On Politics in Comparative and International Higher Education

This paper draws attention to key conundrums facing researchers of comparative and international higher education in the age of post-truth and resurgent authoritarianism. The analysis focuses on three salient concerns: world class-universities and academic freedom; power brokerage in the internationalisation of higher education; and challenges of intellectual leadership – that dominated research agendas in the field. Situated at the crossroads of major arguments in the literature and observations derived from academic praxis in the three areas, the critique sets out to explain how politics have been gaining more weight in the construct of comparative and international higher education at a time when corporate elitism is on the rise and the freedoms of inquiry and communication are declining. The study warns about the failures of integrity in this context, and manifests imperatives for safeguarding academic freedom and critical research in the field.

CONCEPTUAL PRINCIPLES OF ACHIEVING INTELLECTUAL LEADERSHIP

The article identifies the key conceptual foundations for the formation of intellectual leadership of economic entities, including countries as specific actors in the global economy. Thorough preconditions for increasing the level of economic development and the impact of education have been identified. It is determined that historical concepts and modern realities of economic activity only actualize the role of education and enlightenment in the economic development of the national economy and ensuring its competitiveness. The strategies of increasing the competitiveness of individual countries of the world are analyzed, their key priorities in the conditions of formation of the knowledge economy are determined. The evolution of views on the role of human and intellectual capital in increasing the welfare of countries, the impact on GDP and other macroeconomic indicators is described. The ratings of countries are analyzed, in particular by the level of investment in intellectual capital and the structure of their GDP, which confirms the dominance of science-intensive economic activities. In addition, it was determined that the leading countries are characterized by increasing the role of knowledge-intensive activities, increasing the share of intangible assets, redistribution of capital of leading international companies and increasing research spending, increasing investment in human and intellectual capital, increasing exports of high-tech products. Analytical assessment confirms the advanced development of science-intensive industries in countries with developed economies, which creates the need for training and retraining of specialists needed for such industries. In modern conditions, the educational process ceases to be predominantly the prerogative of young people, and becomes a lifelong process, which increases spending on education in developed countries, but without denying the significant asymmetries on this indicator. Research confirms the direct relationship between the quality of human and physical capital and economic development, which is typical of highly developed countries, one of the main reasons for the development lag of the poorest countries. In addition, the article substantiates the key factors of intellectual leadership and their impact on the development of economic development strategies.

The Relationship between Academic Intellectual Leadership, Perceived Organizational Support and Organization Citizenship: A Study on the Higher Education Institutions in Turkey

The aim of this study is to test the theoretical model which hypothesizes that academics' academic intellectual leadership affects their perceptions of perceived organizational support and organizational citizenship. In line with this general purpose, it was determined whether the perceptions of academics' intellectual leadership affect their perceptions of perceived organizational support and organizational citizenship. The causal design was used in the study. The sample population of the study is composed of 731 academics working in 13 universities selected by convenience sampling from the Central Anatolia, Aegean, Black Sea and East Anatolia regions of Turkey. The data were collected with Academic Intellectual Leadership Scale, Perceived Organizational Support Scale, and Organizational Citizenship Scale in the 2018-2019 academic year. Mean, standart deviance, and correlation analysis were used for the analysis of the descriptive data, and path analysis was used to test the theoricatical model. The findings show that academics' academic intellectual leadership perceptions positively effect their perceptions of perceived organizational support (γ=.24) and organizational citizenship (γ=.38). The results were discussed in light of the relevant literature and suggestions were made to the practitioners, policy makers, and researchers.

Resistance and the Radical Imagination: A Reflection on the Role of the Critical Criminologist in Social Movements

At times of global unrest and the emergence of a wide range of protest movements, recent intra-disciplinary criminological debates on the potentials and limits of resistance suggest a paradoxical trend. Critical criminologists—in particular, those associated with the ultra-realist perspective—have become increasingly skeptical of the idea of “resistance,” itself. In the context of these discussions, scholars have resorted to dismissing oppositional activities—including social movements and their different forms of protest—that are both intended and recognized as resistance. In my contribution to this debate, and in response to Jeff Ferrell’s (2019) article, “In Defense of Resistance,” I provide a critical reflection on the analysis of social movements in both ultra-realist and cultural criminological scholarship. Drawing from my ethnographic research with the (post-)Occupy movement in the United States, I argue that the dismissive reading of social movements’ resistance and the calls for stronger political leadership are the result of a narrow analytical lens applied to movements, their temporalities, and their historical context(s). In addition, I contend that the harsh criticism of social movements by ultra-realists connects to the aim of developing an intellectual leadership concerned with informing social movement practice and strategy “from above.” Here, as I maintain, the theory and practice of militant research, or militancia de investigación, as per the Colectivo Situaciones, challenges this understanding of intellectual leadership. The insights provided by radical collective knowledge production in social movements, and their critique of the institutional frameworks of the neoliberal university, allow for a critical reflection on the role of academia in resistance. This critical reflection can generate possibilities for social movements’ knowledge and radical imaginations to influence academic theorizing.

