Analyzing Websites

8Thematic Analysis of Hyperlinks: A Taxonomic Approach

Nathalie PINÈDE

MICA, Université Bordeaux Montaigne, Pessac, France

8.1. Introduction

The French academic world has been undergoing profound changes over several decades, especially since the 2000s (Barats 2020). In this way, in the field of research, the rules of the game for how financing is provided have changed considerably, with the strengthening of the programmatic dimension of research (Algava et al. 2016). The widespread search for external sources of funding requires an intensification of this activity and a cultural shift – one that has created a great deal of turbulence for certain disciplines in the humanities and social sciences – toward other methods for the “production” of research (Musselin 2014). In addition, university rankings, such as the emblematic Academic Ranking Word Universities (better known as the “Shanghai Rankings”¹), impose their performative logic on the entirety of French higher education and place themselves as instruments for the evaluation, prioritization and even management of institutions (Bouchard 2013; Mercier 2013; Barats et al. 2018). The issue of the digital transformation of university organizations (pedagogy, administration, research), or even its platformization (Bullich 2018), considerably increased in the context of a pandemic that has since subsided, is also at the heart of governance forms today.

In this complex environment where limits to visibility, performance and often ...