Mapping the terrains of the Europe of Knowledge: an analytical framework of ideas, institutions, instruments, and interests

This editorial introduces how we may begin to analytically study the shifting terrains of the Europe of Knowledge. Knowledge policies – higher education, research, and innovation – are integral to many sectors, and changes in the ways in which knowledge is governed will inevitably alter the shape and contents of other policy domains. The contributions of this special issue reveal some of these shifting patterns by analysing the relationship between central features of multi-level, multi-actor, and multi-issue policy-making in the knowledge domain: the ideas that inspire reform, the institutions tasked to implement the changes, the instruments adopted for translating ideas into practice, and the diverse interests of actors with a stake in how knowledge is governed. By invoking the image of terrains, this special issue is interested in describing and explaining what happens to the Europe of Knowledge landscapes when the ‘old’ meets and interacts with the ‘new’.