Knowledge production of university-industry collaboration in academic capitalism: An analysis based on Hoffman's framework

Abstract

As academic capitalism promotes the transformation of knowledge production globally, both parties in the industry-academia collaboration are repositioned as knowledge creators in the new knowledge circuit, in which the knowledge production process becomes an issue to be explored in depth. Based on the analytical framework of Hoffman and the experience of River City in Guangdong Province-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, we analyse the ontological, epistemological, and applicative knowledge practices of both industry and academia. Both parties acknowledge the inherent uncertainties in knowledge production. Risk discourse for knowledge practices reflects influences of market/market-like logic on industry-academia collaboration. Around the three dimensions, the contradictions revealed in their interactions are multiple. Accordingly, both parties seek consensus on knowledge outcomes by suspending ontological discussions of knowledge, conceding epistemological issues, and imagining applied consensus. Nonetheless, these acts hardly achieve the desired goal of knowledge advancement and create obstacles to the knowledge circuit.