Knowledge Production and the REF: The Construction of Academic Excellence in Economics

卓越研究框架(REF)是一个英国范围内的高等教育研究质量评估计划。REF的结果为公共研究资金的分配和在国家和国际表格中的排名提供了信息，因此在确定高等教育机构的直接和间接收入方面发挥了重要作用。遵循知识社会学中的强大计划，我将REF概念化为‘学术卓越’的积极建设者，而不是一个客观的衡量工具。现有的定性研究证实，REF过程本身影响到一般社会科学，特别是经济学中被认为有效的知识。此外，专注于经济学案例研究的定量研究已经将REF及其前身(“研究评估练习”)与经济学学科的缩小联系在一起，而非正统的经济思想学派处于不利地位。然而，当谈到定性的实证工作时，文献中存在着一个重要的空白，即如何通过REF构建“经济卓越”，以及这些构建在多大程度上对异端经济学有偏见。我建议的研究的目的是通过对参考指南进行语篇分析和对参与参考指南多个阶段的学者进行访谈来弥合这一差距。

The Research Excellence Framework (REF) is a UK-wide assessment scheme for the quality of Higher Education (HE)research. REF results inform both the allocation of public research funds and rankings in national and internationalleague tables, thus playing a major role in determining HE institutions' direct and indirect income. Following the strongprogramme within the Sociology of Knowledge, I conceptualise the REF as an active constructor of 'academicexcellence', rather than an objective measuring tool. Existing qualitative research confirms that the REF process itselfimpacts what is considered valid knowledge in the social sciences in general, and Economics in particular. Furtherquantitative research focusing on the case study of Economics has associated the REF and its predecessor (the'Research Assessment Exercise') with a narrowing of the Economics discipline at the disadvantage of heterodox schoolsof economic thought. However, there is an important gap in the literature when it comes to qualitative empirical work onhow 'economic excellence' is constructed through the REF and to what extent these constructions are biased againstHeterodox Economics. The aim of my proposed research is to bridge this gap through conducting a discourse analysis ofboth REF guidelines and interviews with academics involved in multiple stages of the REF.