This article investigates the tensions in the
"mode 2" thesis, which suggests the emergence
of new, global trends in the production and
dissemination of knowledge. I explain its influence in recent South African higher education
policy debates and research practices by referring
to competing readings of "mode 2", which have
allowed it to feed simultaneously into both liberal
and critical discourses on higher education
transformation in South Africa. Clear tensions
emerge from the limitations of "mode 2" in
speaking to existing inequalities and in informing
non-corporate models of institutional transformation.