‘The real power must be in the base’ – Decentralised collective intellectual leadership in the European Action Coalition for the Right to Housing and to the City

The ongoing commodification of housing and urban space in Europe has led to the formation of a burgeoning housing movement, consisting of large anti-eviction networks in Southern Europe, as well as tenants’ unions and right-to-the-city networks in Central and Northern Europe. These different forms of housing activism have become increasingly connected at the transnational level, primarily due to the work of the ‘European Action Coalition for the Right to Housing and to the City’. Consisting of activist groups from over 20 different countries, this coalition facilitates mutual exchange, organises collective campaigns and has begun engaging in institutional advocacy at the European Union level. It steadily expands in size and tactical repertoire, aiming to develop a more unified transnational strategy for attaining affordable and self-determined living space across Europe. Drawing on the writings of Antonio Gramsci, this article makes the case that the ‘European Action Coalition for the Right to Housing and to the City’ increasingly performs the function of a ‘collective intellectual’ that organises a transnational struggle against neoliberal hegemony. Based on qualitative analyses of documents, interviews and field notes, it demonstrates that the ‘European Action Coalition for the Right to Housing and to the City’ exhibits a counter-hegemonic perspective that opposes neoliberal capitalism as a whole and manages to facilitate mutual solidarity across different activist communities explicitly on the basis of class struggle. At the same time, instead of organising a democratic centralist political project the ‘European Action Coalition for the Right to Housing and to the City’ pursues a more decentralised approach to collective intellectual leadership that prioritises domestic struggles, yet also lacks a cohesive long-term strategy.

Female Professors Developing Intellectual Leadership in Hong Kong

Women scholars’ participation in higher education has been on the rise, but many obstacles (e.g., the gendered academic and cultural bias) are still in their way of academic advancement. Intellectual leadership in universities constitutes the key competence for academics. It implies faculty members’ capacity to influence the innovation of science and technology, the growth of institutions, the changes in society and culture. Compared with women’s formal leadership in academia, little is known about their development of intellectual leadership. This doctoral project applied the multiple-case study of twenty-two female full professors in Hong Kong. An integrated theoretical lens was used, referring to the cumulative advantage theory (Merton, 1968 &1988), the four-role framework of intellectual leadership (Macfarlane, 2013), and cultural factors affecting gender equality. This study reveals that disciplinary characteristics, neoliberal and managerial practices in universities, and patriarchal culture interplay and shape women scholars’ paths of accumulating intellectual capacity.

THE DISPOSITION OF INDIVIDUAL АРЕС COUNTIES IN THE GLOBAL ECONOMIC ENVIRONMENT

The formation of a new global system and systemic global interdependence generates new factors of com- petitiveness of market participants, determining their appropriate strategic behavior to ensure a high competitive position and leadership. This determines the relevance of the research topic. The aim of the study is to determine the peculiarities of the deve¬ lopment of individual countries and key determinants of advanced development in Asia which are members of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation. The following research methods were used in the article: models of multifactor regression, cluster analysis, methods of comparative analysis. Method (methodology). Using a multifactor regression model and cluster analysis, four clusters of countries were identified according to key indicators of intellectual leadership. For each cluster, the specializa- tion of the two countries in terms of merchandise exports was analyzed, namely, 1 cluster – the United States and Germany; 2nd cluster – Israel and Italy; 3rd cluster – Brazil and Ukraine; Cluster 4 – China and the Republic of Korea. Based on the author’s methodology for assessing the intellectual leadership of countries, the clustering of countries in the global economy is determined. The evaluation algorithm was based on three stages: first – the resource level; secondly – the level of intermediate results of intellectual activity; third – the level of the final results of overall progress. Based on clustering, it is determined that Asian countries are characterized by different from other countries features of development, determined by historical and economic preconditions. addition, the normative basis for the development of human resources in Asian countries which are members of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, the peculiarities of the production of high-tech goods and the rating of high-tech exports of selected countries are determined. The superdynamic development of Asian countries indicates the formation of a specific cluster on the global economic map, characterized by faster development, significant attention to the development of key factors of intellectualization and increasing their own positions in global rankings.