The boiled frog and the dodo

Docherty, Thomas

doi:10.1080/08109028.2016.1222127

Cited by 4 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 8 publications

(3 reference statements)

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“…Students in the 1960s achieved some extraordinary successes in confronting campus autocracy. But the struggles around free speech, democratic representation and progressive education have been ongoing, with managerialism now resurgent (Brandist, 2017;Docherty, 2016;Gerber, 2014;Tucker, 2012). Recent years have seen 'total administration' (Marcuse, 1986(Marcuse, [1964: 7) in education extend well beyond the repression of unruly students to include intensive control over academics and their intellectual labour using processes reminiscent of Soviet autocracy.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The dynamics of managerialism and neoliberalism are hence closely intertwined (Klikauer, 2013; Lorenz, 2012). It is ironic, therefore, that political control in universities – the nerve centres of the knowledge economy – would become so severe that parallels are drawn with abusive, dishonest and discredited Soviet management structures (Brandist, 2017; Docherty, 2016; Martin, 2016: 10). We are drawing a figurative comparison between the new dynamics of university governance and Soviet totalitarianism.…”

Section: ‘The Operation Of the Machine’: Understanding Kerr’s Knowledmentioning

confidence: 99%

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‘Upon the gears and upon the wheels’: Terror convergence and total administration in the neoliberal university

McCann

Granter²,

Hyde

et al. 2020

Management Learning

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University governance is becoming increasingly autocratic as marketization intensifies. Far from the classical ideal of a professional collegium run according to academic norms, today’s universities feature corporate cultures and senior leadership teams disconnected from both staff and students, and intolerant of dissenting views. This is not a completely new phenomenon. In 1960s America, senior leaders developed a technocratic and managerialist model of the university, in keeping with theories around the ‘convergence’ of socio-economic systems towards a pluralist ‘industrial society’. This administrative-managerial vision was opposed by radical students, triggering punitive responses that reflected how universities’ control measures were at the time mostly aimed at students. Today, their primary target is academics. Informed by Critical Theory and based on an autoethnographic account of a university restructuring programme, we argue that the direction of convergence in universities has not been towards liberal, pluralist, democracy but towards neo-Stalinist organizing principles. Performance measurements – ‘targets and terror’ – are powerful mechanisms for the expansion of managerial power or, in Marcuse’s words, ‘total administration’. Total administration in the contemporary university damages teaching, learning, workplace democracy and freedom of speech on campus, suggesting that the critique of university autocracy by 1960s students and scholars remains highly relevant.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: ‘The Operation Of the Machine’: Understanding Kerr’s Knowledmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘Upon the gears and upon the wheels’: Terror convergence and total administration in the neoliberal university

McCann

Granter²,

Hyde

et al. 2020

Management Learning

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“…Our findings draw particular attention to the prevailing external policy environment as a powerful counter-legitimating force for RI institutionalisation (Eizagirre et al, 2017), where an overwhelming political priority in the UK has been for publicly-funded research to instrumentally and unreflexively fuel innovation through a 'technologymarket dyad' (Pfotenhauer and Juhl, 2017) aimed at economic growth, productivity and national prosperity (Docherty, 2016;Perkmann et al, 2013;Pfotenhauer et al, 2019;Taylor and Woods, 2020;UKRI, 2019).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

“…This increasingly vies with a 'utilitarian' logic associated with strategic research and such concepts as the entrepreneurial (and occasionally civic) university, a logic which is particularly engrained in research intensive universities (Shields and Watermeyer, 2018). Finally, a 'managerial' logic, aligned with new public management practices (Docherty, 2016), reflects universities as increasingly bureaucratic, centralised and competitive organisations (Martin, 2016;McCann et al, 2020). Such logics heavily influence and configure behaviours and practices, which over time become embedded, routinised and repetitive, in turn maintaining institutions 1 associated with them (Lawrence and Suddaby, 2006).…”

Section: The Context For Ri Institutionalisationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It is important to note that institutionalisation does not necessarily require dramatic crises. It can also arise from the accumulation of endogenous, gradual and incremental 'creeping changes' (Docherty, 2016;Streeck and Thelan, 2005) and be a generative product of the mundane ''doing'' of everyday work. Likewise, legitimacy challenges in themselves do not straightforwardly lead to change (Dacin et al, 2002).…”

Section: Ri and The Dynamics Of Organisational Changementioning

confidence: 99%

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Organisational institutionalisation of responsible innovation

et al. 2021

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We describe the institutionalisation of responsible innovation (RI) over the last decade at the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and universities funded by it as a focal point for RI in the UK. Drawing on organisational theory we identify factors influencing the dynamics of RI institutionalisation, including forces of legitimation, entrepreneurship and decoupling. We report significant institutionalisation at the EPSRC prior to 2013, when it published its RI policy. Notwithstanding instances of experimentation and assimilation since, we report limited institutionalisation within research communities in universities as RI has encountered competing institutional logics, responsibility norms and epistemic practices. Our findings suggest an ongoing and dynamic process of translation that reflects RI's status as a performative and contested discourse 'in the making'.

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The value of industrial relations research(ers): Activism inside and outside the UK Academy

Thomas,

Turnbull

2024

Industrial Relations

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Based on an in‐depth study of the lived experiences of industrial relations (IR) researchers in the United Kingdom, we demonstrate that IR has survived and thrived as a result of activism both inside and outside the academy. By adapting teaching and research to reflect the contemporary problems for labor, appropriating the study of human resource management, and creating synergies between service, teaching and learning, and both pure and applied research, the field of IR has experienced renewed intellectual vitality. The activism of IR academics in the United Kingdom signifies a promising future and an experience that IR research(ers) elsewhere can draw on.

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The boiled frog and the dodo

Cited by 4 publications

References 8 publications

‘Upon the gears and upon the wheels’: Terror convergence and total administration in the neoliberal university

‘Upon the gears and upon the wheels’: Terror convergence and total administration in the neoliberal university

Organisational institutionalisation of responsible innovation

The value of industrial relations research(ers): Activism inside and outside the UK Academy

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