The Emotional Politics of Quality Assurance Reform: Shifting Affective Atmospheres in Swedish Higher Education Policy

The aim of this study is to describe and analyse two recent quality assurance (QA) reforms in Swedish higher education (HE) and to discuss how shifts and continuities can be understood with a particular focus on the role of affects and emotions. Using conceptual devices from the literature on affects and emotions in the context of policy, official documents, media materials and interviews with stakeholders were analysed. In conclusion, the reforms were surrounded by distinctive affective atmospheres in which different emotional registers were circulated and articulated. The 2010 reform was criticised due to a lack of deliberation and produced a QA system described by HE actors in negative terms prior to its implementation. The second policy process after 2014 was emotionally reframed as being open for dialogue and collaboration in the creation of the reformed QA system. These affective atmospheres were framed by their particular policy histories and memories, but they also involved strategic attempts to create certain feelings, responses and actions.