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Between Utopias and Realities: Reclaiming Doctoral Education as a Practice of Freedom

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Title: Between Utopias and Realities: Reclaiming Doctoral Education as a Practice of Freedom
Language: English
Authors: Sónia Cardoso (ORCID 0000-0001-6504-8468)
Source: Policy Futures in Education. 2026 24(3):349-362.
Availability: SAGE Publications. 2455 Teller Road, Thousand Oaks, CA 91320. Tel: 800-818-7243; Tel: 805-499-9774; Fax: 800-583-2665; e-mail: journals@sagepub.com; Web site: https://sagepub.com
Peer Reviewed: Y
Page Count: 14
Publication Date: 2026
Document Type: Journal Articles
Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education
Postsecondary Education
Descriptors: Graduate Study, Doctoral Programs, Neoliberalism, Academic Freedom, Personal Autonomy, Governance, Expectation, Student Motivation, Learning Motivation, Educational Practices, Discovery Processes
DOI: 10.1177/14782103251413663
ISSN: 1478-2103
Abstract: Twenty years after the Salzburg Principles, the promise of doctoral education (DE) as a space for autonomy, creativity, and social responsibility has been reworked through neoliberal governance and audit culture. Drawing on critical policy sociology, Levitas's utopia as method and autoethnographic reflection, this paper identifies four paradoxes of the contemporary doctorate: freedom and bureaucratisation, creativity and performativity, belonging and exclusion, and training and transformation. In response, it advances five utopian practices already emerging within universities -- supervision as care, epistemic plurality, research with social commitment, time to think, and research centres as spaces of possibility -- as grounded counter-logics to managerialism. Reading policy frameworks alongside lived experience, the analysis shows how doctoral subjectivities are shaped by performative rationalities while leaving openings for ethical, relational, and democratic futures. Reclaiming time to imagine and courage to dissent becomes a political refusal to reduce DE to credentialism and knowledge to capital.
Abstractor: As Provided
Entry Date: 2026
Accession Number: EJ1502763
Database: ERIC
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  Data: Between Utopias and Realities: Reclaiming Doctoral Education as a Practice of Freedom
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  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Sónia+Cardoso%22">Sónia Cardoso</searchLink> (ORCID <externalLink term="https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6504-8468">0000-0001-6504-8468</externalLink>)
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  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="SO" term="%22Policy+Futures+in+Education%22"><i>Policy Futures in Education</i></searchLink>. 2026 24(3):349-362.
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  Data: SAGE Publications. 2455 Teller Road, Thousand Oaks, CA 91320. Tel: 800-818-7243; Tel: 805-499-9774; Fax: 800-583-2665; e-mail: journals@sagepub.com; Web site: https://sagepub.com
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  Data: Twenty years after the Salzburg Principles, the promise of doctoral education (DE) as a space for autonomy, creativity, and social responsibility has been reworked through neoliberal governance and audit culture. Drawing on critical policy sociology, Levitas's utopia as method and autoethnographic reflection, this paper identifies four paradoxes of the contemporary doctorate: freedom and bureaucratisation, creativity and performativity, belonging and exclusion, and training and transformation. In response, it advances five utopian practices already emerging within universities -- supervision as care, epistemic plurality, research with social commitment, time to think, and research centres as spaces of possibility -- as grounded counter-logics to managerialism. Reading policy frameworks alongside lived experience, the analysis shows how doctoral subjectivities are shaped by performative rationalities while leaving openings for ethical, relational, and democratic futures. Reclaiming time to imagine and courage to dissent becomes a political refusal to reduce DE to credentialism and knowledge to capital.
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        StartPage: 349
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      – SubjectFull: Doctoral Programs
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      – SubjectFull: Neoliberalism
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      – SubjectFull: Academic Freedom
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      – SubjectFull: Personal Autonomy
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      – SubjectFull: Learning Motivation
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      – SubjectFull: Educational Practices
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      – SubjectFull: Discovery Processes
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      – TitleFull: Between Utopias and Realities: Reclaiming Doctoral Education as a Practice of Freedom
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