Against academic identity

Abstract

‘Academic identity’ is a key issue for debates about the professionalisation of university teaching and research, as well as the meaning and purpose of higher education. However, the concept of ‘academic identity’ is not adequate to the critical task for which it is utilised as it fails to deal with the real nature of work in capitalist society. It is important to move on from the mystifying and reified politics of identity and seek to understand academic life so that its alienated forms can be transformed. This can be done by grasping the essential aspects of capitalist work in both its abstract and concrete forms, as well as the historical and social processes out of which academic labour has emerged

Lost souls? The demoralization of academic labour in the measured university

“…The success of academic performance is no longer measured by academic but commercial values. For example, numbers of students recruited, engagement with employers and other stakeholders, and income generation (Naidoo 2005). The power effect of being constantly measured by quantitative managerial criteria, that tend to be in a constant state of flux due to ever changing market demands, leads to "ontological insecurity" (Ball, 2003, p. 220).…”

“…Moral economy studies the moral norms and sentiments that structure and influence economic practices, both formal and informal, and the way in which these are reinforced, shaped, compromised or overridden by economic pressures. (Sayer 2007 p. 262) In their discussion piece Against academic identity, Neary & Winn (2016) argue that interest in academic identity is a reflection of a wider concern with the nature of academic labour. They declare that the concept "fails to deal with real nature of work in capitalist society" (Neary & Winn, 2016, p. 409).…”

Pruebas estandarizadas para el acceso a la educación superior en Chile: performatividad y subjetividad de los estudiantes

“…En cierta medida, este enfoque resulta problemático cuando se investiga en espacios sociales altamente segmentados en términos socioeconómicos. Por tal razón, se han esbozado algunas críticas a la idea de identidad como mero testimonio, desligada de las relaciones sociales que la producen (Neary & Winn, 2016;Sutton, 2017). En ese sentido, al analizar la subjetividad es necesario entonces apuntar hacia una interpretación que permita balancear ambas aproximaciones y entender la subjetividad como expresiones narrativas situadas socialmente.…”

Political Science Teaching Across Europe

“…There have also been moves for students to feed into policy making and contribute to the creation of knowledge. This happens at postgraduate level—especially in terms of those writing a PhD thesis in political science whereby they must demonstrate that they are adding to the sum of knowledge—but also more frequently at undergraduate level where schemes encourage students to become involved in research projects that mean they too are adding to knowledge and may even be contributing to policy (for detail on undergraduate research projects, cf : Lightfoot and Piotukh 2015; Neary and Winn 2009; and Page 2015). This notion of impact—contributing to knowledge and making a difference—has permeated down from academics to students.…”