Introduction: The Worldwide Triumph of the Research University and Globalizing Science

Abstract

Purpose À This chapter provides an overview of the findings and chapters of a thematic volume in the International Perspectives on Education and Society (IPES) series. It describes the common dataset and methods used by an international research team. Design/methodology/approach À The chapter synthesizes the results of a series of country-level case studies and cross-national and regional comparisons on the growth of scientific research from 1900 until 2011. Additionally, the chapter provides a quantitative analysis of global trends in scientific, peer-reviewed publishing over the same period. Findings À The introduction identifies common themes that emerged across the case studies examined in-depth during the multi-year research project Science Productivity, Higher Education, Research and Development and the Knowledge Society (SPHERE). First, universities have long been and are increasingly the primary organizations in science production around the globe. Second, the chapters describe in-country and crosscountry patterns of

The scientization of the world polity: International organizations and the production of scientific knowledge, 1950–2015

“…From the late 1980s onwards, particularly the early 2000s, the pattern for this time period is striking across all three organizational types, a wide range of world societal sectors (from education to natural resources), research areas (from the physical to the social sciences), output formats (from articles to conference papers), and geographical areas, principally Europe, North America, and Asia. Additional analyses suggest strong cross-organizational collaborations between various kinds of IOs and more conventional (national) organizations reflecting wider trends of scientific integration (Powell et al, 2017; Wagner and Leydesdorff, 2005).…”

Higher Education and the Exponential Rise of Science: Competition and Collaboration

“…Exponential growth in science production around the world has resulted from rising investments in human capability and especially the worldwide triumph of the research university. Unexpected by founders of bibliometrics (de Solla Price, 1986), who rather thought expansion would reach a saturation level and taper off within decades of the advent of "big science" in the 1960s, we instead find that increased global and local competition, as well as boundary-spanning collaborations of various types, have driven unprecedented scientific advancement and technological innovation (Powell, Fernandez et al, 2017). Systematic estimates of the number of peer-reviewed articles cataloged in the Science Citation Index Expanded from 1900 onward show science transformed by unprecedented production .…”

“…Focusing on articles published in the world-leading journals provides insights into the cutting-edge of fundamental research. Charting global shifts in the scientific "center of gravity" shows changing regional scientific output (Powell, Fernandez et al, 2017). Along with the North American, European countries remain essential players in the scientific arena, with their centuries-old research universities being emulated worldwide.…”

“…Over the past few decades in East Asia, massive government support in Japan, China, South Korea, and Taiwan, for example, have triggered explosive growth of science capacity and the ensuing production. Researchers have only just begun to explain how and why certain countries have succeeded differentially in expanding their higher education and science capacity and which organizational forms and funding instruments do most to facilitate scientific serendipity as well as long-term impact Powell, Fernandez et al, 2017).…”

“…Among other organizational forms that produce most research-extra-university research institutes, government agencies, private companies, and hospitals-research universities have remained the driving force behind the global growth of scientific productivity. They connect all types of knowledge-producing organizations and contribute the majority of scientific publications Powell, Fernandez et al, 2017;Dusdal, 2018).…”