Gary Rhoades

The Emergence of a Competitiveness Research and Development Policy Coalition and the Commercialization of Academic Science and Technology

This article describes the emerging bipartisan political coalition supporting commercial competitiveness as a rationale for research and development (R&D), points to selected changes in legal and funding structures in the 1980s that stem from the success of the new political coalition and suggests some of the connections between these changes and academic science and technology, and examines the consequences of these changes for universities. The study uses longitudinal secondary data on changes in business strategies and corporate structures that made business elites in the defense and health industries consider supporting competitiveness R&D policies. The article identifies and assesses an array of national R&D legislation concerned with competitiveness that was passed in the 1980s and 1990s and that has implications for academic R&D. The effects of competitiveness R&D policies on universities and academic science and technology are appraised by analyzing changes in time-series data (1983-1993) on science and technology indicators compiled by the National Science Foundation.

New Models of Management and Shifting Modes and Costs of Production: Europe and the United States

Discussions of strategic managementand productivity generally overlook fundamentalfactors of production that are on the rise withnew models of management and new modes ofproduction by which instruction and research iscreated. This paper draws on national,institutional and professional association datafrom universities and emergent professions inAustria, Germany and the US to track theshifting allocation of human resources and todetermine whether academic managers areconsidering these patterns in establishingstrategic management practices. Findings showthat, in some countries, professors represent adeclining proportion of the personnel in highereducation, although the models of managementand the allocations of personnel vary among theUS, Austria and Germany. Noting that currentstrategic management practices are notincorporating consideration of thesedevelopments, this paper offers questions andconcepts for universities to address in orderto enhance strategic management.

Graduate employee unionization as symbol of and challenge to the corporatization of U.S. Research universities

The authors explore criticism of the corporatization of the academy as offered by graduate employee organizers. They suggest that graduate employee unionization may serve as both a symbol of and a challenge to corporatization. Methodologically, the authors draw from qualitative case studies conducted at graduate employee unions located at three public universities and one private university.

Managing productivity in an academic institution: Rethinking the whom, which, what, and whose of productivity

Drawing on a review of scholarly literature, this article suggests rethinking productivity in academic institutions along four dimensions: the productivity of whom, productivity for which unit of analysis, productivity according to what functions, and productivity in whose interests. It offers principles for promoting enlightened discussion and pursuit of productivity at all levels of the organization. In contrast to the dominant discourse, which emphasizes focus, centralized standard measures, and accountability, the bias in my principles is toward balance, decentralized diversity, and recalibration. I suggest the ideal is not for employees and units to produce to centrally managed objectives but for all individuals and units to manage individually and collectively to design their work to improve their productivity along multiple dimensions.

From “Endless Frontier” to “Basic Science for Use”: Social Contracts between Science and Society

This article analyzes the National Science Study produced by the Republican-dominated U.S. Congress in the mid-1990s to see if the priorities of S&T policy were changing, if state agencies were being reorganized to achieve new priorities, and if universities were expected to work closely with industry in reconfigured agencies. Also analyzed was the economic composition of board members of eight S&T policy organizations that informed the National Science Study. It was found that, generally, Republican policy supported both basic science and civilian technology policy but did not advocate reorganization of state administration of S&T. However, a number of the S&T policy groups pushed for the establishment of a separate mission agency for civilian technology. This suggests that conceptualization of a unitary social contract between science and society or iterated principal-agent relations expressing the interaction of science and society are insufficient because there may be multiple social contracts and many principals and agents.

Socially Oriented Student Entrepreneurship: A Study of Student Change Agency in the Academic Capitalism Context

This paper presents two clarifying cases of socially oriented student entrepreneurship. The findings illuminate an overlooked organizational space located at the intersection of the public good and academic capitalist knowledge/learning regimes (Slaughter & Rhoades, 2004) that provides students with the entrepreneurial agency to create social change.

Toward a micro corrective of structural differentiation theory

This article argues that the synthetic turn in recent discussions of the micro-macro problem provide a basis for critically assessing structural differentiation theory. That theory suffers from a macro bias, which is reflected in its inability to account for variable patterns of structural change, its neglect of how coalition formation and group negotiation and conflict affect the course of differentiation, and its constricted conception of the consequences of differentiation. A micro corrective, organized around an elaboration of the notion of institutional entrepreneurs, concepts taken from social movement theory, and empirical findings from comparative and historical case studies of structural change, is proposed. That corrective discusses the impact of an institutional project, entrepreneurial organization building, and strategies for enlisting support and defusing resistance on the establishment of new levels of differentiation.

Imagining Alternativas to Global, Corporate, New Economy Academic Capitalism

In this article, the authors detail the conditions and patterns of academic capitalism and the new economy in US higher education. Subsequently, a conceptual model is offered for considering the international reach and national and local patterns of academic capitalism. Further, a distinctive Mexican case of entrepreneurialism is offered. The article concludes with a discussion of alternatives for a model of a universidad latinoamericana that is grounded in the historical role of Latin American universities.

A Critical Agency Network Model for Building an Integrated Outreach Program

This study considers a distinct case of a college outreach program that integrates student affairs staff, academic administrators, and faculty across campus. The authors find that social networks and critical agency help to understand the integration of these various professionals and offer a critical agency network model of enacting change.

Technology-Enhanced Courses and a Mode III Organization of Instructional Work.

Although information technology is increasingly used to deliver distance and conventional courses, there have been few studies of the effect of technology-enhanced education on the organization and purposes of academics’ instructional work. I explore this issue in undergraduate and masters level education through the vehicle of case analyses of technology-rich classes taught in a public research university in the United States. What the cases illustrate is an emergent pattern of what I am calling ‘Mode III’ instructional production, in which the production of a course involves a matrix of non-faculty support personnel, and may be oriented to commercial purposes reflective of an increasingly embedded academic capitalism in the new economy.