This book provides an overview of the major findings of the comparative
research project, Changes in Networks, Higher Education and Knowledge
Society (CINHEKS). The main aim of this international comparative
research project is the analysis of how Higher education institutions
are networked within distinct knowledge societies in two key regions of
the world: Europe and the United States of America. This research
project was carried out in four European countries (Finland, Germany,
Portugal and the United Kingdom) and in two different states in the
United States of America. In addition, during the course of the
research, a team from the Russian Federation joined the CINHEKS study.
The analysis is contextually grounded in a comparative policy analysis
focused on the main developments and understandings of the ideas
surrounding the term knowledge society, in all countries concerned.
Empirical elaboration is established via a series of sequential studies,
each building, incrementally, on the previous study. These studies
include institutional profiles of higher education institutions,
institutional case studies, and an international comparative survey that
illuminates academics' social networks. The research findings broaden
our understanding of the differences and similarities in how higher
education institutions and individual academics are networked within and
between societies that understand themselves as knowledge societies. The
book introduces a novel analytical synthesis, which asserts contemporary
societies have evolved into Networked Knowledge Societies.
Methodologically, the book both challenges and raises the bar for
previous approaches in comparative higher education, in terms of
research design, execution and lays the groundwork for a new generation
of international comparative higher education research.
