Academic Freedom as a Rapidly Changing Social Construct

Thibaud Boncourt; Gisèle Sapiro

doi:10.60923/issn.1971-8853/23230

Authors

Thibaud Boncourt Université Jean Moulin Lyon 3; Triangle Research Centre; Institut Universitaire de France https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8725-2902

Thibaud Boncourt is currently a Professor of Political Science at Université Jean Moulin Lyon 3 (France), a researcher at Triangle, and a Junior Fellow of the Institut Universitaire de France (IUF). He also co-holds the programme on “Science, knowledge, and academic freedom” of the France-Quebec Research Chair on Contemporary Issues in Freedom of Expression. He mainly works on the relationship between knowledge and power, science policies, the history of the social sciences, and the transnational circulation of ideas. He currently studies scientific misconduct, research integrity policies, the politics of truth and knowledge claims, and academic freedom.
Gisèle Sapiro Ecole des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS); Centre national de la recherche scientifique-Centre européen de sociologie et de science politique (CNRS-CESSP) https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3160-984X

Gisèle Sapiro is Professor of Sociology at École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales and Senior Researcher at CNRS, member of Academia Europeae. She has authored French Writers’ War (2014), The Sociology of Literature (2023), La Responsabilité de l’écrivain (Seuil 2011), Los Intelectuales (2017), Les Ecrivains et la politique en France (2023), Peut-on dissocier l’œuvre de l’auteur? (2023), Des mots qui tuent (2020), and Qu’est-ce qu’un auteur mondial ? (2024). She (co)edited: Ideas on the move in the Social Sciences and Humanities (2020), Dictionnaire international Bourdieu (2020), and The Routledge Handbook of the History and Sociology of Ideas (2023).

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.60923/issn.1971-8853/23230

Keywords:

Academic freedom, Freedom of expression, Scientific field, Autonomy, Illiberalism

Abstract

This article approaches the notion of academic freedom as a social construct and argues that this construct is currently subjected to multiple attempts to de- or re-construct it. It outlines how the contributions to this symposium reflect on these attempts and, in doing so, how they analyse the complex relationship between the institutional autonomy of universities and research institutions, the professional autonomy of academics, the autonomy of scientific fields, and academic freedom. They rely on theoretical considerations, empirical research, reflexivity, and practical experience.

References

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Sapiro, G. (2025). Current Threats to Academic Freedom in Authoritarian, Illiberal, and Liberal Regimes. Sociologica, 19(3), 73–86. https://doi.org/10.60923/issn.1971-8853/23036

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Veg, S. (2024). La situation de l’enseignement supérieur et de la recherche en Chine depuis 2012. Communications, 114(1), 71–88. https://doi.org/10.3917/commu.114.0071

Academic Freedom as a Rapidly Changing Social Construct

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