ABSTRACT

The academic field in Sweden is in a state of transformation. Demands for change are facing universities and colleges. Drawing on empirical illustrations from the public debate in Sweden and from strategic plans of Lund University, analysis shows the prevalence of two dominant logics in the field – collegiality and managerialism. Leadership becomes a matter of handling these logics and making sense of ambiguity, inconsistency and paradoxes. It can be seen as a process of finding a third way between two logics, of ‘muddling through’ in a traditional Swedish way.