Cruel Optimism and Precarious Employment: The Crisis Ordinariness of Academic Work

Tread lightly: Liminality and Covid‐19 reflections

“…However, the corporatization of academia, its misalignment to social issues, and the question of its relevance have been persisting questions in my mind. I still am hopeful, and I remain invested in our role as academics in changing organizational structures that require us to live in a state of crisis ordinariness (Berlant, 2011; Bone, 2021).…”

“…The pandemic exposed the fragility of academic life and the instability of employment practices in academia (Mavin & Yusupova, 2020). With precarious employment on the rise in academia, early-career academics are required to negotiate between ideals of having a secure good life (future) while noticing universities adopt a "corporate ethos" (Fleming, 2020(Fleming, , p. 1306, focusing on profitability, competitiveness, and efficiency (present) (Bone, 2021). Negotiating in-between these different sets of ideals highlights the "cruelty of the precarious impasse" (Bone, 2021).…”

“…With precarious employment on the rise in academia, early-career academics are required to negotiate between ideals of having a secure good life (future) while noticing universities adopt a "corporate ethos" (Fleming, 2020(Fleming, , p. 1306, focusing on profitability, competitiveness, and efficiency (present) (Bone, 2021). Negotiating in-between these different sets of ideals highlights the "cruelty of the precarious impasse" (Bone, 2021). In fact, Bone (2021) describes precarious employment as an ontological state of "ongoing crisis" or "crisis ordinariness.…”

“…Negotiating in-between these different sets of ideals highlights the "cruelty of the precarious impasse" (Bone, 2021). In fact, Bone (2021) describes precarious employment as an ontological state of "ongoing crisis" or "crisis ordinariness. "…”

Workplace Injury and the Failing Academic Body: A Testimony of Pain

“…However, a growing number of studies are exploring the psychosocial costs of university work such as stress (Kinman, 2001 ; Oketunji, 2014 ; Pignata et al, 2018 ; Watts & Robertson, 2011 ), alongside declining academic work conditions under neoliberal capitalism (Connell, 2014 ; Giroux, 2014 ; Ratle et al, 2020 ). This line of inquiry has observed that university staff around the world are reporting growing work-related stress due to the increased casualisation and precarity of the workforce (Bone, 2020 ), external funding pressures, and competition (Pignata et al, 2018 ). In particular, widely reported suicides in universities in the past decade led to inquiries of the seeming ‘epidemic of poor mental health’ across universities in the United Kingdom (Morrish, 2019 ), with similar trends observed in United States, New Zealand, and Australia.…”