Abstract
This essay analyses the growth of an “innovation paradigm” in Swedish research policy from the 1990s and analyses how this paradigm is expressed in the government’s recent research policy bill that is currently being implemented. The discussion of the bill highlights some apparent paradoxes. First, the bill uses the notions of basis research and innovation interchangeably. Thus, for example, it proposes to increase the Swedish Research Council’s resources for supporting basic research, but it also demands that the council direct more of its resources to support work that is important for the country’s high-tech industry. Second, the bill strongly emphasises economic as well as academic competition. Scientific and economic competitions are described as if there were no significant difference between the two. The bill assumes, for instance, that the quality of research can be measured by its success on a (publishing) market. The analysis of the bill relies on the notion of performativity. The bill is seen as a performative act aiming simultaneously to change the practices of research and the language in which it is discussed. If the bill’s policies succeed, the paradoxes mentioned above will fade away as traditional research practice disappears.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsNotes
- 1.
On Vinnova’s homepage, it is said that the government has, in its instructions from 2009, “given Vinnova the task to make Sweden a leading research nation where research of high scientific quality is conducted”. http://www.vinnova.se/sv/Om-VINNOVA/VINNOVAs-roll-och-uppgift/. According to the agency’s “vision and goals”, however, focus is strictly on economic issues, in particular economic growth. http://www.vinnova.se/sv/Om-VINNOVA/Vision-och-mal/. Both accessed 12 April 2010.
- 2.
Vinnova’s publications are readily available at http://www.vinnova.se/.
- 3.
This was the KK foundation whose task it is to support growth-inducing collaboration between universities and private business in the service sector (the acronym refers to the Swedish words for knowledge and competence) (http://www.kks.se/medel/SitePages/Samproduktion.aspx) Accessed 13 February 2012.
- 4.
Vinnova is an abbreviation for the “innovation systems agency” (Verket för innovations system).
- 5.
http://www.triplehelix.dk/programmeframe.htm. Accessed 29 March 2010.
- 6.
This is from a call for applications concerning “challenges” issued by Vinnova in April 2011: http://www.vinnova.se/sv/Utlysningar/Effekta/Utmaningsdriven-innovation/. Accessed 12 January 2012. Vinnova devotes one section of the call to defining “green growth”. It is used in order to emphasise the importance of environmental issues, like sustainable growth but without the social ambitions inherent in that concept. Thanks to Anders Ekström for directing my attention to this document.
- 7.
He has since been replaced by another liberal who was then replaced by yet another liberal.
- 8.
The word “collaboration” is used almost as frequently but in different contexts, namely, in discussions concerning international collaboration, collaboration between university and industry, and collaboration between disciplines – in the latter case because interdisciplinarity is strongly promoted within the innovation paradigm. Collaboration is not described as a broad characteristic of successful research in the same way as competition is.
References
Ball, S. J. (2003). The teacher’s soul and the terrors of performativity. Journal of Education Policy, 18(2), 215–228.
Bonnier, T., & Berg, P.-O. (2004). Svensk innovationskraft: “Visionen måste vara starkare än motståndet”. VFI 2004:2. Stockholm: Vinnova.
Callon, M. (2007). What does it mean to say that economics is performative? In D. MacKenzie et al. (Eds.), Do economists make markets? On the performativity of economics (pp. 311–357). Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Crawford, E. (1996). Arrhenius: From ionic theory to the greenhouse effect. Canton: Science History Publications.
Edquist, C., & MacKelvey, M. (2000). Systems of innovation: Growth, competitiveness and employment. Cheltenham: Elgar.
Eisenberg, R. S. (1987). Proprietary rights and the norms of science in biotechnology research. The Yale Law Journal, 97(2), 177–231.
Eklund, M. (2007). Adoption of the innovation system concept in Sweden. Uppsala: Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis.
Etzkovitz, H., & Leydesdorff, L. (2000). The dynamics of innovation: From national systems and ‘mode 2’ to a triple helix of university-industry-government relations. Research Policy, 29(2), 109–123.
Flodström, A. (2012). Prestationsbaserad resurstilldelning för universitet och högskolor. Stockholm: Utbildningsdepartementet.
Greenberg, D. S. (2007). Science for sale: The perils, rewards, and delusions of campus capitalism. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Hackett, E. J., Amsterdamska, O., Lynch, M., & Wajcman, J. (2008). The handbook of science and technology studies (3rd ed.). Cambridge: MIT Press.
Hobsbawm, E., & Ranger, T. (1992). The invention of tradition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Kjellberg, H., & Helgesson, C.-F. (2006). Multiple versions of markets: Multiplicity and performativity in market practice. Industrial Marketing Management, 35(7), 839–855.
Kuhn, T. S. (1996). The structure of scientific revolutions (3rd ed.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Larsson, S. (2009). An emerging economy of publications. Nordisk Pedagogik, 29(1), 34–52.
MacKenzie, D. (2004). The big, bad wolf and the rational market: Portfolio insurance, the 1987 crash and the performativity of economics. Economy and Society, 33(3), 303–334.
Power, M. (1997). The audit society: Rituals of verification. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Rai, A. K. (1999). Regulating scientific research: Intellectual property rights and the norms of science. North Western University Law Review, 94(1), 77–152.
Regeringens proposition 2004/05:80
Regeringens proposition 2008/09:50.
Rolland, A. (2005). The free-market innovation machine and new public management. The Innovation Journal, 10(2), article 19. http://www.innovation.cc/volumes-issues/vol10-no2.htm. Accessed 25 Sep 2012.
Sahlin-Andersson, K. (1996). Imitating by editing success: The construction of organization fields. In B. Czarniawska & G. Sévon (Eds.), Translating organizational change (pp. 69–92). Berlin/New York: Walter de Gruyter.
Shore, C., & Wright, S. (2000). Coercive accountability: The rise of audit culture in higher education. In M. Strathern (Ed.), Audit cultures: Anthropological studies in accountability, ethics and the academy (pp. 56–89). London/New York: Routledge.
Smith, S., Ward, V., & House, A. (2011). ‘Impact’ in the proposals for the UK’s research excellence framework: Shifting the boundaries of academic autonomy. Research Policy, 40(10), 1369–1379.
Strathern, M. (2000). Introduction: New accountabilities. In M. Strathern (Ed.), Audit cultures: Anthropological studies in accountability, ethics and the academy (pp. 1–18). London/New York: Routledge.
Sundbärg, G. (1912). Det svenska folklynnet: Aforismer. Stockholm: Norstedts.
Thoresson, K. (2011). Att beräkna det goda samhället: Samhällsekonomiska analyser och gränslandet expertis-politik inom transportområdet. Linköping: Linköpings universitet, Institutionen för TEMA.
Vinnova. (2011a). Utveckling av Sveriges kunskapsintensiva innovationssystem: Huvudrapport. Underlag till forsknings-och innovationsproposition. Vinnova policy 2011:04. Stockholm: Vinnova.
Vinnova. (2011b). Challenge-driven innovation: Vinnova’s new strategy for strengthening Swedish innovation policy. Vinnova information 2011:07. Stockholm: Vinnova.
Widmalm, S. (2008). History of science in the age of policy. In K. Grandin et al. (Eds.), Aurora Torealis (pp. 261–277). Sagamore Beach: Science History Publications.
Ziman, J. (2000). Real science: What it is, and what it means. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2013 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Widmalm, S. (2013). Innovation and Control: Performative Research Policy in Sweden. 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_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5249-8_3
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-007-5248-1
Online ISBN: 978-94-007-5249-8
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawEducation (R0)