The Policy Futures Research Program explores how shifting geopolitics affects education and research. It focuses on two geopolitical domains – the autocratic/authoritarian turn and decolonial assertiveness and diversity – and examines how these forces both oppose and reinforce one another within education and research.
The program has a frontline position as one of Europe's leading platforms for education policy studies. The program creates, cultivates, and shares knowledge at the highest international level, contributes to public debate, and the renewal of education and research practices.
The program is based at the Danish School of Education, Aarhus University, and curates its research activities through international, interdisciplinary, and cross-institutional webinars, laboratories, and colloquia.
In an era marked by the interplay of the autocratic turn and decolonial assertiveness, as well as mounting pressures on liberal democratic values, academic freedom, and diversity efforts, the creation of a strong interdisciplinary research platform dedicated to these issues is not only timely but also essential. Far from being limited to autocratic-leaning regimes, this democratic decline has also been observed in countries that are identified as consolidated liberal democracies, including the Nordic welfare states. The increasing politicization of education and research, with growing state intervention and direct implications for academic freedom and diversity efforts, is already manifesting in European countries. It is clear that the world has entered a new stage. The growing politicization of education and research, along with the shifting geopolitical landscape, make this a pivotal moment for studying the fractured and fracturing lines that have come to unsettle and reshape knowledge politics. The Policy Futures Research Program aims to contribute to the examination of this new era and its influence on education and research by fostering new lines of inquiry, epistemologies, and ontologies.
