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Higher learning in Portugal: a Veblenian approach to the evolution of organizations and hierarchies
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Abstract(s)
On the basis of an international project on higher education transformation in Europe, and a more in-depth analysis of the case of Portugal, I develop a theoretical framework for the analysis of the internal dynamics of universities (promotion, control and mobility analysis) and the overall evolution of the population of these very universities and higher education organizations (polytechnics, private organizations, etc.). The aim of the paper
"'J is to go back to Veblen's anal sis of the higher learning in America (Veblen 1899, 1918, L 1919) and propose a theoretical framework and a limited number of working hypothesis for studying the transformation of the higher education systems in Europe with, in the present paper, a particular emphasis on the Portuguese case by way of exemplification.
The present contribution is a modest and original proposal for studying organizations that once interested Veblen and that interest all of us and that could respond to the continuous, recent and not so recent, appeal that the work of a central figure of American institutionalism (Aryrous and Sethi 1996, Hodgson 1998, Mayhew 1998).
Veblen can be considered in the present research as much as a source of inspiration for
fresh and good ideas and working hypotheses (to a similar degree as Schumpeter is for
innovation and industrial organization studies). It is surely also an important theoretical
point of departure for giving an institutional bent and an evolutionary theory for the
study of the internal workings of universities and the evolution of their very population
through different periods of growths and crises.
First, I use concepts and hypotheses that Veblen used in his studies on the American
universities (from Higher Learning in America or The Theory of Leasure Class) and
other relevant works (such as the Theory of Business Entreprise). His study of the
American universities was then in his time either weak or of recent creation and often
with a rather low level of cumulative scholarship, a case that strangely remember us
some European higher education systems such as the Portuguese case.
Second, the evolutionary approach to (l) the evolution of the organizations (universities
and polytechnic institutes and to (2) the dynamics of selection, hiring policies,
promotions and mobility is better adapted for grasping the historical transformations
of the national systems of higher education. The object of study is neither static nor
simply reducible to representative agents.
Finally, the distinction between ceremonial versus production or industrial production
is reworked in order to describe some of basic mechanisms in the higher "learning"
system, such as the making of hierarchies of teachers, tenure systems, and the problem
of internal and external mobility. This treatment will integrate notions coming from
Veblen, like ceremonial adequacy, with others from Hirschman, namely the notions of
exit, voice, and loyalty, Canguilhem (pathology and normal) and Spengler (the problem
of order).
In the first section, I develop the general theoretical argument that I will adopt from
Veblen and compare his context with the current one in higher education. In the second
section, I will build on Veblen evolutionary concepts retained in the first part such as
ceremonial adequacy with other contribution coming from organization theory, namely
sociology and economics. In the case of economics, I will use in combination with the
Veblenian arguments the concepts of voice, exit and loyalty advanced by Hirschman
with the addition of the notion of apathy that some of his followers have developed for
the study of organizations. A central theoretical notion in the present study is the
concept of hierarchy that is linked to the concepts of normality and pathology. The two
criteria are the building blocks or specific institutions for the edification and survival
of hierarchies. The theory will be developed and illustrated in two parts. First, at the
level of the organization (the university) the problem of hierarchy and (internal)
mobility will be discussed. Second, at the level of the general system of higher
education, the survival of organizations, the (external) mobility of individuals between
the schools will be characterized so that we can get see how the critical factors of
evolution are. The notions of hierarchy, normality and pathology will also be part of
the treatment of the overall system with the introduction of the problem of order
(Spengler 1948, 1968). The last section will illustrate more systematically the working
of the system in the Portuguese case and discuss the problems of conflicts of rules and
institutions that are at the center of the evolution and changes of the system of higher
education.
Description
European Association of Evolutionary Political Economy, EAEPE 2007, 1–3 Novembro de 2007, na Faculdade de Economia da Universidade do Porto.
Keywords
Institutions Higher education Hierarchy Internal and external mobility Organization theory Veblenian economics
Citation
Jacquinet, Marc (2007) “Higher learning in Portugal: A Veblenian approach to the evolution of organizations and hierarchies”, European Association of Evolutionary Political Economy, EAEPE 2007, 1–3 Novembro de 2007, Faculdade de Economia da Universidade do Porto, Actas em CD-Rom.