Hybridity Through Transitions : Crisis and Resilience in Nordic Universities / edited by Elias Pekkola, Luiz Alonso de Andrade, Kerttu Kettunen, Stefan Lundborg.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Andrade, Luiz Alonso de, editor.

Kettunen, Kerttu, editor.

Lundborg, Stefan, editor.

Pekkola, Elias, editor.

Series:

Educational Leadership and Leaders in Contexts ; 9.

Educational Research E-Books Online, Collection 2025

Educational Leadership and Leaders in Contexts ; 9

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Education.

Education, Higher.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (364 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Other Title:

Crisis and Resilience in Nordic Universities

Place of Publication:

Leiden ; Boston : Brill, 2025.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Hybridity Through Transitions: Crisis and Resilience in Nordic Universities investigates how Nordic higher education institutions adapt to crises and long-term reforms by blending traditional academic values with market-oriented governance. Drawing on empirical studies from Finland, Sweden, and Norway, the book examines hybridity as both a structural condition and a resilience mechanism. It explores how universities respond to challenges such as the COVID-19 pandemic, digitalisation, and marketisation, offering a conceptual and comparative framework for understanding institutional transformation. This timely volume is essential reading for scholars, policymakers, and practitioners interested in the evolving landscape of higher education governance and the future of academic institutions. Contributors are: Luiz Alonso de Andrade, Michael Oduro Asante, Lars Geschwind, Tina Hedmo, Jan-Erik Johanson, Henna Juusola, Kerttu Kettunen, Tommi Kärkkäinen, Harri Laihonen, Stefan Lundborg, Marjukka Mikkonen, Reetta Muhonen, Elias Pekkola, Motolani Peltola, Marc C. Perkins, Rómulo Pinheiro, Johanna Pöysä-Tarhonen, Tomi Rajala, Íris Santos, Taru Siekkinen, Cathrine Edelhard Tømte, Jarmo Vakkuri, Minni Virtanen and Caroline Waks.

Contents:

Intro

Contents

Foreword

Figures and Tables

Figures

Tables

Notes on Contributors

Part 1: Hybridity in Nordic Higher Education

1. Hybridity in Higher Education as Resilience to Crises, Issues and Challenges

Abstract

Keywords

1 Introduction

2 Higher Education in Crises?

3 Changing Higher Education Landscape and Resilience

4 Post-Pandemic Resilience and Hybridity

5 Book Outline

5.1 Conceptual Overview: Hybridity in Higher Education

5.2 Managing Crises Triggered by the Pandemic, War, and Digitalisation

5.3 Crises and Marketisation

References

2. Higher Education

2 A Plunge in the Bathtub

3 Politics and HE

4 Policy Design

5 Scaffolding of Hybridity

6 Hybrid Governance of Universities

7 Multiple Identities

8 Value Creation

9 The Balance

10 Hybrid Higher Education and Beyond

3. Emerging Hybridity in Higher Education

2 Hybrid Educational Spaces in Higher Education: Hybrid as Fluid

3 New Mobilities and Sociomaterial Sensibility in Understanding Hybrid Educational Spaces in Higher Education

4 Speculative Design for "Possible Futures" of Hybrid Higher Education Arrangements

5 Concluding Discussion

Acknowledgements

Part 2: Nordic Universities and Crisis

4. Hybridity Theory and Crisis

2 Background Literature and Theory

2.1 Hybridity Theory

2.2 Crisis Leadership

2.3 Linking Hybridity and Crisis Leadership

2.4 Terminology

3 Research Focus and Methods

4 Results and Discussion

4.1 Changing Hybridity as Driver of Crisis

4.2 Hybridity during Crisis: Policy Level

4.3 Hybridity during Crisis: Variation within the Organization.

4.4 Hybridity during Crisis: Selective Hybridity in Decision Making

4.5 Hybridity during Crisis: (Re)Negotiating Values in Crisis

5 Conclusions

5. Trial by Fire

2 Theoretical Approach

3 Methods and Materials

4 Results

6. From Remote to Hybrid Work

2 Theoretical Backdrop to Analyse Adaptation and Self-Organisation in Work Practices

2.1 Contextualising the Investigated Phenomenon

2.2 Complex Adaptive Systems: A Theory to Analyse Adaptation Processes in Organisations

2.2.1 Self-Organisation

3 Data and Methods

4 Findings

4.1 Contextualising the Findings: A Descriptive Comparison of Managers' Perceptions over Time (2020-2022)

4.2 Hybrid Work Practices as the New 'Normal'? A Comparison of Managers and Academic Staff

Appendix A - Some comparable responses of managers to changes in work arrangements from 2020, 2021, 2022

Appendix B - Answers to surveys post-Covid-19 lockdown (managers, 2022 and academic staff, 2023)

