Close Ties

Foreword
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The summer semester program is dedicated to the constellations of interests underlying the economic relationships and substantive collaborations between agents from the social subsystems of business, politics, education and culture. Taking as springboard the example of the «close ties» between Lakeside Science & Technology Park and Klagenfurt University—a catch phrase that regularly appears in texts about the Technology Park—we want to shed light on the productive yet problematic aspects of the financing of science and art through «public» (politically administered), «private» (corporate) and «semi-public» (foundations) funds. Partic - ularly in a political landscape like that of Carinthia, which grants only a limited scope of action to non-conformist and critical projects, cooperative ventures with «the economy» or with private sponsors offer a welcome alternative.On the other hand, negative experiences with rivalry-oriented and profitminded developments at the universities of late, as a result of EU policies geared toward global competition, have starkly high lighted the potential risks involved when scientific research and teaching are aligned according to economistic parameters. …>>