The Universities’ Transformation Thesis Revisited

A Case Study of the Relationship Between Nursing Science and Society

Abstract

The universities’ transformation thesis is often used to characterise the relationship between universities and society. It posits that, over the past few decades, universities have shifted from ivory tower research and disciplinary-based knowledge production to more and more active interaction with the surrounding society and towards transdisciplinary and problem-based knowledge production that targets solving the big problems of our time. The article revisits the transformation thesis in the context of Finnish nursing science at a time when this discipline was emerging at universities and the central arguments of the transformation thesis were formed. Using the social worlds framework, the article analyses the relationship between nursing science and society from the point of view of different social worlds and argues that the transformation thesis only partially captures these perceptions of the relationship between nursing science and society. Finally, the article proposes some other literature to be used in analysing universities’ interaction with society and particularly with the profession-oriented disciplines.