Notes on governance

Abstract

Governance is a multi-layered concept that depicts a myriad of formulations and potential affordances. In this paper we present and discuss some of the key topics that frame the governance problems European Universities face nowadays. We depart from institutions and their interactions with the outer world and their own organizational structures and then focus on power and productivity as the two core variables influencing governance. Following the contributions and remarks of several thinkers throughout history, we then reflect on the emergence of governance and the central function it has had throughout history in supporting how institutions survive and prevail sometimes in daring circumstances. We end our notes with an assertion of the plasticity of the concept and its many affordances that go way beyond managerial or political thinking, making governance uncapturable.Governance is a multi-layered concept that depicts a myriad of formulations and potential affordances. In this paper we present and discuss some of the key topics that frame the governance problems European Universities face nowadays. We depart from institutions and their interactions with the outer world and their own organizational structures and then focus on power and productivity as the two core variables influencing governance. Following the contributions and remarks of several thinkers throughout history, we then reflect on the emergence of governance and the central function it has had throughout history in supporting how institutions survive and prevail sometimes in daring circumstances. We end our notes with an assertion of the plasticity of the concept and its many affordances that go way beyond managerial or political thinking, making governance uncapturable.