Romuald Normand (University of Strasbourg, FR)
Romuald Normand is Fulbright fellow and full-time professor of sociology at the University of Strasbourg (Faculty of Social Sciences, Research Unit SAGE: Societies, Actors and Government of Europe) and convenor of the network “Sociologies of European Education” (European Association of Educational Research). He is member of the editorial board of the British Journal of Sociology of Education. His research interests are on European education and Higher Education policies. He is currently involved in a Marie-Curie project UNIKE (Universities in Knowledge Economies) and an ERASMUS project (Governance and adaptation to innovative modes of higher education provision).
The lecture discusses the transformations of epistemic governance in education and the way in which some actors are shaping new knowledge which is in turn impacting on other actors in charge of implementing this knowledge in the context of the decision-making process and practice. It describes knowledge-based and evidence-based technologies producing new modes of representation, cognitive categories and value-based judgements determining and guiding actions and interactions between researchers, experts and policymakers. It presents some major social theories and concepts to analyse this transformation of the relationship between educational and social sciences and politics. Epistemic governance concerns transformations of academic capitalism and the ways in which academics, engaged in heterogeneous networks, are capable of developing new interactions as well as facing new trials imposed by the changing conditions of producing knowledge in their scientific community and within their institutions.
Readings
Normand, R. (2016). The Changing Epistemic Governance of European Education: The Fabrication of the Homo Academicus Europeanus? Dordrecht: Springer. Normand, R. (2016). Policy learning and expertise in European education. In Normand, R., & Derouet, J. L. (Eds.). A European politics of education: perspectives from sociology, policy studies and politics. London: Routledge, 73-91.