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Variegated Neoliberalization in Higher Education: Ambivalent Responses to Competitive Funding in the Czech Republic

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Universities in the Neoliberal Era

Part of the book series: Palgrave Critical University Studies ((PCU))

Abstract

Competitive and performance-based funding has been identified by international scholars as a powerful trigger of neoliberalization in public higher education (HE) worldwide. In the Czech Republic, competitive funding has been recently introduced as a surrogate for the failed large-scale neoliberal reforms in HE. This chapter analyzes antagonist responses to this strategy in the departments of philosophy at two well-established Czech public universities. The first department has adopted competitive funding within its collegial spirit of self-governance and employed its symbolic capital to contest creeping neoliberalization in the university while the second one has adjusted indiscriminately. Based on empirical research, this chapter explores how students and academics from both departments responded to neoliberal norms being introduced at university, national and international governance levels.

This chapter is based on fieldwork conducted from November 2013 to June 2014 as a part of the author’s PhD research project. I would like to thank Daniel Sitera, Simten Coşar, Hakan Ergül, Jay Rowell, Jean-Sébastien Barbeau and one anonymous reviewer for their helpful advice, comments and language corrections.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. SAGE, UMR 7363, Strasbourg University, Strasbourg, France

    Josef Kavka

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  1. Josef Kavka
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey

    Hakan Ergül

  2. Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey

    Simten Coşar

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Kavka, J. (2017). Variegated Neoliberalization in Higher Education: Ambivalent Responses to Competitive Funding in the Czech Republic. In: Ergül, H., Coşar, S. (eds) Universities in the Neoliberal Era. Palgrave Critical University Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-55212-9_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-55212-9_5

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-137-55211-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-137-55212-9

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