals the long-standing German Educational Research Association (DGfE). Official documents shed light on policymakers’ and funding agencies’ motivations and rationales as they successfully engage in building new research infrastructure. Expert interviews conducted with (inter) national representatives illuminate perceptions of crucial actors involved in the organizational field’s institutionalization. What are the causes and consequences of the emergent EER field in Germany? Extending the neoinstitutionalist organizational field literature, particularly about incipient stages of such fields, we show that a new division of labor transcends national and international as well as governmental and non-governmental borders.
Scholarship on global educational governance and comparative education now systematically include... more Scholarship on global educational governance and comparative education now systematically includes international organizations in the analysis of educational policy-making. The World Bank (WB) has come to be recognized as one of the most important actors in global education due to its size, funding volume and scope of interventions. Much research on the WB's role in educational policy-making is focused on mechanisms such as funding, regulating and imposing educational policies. More recently, analyses begun to direct attention to the WB's role as an institutional entrepreneur and knowledge broker. I will further elaborate this perspective drawing on the main tenets of world polity theory. This work looks at the epistemic role of the World Bank in shaping globally-available and globally-applied educational knowledge. Instead of understanding the WB as an organization that funds, regulates and prescribes educational (policy) knowledge, I stress its role as a producer, manager and transmitter of educational knowledge. Based on analyzes of quantitative data on the evolution of the WB's research and publication record, its knowledge management system and project outreach, I will show that it is one of the world's most important research producers in the social sciences, especially in education. In addition, I highlight its role as a knowledge clearing house, a standardizer of educational indicators and a transmitter of educational knowledge through the dissemination, teaching, application and celebration of specific kinds of educational knowledge.
European Educational Research (Re)Constructed: Institutional Change in Germany, the United Kingdom, Norway, and the European Union, 2018
This book examines contemporary educational research and its governance, addressing key questions... more This book examines contemporary educational research and its governance, addressing key questions via a multidisciplinary theoretical framework of comparative institutional analysis with original data and applying multiple methods. The authors explore and explain important changes in the governance of educational research and the contents of scholarship in education and related disciplines across Europe since the 1990s. This volume synthesizes findings from a multi-year comparative research project, including in-depth empirical case studies of three distinct educational research cultures evolving in Germany, Norway, and the United Kingdom. The authors reconstruct and compare changing conceptualizations of educational research, embedded in increasingly internationalized contexts of research, and examine shifts in its governance, including patterns of funding, publication, and evaluation. They examine the producers of European educational research and the distinct role of the European Union in constructing a European Educational Research Area, in establishing cross-border networks, and in (re)shaping educational research agendas. Through innovative empirical analysis of programs of research on various levels and education researchers’ collaborations in scientific networks, they provide insights into (supra)national dynamics in education-related scholarship. Theory-guided content analysis of research projects funded by leading national funding agencies and by the most highly developed supranational research funding instrument – the EU Framework Programme – enables the authors to embed findings on Germany, the United Kingdom, and Norway in a broader European perspective.
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Using bibliometric data for a large sample of 1,325 international organizations, this work examines, for the first time, the evolution of scientific output from international intergovernmental research organizations, intergovernmental organizations and non-governmental organizations in the period 1950-2015. Analysis finds a striking increase in scientific activity since the late 1980s and particularly since early the 2000s across organizational types, sectors (e.g. law, nutrition), research fields (e.g. life science, social sciences), output formats (e.g. articles, books) and geographic areas. Indeed, some of these organizations are among the most productive science producers worldwide. Additional analyses of IOs’ research collaborations suggest strong cross-organizational diversity reflecting wider trends of scientific internationalization and integration. We argue that IOs’ scientization require a thorough revision of theories of institutional change in science and research systems and of theories about the nature and role of IOs. IOs reflect and, indeed, spearhead, wider trends of the rationalization of social order and evidence-based global governance.
Using bibliometric data for a large sample of 1,325 international organizations, this work examines, for the first time, the evolution of scientific output from international intergovernmental research organizations, intergovernmental organizations and non-governmental organizations in the period 1950-2015. Analysis finds a striking increase in scientific activity since the late 1980s and particularly since early the 2000s across organizational types, sectors (e.g. law, nutrition), research fields (e.g. life science, social sciences), output formats (e.g. articles, books) and geographic areas. Indeed, some of these organizations are among the most productive science producers worldwide. Additional analyses of IOs’ research collaborations suggest strong cross-organizational diversity reflecting wider trends of scientific internationalization and integration. We argue that IOs’ scientization require a thorough revision of theories of institutional change in science and research systems and of theories about the nature and role of IOs. IOs reflect and, indeed, spearhead, wider trends of the rationalization of social order and evidence-based global governance.