University autonomy and statehood

Abstract

This is an essay about the narratives of university autonomy in Mexico across the last century. From a historical sociology perspective, it is proposed like main analytical axis the relationships between political statehood and university autonomy like an explanation about autonomic narratives. A bibliographic review identifies three main epic narratives in the last century: the freedom epic, the modernisation epic, and the indicators epic. The hypothesis that these different epics are due to accounts of political legitimacy of the adjustments and transformations of the universities facing changes in the environments of statehood is discussed.