Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. In pursuit of academic excellence -- 2. Introducing the study -- 3. Picturing the departs in figures -- 4. Collaboration and intellectual community -- 5. Civicness and cohesion -- 6.authority and patterns of hierarchy -- 7. Stability, institutional change and the road to community -- 8. Creativity: an essential by-product -- 9. Organizing innovate research.

Contributes to the European debate on the relationship between government and universities. In developing general policy arguments, introduced in the opening chapters and summed up in the concluding discussion, this book examines empirically the "cultures" of four innovative and three stagnant Swedish departments in the social sciences.