Theorizing Research Policy: A Framework for Higher Education

Abstract

As governments continue to view research activity as a tool for economic development, both locally and nationally (Singh & Allen, 2006), academic knowledge generation has become firmly embedded within the political economy (Marginson & Rhoades, 2002; Rhoads & Torres, 2006; Torres &Schugurensky, 2002). Whereas research occurs in the private sector and in corporate-funded centers, publicly-funded academic research constitutes a substantial portion of overall research activity and also positively affects industrial research and development (Cohen et al., 2002). Even research conducted outside of academe is dependent upon the training and certification of scientific experts and technicians, a function that is central to higher education (Seashore et al., 2007). Yet, as fundamental as research activity may be to higher education (and as higher education is to research activity), research policy is not often discussed in the higher education literature. This work endeavors to provide a framework for the study of research policy from the perspective of the field of higher education, which considers institutional policies, as well as state, federal, and international policies. It requires contextualizing the study of research policy with an historical overview of the rise of academic research and its connections to the field of science policy studies. In addition, it is necessary to define the scope of research policy, which is done here through a typology that organizes the various strands of research policy into the thematic categories mission, support, management, and translation. Finally, to address this broad conceptualization of research policy, the macrolevel theory of political economy is described as a way to approach the study of research policy, but with important re-conceptualizations recommended for the inclusion of meso- and micro- level intersections between politics and the economy.