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The Scramble for Academic Excellence: Institutionalised academic discourse and its compliance with the neoliberal model

Delvenne, Lauren Koh LU (2026) SIMZ31 20261
Master of Science in Development Studies
Abstract
Universities are widely understood to be sites of free expression,
knowledge-seeking institutions that serve the public good while encouraging personal
development of individuals. They typically uphold and communicate institutional
integrity and ethics, seeking to encourage open communication, equip students with
critical thinking, and foster civil participation. For the Social Sciences, questions of ethics
become obscured, no longer limited to the research topic but the nature of research, its
extractive nature and the researcher’s positionality. To add to obscurity, neoliberalism has
become the dominant influence on the market in the contemporary world, to the point
where it has also infiltrated universities. As sites of... (More)
Universities are widely understood to be sites of free expression,
knowledge-seeking institutions that serve the public good while encouraging personal
development of individuals. They typically uphold and communicate institutional
integrity and ethics, seeking to encourage open communication, equip students with
critical thinking, and foster civil participation. For the Social Sciences, questions of ethics
become obscured, no longer limited to the research topic but the nature of research, its
extractive nature and the researcher’s positionality. To add to obscurity, neoliberalism has
become the dominant influence on the market in the contemporary world, to the point
where it has also infiltrated universities. As sites of knowledge, and in a field that poses
several ethical questions, navigating academia has become very challenging for
academics, particularly those in more precarious positions. Rather than bettering oneself,
the narrative has changed to “commodifying” oneself, positioning researchers as another
part of the knowledge factory assembly line. This thesis seeks to understand how
contemporary academia, primarily the Faculty of Social Sciences, adheres to neoliberal
logics of power. More specifically, how they manifest through the experience of faculty
members and the discourse produced by the Swedish Research Fund. It will do so by
drawing upon Foucault’s concept of governmentality, Mignolo’s coloniality of
knowledge, and Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis. Together, these concepts will
be used to uncover who the stakeholders are within neoliberal discourse, who decides
what topics are worthwhile, and how neoliberal governance has shaped knowledge
production. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Delvenne, Lauren Koh LU
supervisor
organization
course
SIMZ31 20261
year
type
H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
subject
language
English
id
9239487
date added to LUP
2026-06-25 10:11:51
date last changed
2026-06-25 10:11:51
@misc{9239487,
  abstract     = {{Universities are widely understood to be sites of free expression,
knowledge-seeking institutions that serve the public good while encouraging personal
development of individuals. They typically uphold and communicate institutional
integrity and ethics, seeking to encourage open communication, equip students with
critical thinking, and foster civil participation. For the Social Sciences, questions of ethics
become obscured, no longer limited to the research topic but the nature of research, its
extractive nature and the researcher’s positionality. To add to obscurity, neoliberalism has
become the dominant influence on the market in the contemporary world, to the point
where it has also infiltrated universities. As sites of knowledge, and in a field that poses
several ethical questions, navigating academia has become very challenging for
academics, particularly those in more precarious positions. Rather than bettering oneself,
the narrative has changed to “commodifying” oneself, positioning researchers as another
part of the knowledge factory assembly line. This thesis seeks to understand how
contemporary academia, primarily the Faculty of Social Sciences, adheres to neoliberal
logics of power. More specifically, how they manifest through the experience of faculty
members and the discourse produced by the Swedish Research Fund. It will do so by
drawing upon Foucault’s concept of governmentality, Mignolo’s coloniality of
knowledge, and Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis. Together, these concepts will
be used to uncover who the stakeholders are within neoliberal discourse, who decides
what topics are worthwhile, and how neoliberal governance has shaped knowledge
production.}},
  author       = {{Delvenne, Lauren Koh}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{The Scramble for Academic Excellence: Institutionalised academic discourse and its compliance with the neoliberal model}},
  year         = {{2026}},
}