Abstract
This chapter takes at its starting point that an academic scientist or scholar, regardless of discipline, must be to produce knowledge, rather than mere opinion. By virtue of his fulfilling this mission, he also supports and contributes to a form of deliberative dialog, the sine qua non for citizenship in liberal democracies, in which argument on the basis of fact and coherence, rather than rhetorical tricks and powers of persuasion, is decisive. Demands for social relevance and usefulness ought to be seen in light of this mission, rather than in terms of political utility or commercial gain. In this sense, the requirement that the university produce useful knowledge is entirely commensurable with academic freedom, provided that politicians, administrators, and business leaders recognize that they cannot determine what questions ought to be asked or how best to answer them, but leave that matter to scientists and scholars to decide.
For comments on an earlier version of the text, I thank Håkan Billig and Lucas Pettersson.
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Notes
- 1.
The concept of knowledge used in this chapter is very broad, and I make no distinction between what some people call understanding and other kinds of knowledge.
- 2.
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- 4.
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- 6.
Jörnesten (2008), Chap. 3. Also claimed by Nybom and Widmalm.
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- 9.
- 10.
Shinn (2002, p. 608), Nowotny et al. (2003, pp. 179–194), Nowotny et al. (2001, Chap. 11), Slaughter and Leslie (1997), inter alia. Chap. 1. That what is held to be true is the obvious result of a kind of negotiation must be distinguished from something that is actually true, regardless of what is held to be true. See also Nybom’s contribution (Chap. 2) in this volume.
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- 12.
For an almost identical position, see Rider (2008).
- 13.
This is also the position taken by Nybom (Chap. 2) in this volume.
- 14.
In spring 2008, I led a debate in which both right wing and left wing Swedish members of parliament openly confessed that they only want to take part of research results from publications that they know share their own ideological stances.
- 15.
About a 100 years ago, restrictions in the freedom to preach ideology and politics from the lecture’s desk were viewed in some quarters as an encroachment of the academic freedom. In this matter, see Josephson (2005), for example, p. 22.
- 16.
Here, I adhere to Janken Myrdal in his reduction of concepts in Myrdal (2005).
- 17.
- 18.
- 19.
Certain themes can be found in almost all the universities’ research strategies: for example, environment and climate and nanotechnology.
- 20.
About the latter, see Malmberg (2008), about the possibility of making predictions within the social sciences by using demography as an example.
- 21.
The avian influenza is mentioned as an example in Vetenskapsrådets forskningsstrategi 2009–2012 (2007).
- 22.
Hyenstrand et al. (2008, p. 11). The whole issue is difficult to assess because there is nowhere to find any separate disclosure of expenditure on free basic research. In 2005, 22 out of 104 billion for the R&D sector went to the higher education sector, the sector where most of the basic research takes place by far. But much of that expenditure concerns other areas than free basic research, for example, postgraduate research studies. On the other hand, some basic research is done elsewhere. Ten to fifteen percent is an informed guess that research policy analysts tend to arrive at.
- 23.
In a conversation with Peter Honeth, State Secretary in the Ministry of Education and Science, I asked him precisely that question: “Is there any reason for reducing the free inquiry share in relation to the total volume of research? [the writer’s translation]” He replied in the negative.
- 24.
As mentioned above, the term human sciences used here also represents the social sciences.
- 25.
About the distinctive character of historical criticism, see Jarrick (2005b).
- 26.
It could possibly be seen as a methodologically distinctive orientation that humanists often have the human individual as the lowest analytical unit (e.g., in contrast to physicians) and the collective of individuals, for example the world’s population, as the highest analytical unit (e.g., in contrast to astronomers). In this matter, see Jarrick (2005a).
- 27.
http://intranet.vr.se/download/18.76ac7139118ccc2078b800011760/Strategiska_forskningsomraden_VR_2008.pdf.
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Jarrick, A. (2013). The Scientific Mission and the Freedom of Research. In: Rider, S., Hasselberg, Y., Waluszewski, A. (eds) Transformations in Research, Higher Education and the Academic Market. Higher Education Dynamics, vol 39. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5249-8_4
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