Erika Andersson Cederholm

”Samverkan är ju hela tiden, överallt” : – samverkan som gränsobjekt i akademin

“We collaborate all the time, everywhere” : – collaboration as a boundary object in academia

Summary, in English

How and to what extent higher education institutions in Sweden are collaborating with society has been debated in public media and in research. This article highlights the formalisation of the Swedish collaboration policy following a reinforced regulation and political pressures. In the study, official university documents and interviews with university employees at two Swedish universities are analysed. The analysis focuses on the concept of collaboration as a boundary object, shedding light on the ambiguity characterising the formalisation process. The striving for definitions and operationalisation of the concept creates a multitude of specific and local interpretations; of the concept as such, how collaboration competencies should be defined, and how the result of collaboration can be measured. The article draws to a close by a discussion of the potential drawbacks when collaboration practices become too formalistic, and collaboration turns into an end in itself.

• Author: Erika Andersson Cederholm; Ingela Furenbäck; Cornelia Wulff Hamrin
• Department/s: Department of Service Studies
• Publishing year: 2024
• Language: Swedish
• Pages: 29-43
• Publication/Series: Högre utbildning
• Volume: 14
• Issue: 1
• Links: http://dx.doi.org/10.23865/hu.v14.5366
• Document type: Journal article
• Publisher: Swednet
• Topic: Social Sciences Interdisciplinary
• Keywords: collaboration, higher education institutions, boundary object
• Status: Published
• ISBN/ISSN/Other: ISSN: 2000-7558