• DOI:10.1007/978-1-4020-6959-8_4
• Corpus ID: 150468554

The State, the Market and the Institutional Estate: Revisiting Contemporary Authority Relations in Higher Education

@inproceedings{Pusser2008TheST,
  title={The State, the Market and the Institutional Estate: Revisiting Contemporary Authority Relations in Higher Education},
  author={Brian Pusser},
  year={2008}
}

• Brian Pusser
• Published 2008
• Education

Over the past two decades, in nearly every arena of postsecondary education, traditional lines of authority, historical understandings of appropriate oversight and norms of political accountability have been rapidly changing (Burke, 2005; Hines, 2000). Essential understandings of such key elements in the postsecondary context as institutional autonomy, shared governance and organizational control are rapidly being transformed by challenges from a variety of stakeholders (Wellman, 2006; Marginson, 2006). A considerable body of emerging scholarship suggests that the balance of authority relations in higher education has changed dramatically over the past three decades, in line with shifts taking place in the larger national and international political economy of higher education (Heller, 2004; Pusser, 2003). These changes are increasingly apparent in the contested relationship between public postsecondary institutions and such key sources of authority and legitimacy as legislatures, governing boards and state agencies (Dunn, 2003; Longanecker, 2006). Contemporary literature on postsecondary organization and governance is replete with references to the rapid pace of change, increasing stakeholder demands and the pressures brought to bear by shifting political, financial and institutional relationships (Engell & Dangerfield, 2005). What emerges is an essential research question: “How should we understand contemporary authority relations in higher education?” Over the past decade considerable research in higher education has been devoted to documenting the changes taking place in the political economy of postsecondary organizations (Breneman et al., 2006; Slaughter & Rhoades, 2004). However, to date, relatively little scholarship has been devoted to revisiting the prevalent models of postsecondary authority relations, or to revising our understandings of those relations in light of contemporary cases of contest over postsecondary governance. This research addresses that gap in the literature through an analysis of a case of protracted contest over postsecondary authority relations, the institutional and political negotiations over the restructuring of Virginia’s public postsecondary system over the period 1996–2006. The case of Virginia’s restructuring is considered through the lens of one of the most influential models of authority relations in