Problématique

Abstract

This book examines the changes in Latin American universities in the second half of the twentieth and the beginning of the present century, with an emphasis on one central aspect of university life: scientific inquiry. It explores the conflicts between the influence of the local Latin American university model and the influence of new globalized forms of organization and research governance, represented by the idea of the entrepreneurial university. The Latin American tradition favors a professionally oriented, highly politicized, and socially engaged institutionalization of higher education (Bernasconi, 2007; Brunner and Uribe, 2007; Caruso, 2012). This ideal stands at odds with the entrepreneurial model, which, inspired by the abstract idea of the American, entrepreneurial research university, has spread around the world at an unprecedented pace (Ramirez, 2002; Krücken and Meier, 2006; Ramirez and Christensen, 2012). The entrepreneurial university, in turn, promotes the institutionalization of an idealized form of organization that favors increasing accountability practices, self-funding activities, and an overall entrepreneurial culture (Clark, 1995, 1998; Bernasconi, 2007). Research activities are conditions for the institutionalization of the entrepreneurial model, but emphasis on innovation and increased accountability practices is linked to the institutionalization of the research university under this model (Krücken and Meier, 2006).