The Economic Foundations and Aims of Higher Education: Capitalism and Contingency in the Construction of Academic Worlds

Teidepolitiikka, 48:3, 44–47 (2023)

The lectio praecursoria presented by Taavi Sundell in the public defense of his doctoral dissertation on March 4, 2023, has been published in Finnish and can be read here.

In his lectio, Sundell emphasized the importance of considering the diversity of economic and academic worlds in discussions about the relationship between universities and the economy. Economising discourses and policies are concerning as they often narrow the accepted goals for universities, science, and education. Furthermore, they are often based on simplistic views of the (capitalist) economy.

You can learn more about Sundell’s doctoral dissertation, Contingent Logics of Capitalism in Contemporary Academia: A Case for a Post-Foundational Political Economy of Higher Education (Unigrafia, Helsinki 2023), defended at the University of Helsinki’s Faculty of Social Sciences by visiting this link.