7. Nested Hybridity in International Higher Education Collaboration during the Times of War

2 Shared Values and Diverging Strategies of IHEC in Finland and Sweden

3 Nested Hybridity and More Justification in IHEC

4 Data and Method

5 Findings

5.1 National Responses to the War in Ukraine in the Context of IHEC

5.2 Re-Consideration of IHEC Institutional Strategies

5.3 Reassessing IHEC as Work: Navigating Solidarity and Global Tensions

6 Conclusion

8. Coping with Hybridity in Higher Education

2 Intensifying Hybridization of Academic Work.

3 Digitalization in Norwegian Higher Education

4 Practice Theory and Its Relevance to University Teaching in Digitalized Environments

5 Data, Methodology, and Analytical Approach

5.1 Analytical Framework

6 Digital Transformations of Teaching Practices - Presentation of Findings

6.1 Tools and Platforms - Content and Delivery

6.1.1 Autonomy and Control in the HE-Platform Landscape: Winners and Losers of Flexible Solutions

6.2 Literacy and Skills

6.2.1 Teaching Methods and Approaches

6.2.2 Autonomy and Control of Digital Platforms and Software - Or Just Feeling Lost in Digital Transformations?

6.3 Mindsets

6.3.1 Personal Interests in Digital Technologies across Generations

6.3.2 Time Investments to Become Digitally Competent

6.3.3 Tensions, Dilemmas, and Trade-Offs: Who Owns the Digital Teaching Resources?

7 Conclusive Discussion

9. Hybrid Roles in the Making

2 Digitalization, Hybridity and Changing Academic Roles

3 Data and Methodology

4 Data Findings

4.1 Academic Staff and Internal Interactions: Administration, Faculty, and Department

4.2 Academic Staff and Third Space Professionals' Interactions

4.3 Academic Staff Roles and Student Interactions

5 Conclusive Discussion

Acknowledgement

Note

Part 3: Nordic Universities and Marketisation

10. Hybridity within Market-Based Accountability in Higher Education Teaching

2 Higher Education Markets and Hybridity within the Market-Based Accountability

3 Research Method

4 Study Context

5 Illustrative Accounts of Market and Quasi-Market Accountability

6 Theory-Driven Analysis of Hybridity in the Teachers' Accountability

7 How Do Teachers Manage Hybridity? An Interpretative Analysis.

8 Conclusions

11. Increased Hybridity in the Policy Governing Academic Leadership Positions

2 The Construction of Academic Leadership

2.1 Parallel Governing Ideals and Professional Norm Systems in the University

2.2 Hybrid Universities

2.3 Hybrid Professionals, Positions and Work

2.4 Constructing the Role of Head of Department as a State in a Translation Process

3 Method

3.1 Data Collection

3.1.1 Work and Delegation Orders

3.1.2 Internal Policy Documents

3.2 Data Analysis

4 Higher Education and the Role of Heads of Departments in Sweden

5 Role Expectations for Heads of Departments at Swedish Public Universities

5.1 A Move towards a Stronger Vertical Chain of Command, Or …?

5.2 A Focus on 'Co-Workership'

5.3 A Strengthened Professionalisation of Academic Leadership

5.4 A Unified University with a Strong and Unified Leadership

5.5 Emphasising the Role of the Head in the Service of the State

6 Conclusions

12. As a Dean, You Are Stuck between the Top Management and Academia

2 Theoretical Backdrop

2.1 Hybrid Universities and the Hybrid Roles of Middle Managers

2.2 Changing Universities and the Changing Roles and Identities of Academic Middle Managers

2.3 The Finnish Context - Changes in Universities and University Management in Finland

3 Data and methods

4.1 The Survey Conducted in 2020

4.2 The Survey Conducted in 2024

5 Discussion and Conclusions

13. The Hybrid Values in Universities of Applied Sciences

2 Networked Hybridity in Universities of Applied Sciences

3 Public, Private and Academic Values in Higher Education Institutions

4 Analytical Framework.

5 Research Setting: Universities of Applied Sciences in Finland

6 Data and Methods

7 Results

8 Discussion and Conclusions

14. Balancing with Academic Perspectives in Knowledge Brokering - Arranging the Hybridity

2 Knowledge Brokering Organisations and Hybridity

3 Analytical Framework

4 Data and Methodology

5 Results

5.1 Maintaining Proximity to Research - The Norwegian KBO

5.1.1 Entering a Crowded Field of Science-Policy Interaction - Academic Research as an Asset in the Knowledge Brokering Market

5.1.2 Practices and Challenges of Prioritising Academic Research for Good Knowledge Brokering

5.2 Maintaining Adequate Distance to Research for Good Knowledge Brokering - The Finnish KBO

5.2.1 Organising Knowledge Brokering Around Stakeholder Needs, Experimentation and Efficiency

5.2.2 Shaping and Communicating Knowledge for Policymakers - Balancing Professional Knowledge Brokering with the Understanding of Academic Research

6 Discussions and Conclusions

Part 4: Conclusions

15. Defining and Typologising Hybridity

2 Hybridity Defined

3 Hybridity Manifestations in Nordic Higher Education Institutions: A Typology

3.1 Q1: Hybridity of Institutional Logics

3.2 Q2: Hybridity of Missions and Accountabilities

3.3 Q3: Hybridity of Work Tasks and Practices

3.4 Q4: Hybridity of Knowledge and Value Co-Creation

4 Hybrid Responses for Nordic Higher Education Challenges and Crises

4.1 Hybridity as a Resilience Mechanism

4.2 Hybridity as a Response to Crises

4.3 Hybridity as a Response to Multiple Demands

4.4 Hybridity as a Response to Digitalisation

5 Future Avenues for Research on Hybridity in Higher Education in Nordics and Beyond

Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

90-04-74518-1

9789004745186

OCLC:

1574809952

Publisher Number:

10.1163/9789004745186 DOI