November 16, 2023

Governance, Knowledge and Innovation

José Reis e Paulo Peixoto

This work aims to contribute to the understanding of the contemporary situation of the University in Portugal. It demonstrates that the watchword has been adaptation, given multiple changes in the forms of organization of society and the economy. We deal with transformations in the provision of knowledge, which begin at a conceptual level and are implemented by the force of law, seeking to change forms of governance, redefining powers in the internal context and liberalizing relations at an external level. We revisited this process of change using an institutionalist perspective, seeking to understand the process and its results. We analyse a liberalization framework, in which one moves from a coordination framework, in which economic transactions respond to social obligations, to a liberalized mode, in which transactions are only obliged to the interests of those directly involved. This passage is built by the force of law. In order to understand this building, we developed an empirical approach, analysing the legislation produced in Portugal from the beginning of the 20th century to the present day. Through this study, we sought to understand the previous form of organization (the guild controlled by the State) and its transformation into a new model of governance (based on the hierarchies+markets formula, slightly punctuated by the network model). Finally, to understand the impacts of this transformation, we developed an empirical approach to the public higher education system, focusing on the sources of revenue and on the labour relations of each institution, suggesting that these are privileged fields of analysis. Through it we verify an adaptive response, in which the restriction on funding by the national central administration was complemented by an increase in European public funding and the payment of fees by students, without producing a greater coordination by the markets, through the sale of goods and services. On the other hand, there was an increase in imbalances in labour relations, with hierarchies built on the figure of "dependent self-employed" and "occasional dependents.

Keywords: Contracts; Finances; Institutional Economics; Organization; University