9th International EUREDOCS Conference - "Missions of higher education and research in the 21st century"

9th International EUREDOCS Conference - Missions of higher education and research in the 21st century 
Centre de Sociologie des organisations Sciences Po Paris 23 - 24 May 2014 
The 9 th EUREDOCS Conference will focus on the theme: “Missions of higher education and research in the 21st century”
To submit a proposal, please fill in the form p. 5, and send it to: pauline.ravinet-2@univ-lille2.fr
The 9th EUREDOCS conference will explore the broad question of the evolving purposes and missions of higher education and research in the 21st century. Both globalization and the cur rent economic crisis are reputed to have caused an important redefinition of European higher education and research missions. Yet the exact mechanisms and implications of this assumption have not been sufficiently questioned. Is there such a redefinition of higher education and research purposes and missions? If so, what are the drivers for this redefinition? What are its implications in terms of policy reforms, institutional governance, and academic culture?
The 2014 EUREDOCS conference will deal with th is set of questions, assuming that the mission of higher education and research is in no way univocal, but on the contrary results from the confrontation of multiple and competing definitions of higher education and research missions, values, role in society, and expected contributions for economy, social progress, or democracy.
Three sub-themes corresponding to three conference sections have been identified (but they are non exhaustive and other communications related to the notion of evolving purposes and missions of higher education and research are also welcome).
(a) The influence of European union and international institutions in the redefinition of higher education and research missions
This first section engages with the influence of the EU and diver se international institutions. Contributions to this section should go beyond the statement that more and more norms governing the sector are formulated at the European and international levels, in order to analyse more in depth the production of these nor ms, the vectors of their circulations, their reception and re-appropriation by institutions and actors etc.
(b) The transformations of higher education and research purposes and the changing university boundaries
This second section questions the evolving ro le and relation of higher education and research with society. With the current economic crisis, higher education and research have often been presented as problem solvers, because of their role in the production and transmission of knowledge. How did it m ove university boundaries with the economy and the rest of society, in terms of discourse but also in terms of organisational forms? Contributions on topics such as academic expertise, innovation, technological transfer will be of great interest. Contribut ions addressing the questions of the reformulation of the political and civic missions of universities are equally welcome.
(c) Evolving higher education and research missions, the academic profession and the students
How is this broad process of redefinitio n of higher education and research missions associated to a transformation of what it means to be an academic and what it means to be a student? Contributions to this third section are expected to analyse academics and students’ practices, strategies and r epresentations in their individual or collective experience of higher education and research purposes redefinition.
Calendar:
The deadline for the submission of a proposal is 30 January 2014 .
All papers selected for presentation should be available by 30 April 2014.
The Conference will be held at the Centre de Sociologie des organisations, Sciences Po Paris, from Friday 23 May (noon) to 24 May (night) 2014, with the support of the RESUP .
What is Euredocs?
Euredocs is a new doctoral network on europeanisation of higher education and research, animated by Sciences Po. This network concerns doctoral students and young doctorates (thesis defence within the three last years) addressing europeanisation on issues such as: the structure of study programmes, evaluation/accreditation procedures, change in national public policies, transformation in university government, academic career patterns, production of knowledge, the impact of internationalisation/globalisation, etc. 
It aims at facilitating and enabling more communication among those doctoral students and young researchers. This network also aims at promoting publication and diffusion of research results, as well as facilitating exchange and mobility among young scholars in this field. 
Who is concerned? 
The network concerns doctoral students and young doctorates (having promoted within the three last years) working on these issues in different disciplines such as sociology, political science, economics, history, educational studies…