3. Charting a Course for Academic Freedom in Europe at the Beginning of the 21st Century: Situated Epistemology, Codification, Practice

Abstract

Abstract The article posits that the predicaments of academic freedom in Europe in the first two decades of the 21st century amount to a crisis with distinctive regional characteristics rather than national or global. The article discusses the nature and origin of the crisis and why Europe (the European Higher Education Area) is a relevant unit of analysis in this regard, before examining how situated-epistemology underpinnings impact standing tendencies regarding the conceptualization and codification of academic freedom as well as incipient new efforts to reimagine it. The latter appear to be fueled by a belief most often not explicitly articulated and shared by a small number of non-university policy entrepreneurs rather than leaders from within the academe or theoreticians of academic freedom in what could be called the need to chart a new course for academic freedom through its reconceptualization and the adoption of new codifications and practices for it.