Mobilizing Knowledge Through Partnerships

Authors

  • Brenda L. Spencer
  • Alison Taylor

Abstract

In this paper we employ Foucault's (1991) ideas about governmentality to examine recent Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) policies that promote research partnerships. In a analysis of documents we identify certain policy problems from which partnership rationalities emerge. We then draw on current literature on educational and research partnerships and on the experiences of one large SSHRC project to look closely at the policy technologies introduced in these new arrangements for research and to reveal some of the effects of this reform. We suggest that the concept of partnership, when applied through its various technologies and processes, is a complicated and contentious form of knowledge production that warrants continued examination and discussion.

Author Biographies

Brenda L. Spencer

Brenda L. Spencer is an Associate Professor in the Department of Educational Policy Studies at the University of Alberta. Her current research draws on critical theories of power and the state and cultural geography to examine the practices of accountability policy. 

 

Alison Taylor

Alison Taylor is a Professor and Director of the Work and Learning Network at the University of Alberta. Her current research focuses on school-to-work transition for youth.

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Published

2010-12-08