Local interpretation of global management discourses in higher education in Hong Kong: Potential impact on academic culture

Local interpretation of global management discourses in higher education in Hong Kong: Potential impact on academic culture

• Lin, Angel Dept. of English, City University of Hong Kong

Inter-Asia Cultural Studies, 10(2), 260-274, 2009

Routledge

2009

• Q Philosophy of Education, Educational System & School At Different Levels
  • QE Post-Secondary Education

Education, Higher Education -- Standards Instructional Systems -- Design Academic Freedom Hong Kong China English Language Dominance English-Medium Education Globalization and Higher Education Knowledge Production Knowledge Workers

• Hong Kong

• 1997.7 onwards

• Post-Secondary Education

In this paper the colonial history of university education in Hong Kong, and recent changes in the governance of university education driven by global management discourses are discussed. With the systemic penetration of global economic rationalism, Hong Kong university education has gone through structural changes that include funding-linked evaluative policies and practices. Market imperatives and institutionally defined notions of research performance based mainly on English-language, overseas journal publications are exerting strong influence on the cultural practices and life styles of academics and stand to significantly change academic and intellectual culture in higher education in Hong Kong. The long-term consequences of these local interpretations and adaptations of global processes will be discussed in terms of their potential impact on academic freedom, the shaping of intellectual space, the intensification of competitive institutional research output, and the risk of privileging certain forms of knowledge production that puts aside local societal needs, indigenous knowledge and epistemologies. The views of experienced Hong Kong academics in the humanities and social sciences, as expressed in in-depth individual interviews, are also discussed. These are then interpreted with reference to Habermas' notion of different kinds of knowledge-constitutive interests (Habermas 1971) and Foucault's notion of the technology of discipline power to uncover the state's implicit transformation and shaping of the social and epistemological bases of academic and intellectual pursuits and the increasing trend of individualization of intellectual communities into isolated, individualistic, competitive knowledge workers (Foucault 1977).
[Copyright of Inter-Asia Cultural Studies is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14649370902823397]

• English

Journal Articles

• 14649373

• 10.1080/14649370902823397

https://bibliography.lib.eduhk.hk/bibs/c1d1e38d

2010-11-28