Neither ivory towers nor corporate universities: Moving public universities beyond the "mode 2" logic

Abstract

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.