Against the background of the issues of skills shortage, educational advantage, regional challenges and resources of the locations in Saxony, the doctoral project examines universities and their infrastructures. Research and university collaborations are analyzed from a meta-perspective, interdependencies are uncovered and possible optimizations are derived. Central to this is the social science perspective of actor-network theory (ANT), which focuses on regional opportunities and limitations, such as geographical material structures. (Regional) political problematizations form the starting point for the analyses, such as the reasons for disparities between university locations in Saxony. The central question is how cooperative research is carried out by companies and universities in Saxony and which techniques are established to overcome the climate crisis, economic transformation and other problem horizons. How are the discursively mediated bodies of knowledge of the actors in the field linked to material structures and how are they mutually dependent? Which regional or university policies contribute to the structural manifestation? Theoretical and conceptual approaches to higher education and organizational research will be discussed against the background of the empirically based findings.
Duration: 10/2024 - 6/2028
Prof. Dr. Knut Petzold (HSZG)
Prof. Dr. Joost van Loon (KU Eichstätt-Ingolstadt)
