The McUniversity: Organization, Management and Academic Subjectivity

Abstract

This paper uses elements of Weberian and Foucauldian social theory to speculate on the consequences of recent higher education change in the UK. We argue that changes in the political, institutional and funding environment have produced forms of HE organization that increase the power of management and diminish the autonomy of professional academics. These new forms of organization, which are increasingly bureaucratic and utilize sophisticated systems of surveillance, will make academics increasingly instrumental in their attitudes and behaviour. We conclude that the rationalization of HE should be resisted, but that nostalgia for a previous order should not be part of that resistance. `Mass' higher education organizations are not simply good or bad, but their rationale and consequences need to be clearly thought through if their negative aspects are to be addressed.

What Curriculum for Mobility and Transport Studies? A Critical Exploration

“…We have argued that this is an important debate because it will lead to higher levels of selfreflection in this increasingly more complex and vast field of research and practice. It is an important debate also because today universities are under strong pressure to become more competitive, to be more capable of achieving tangible economic results, and to have improved capacity to deliver effective teaching (Parker and Jary, 1995;Schimank, 2005;Whitley and Glaser, 2007). Academic curricula might end up being designed in an environment excessively influenced by such managerial circumstances, and not by careful academic reflection.…”

Knowing through reflective practice in higher education

“…During this period the debate about research degrees has accelerated in both official reports (Harris, 1996) and the pages of the education trade press (notably in the Times Higher Educational Supplement). Lecturers, particularly in the post-1992 institutions, were under increased pressure from managerialist regimes (Parker & Jary, 1995). However, apparent managerialism was tempered by lecturers using professional and discipline based sources of legitimation to ensure that implementation took place on terms more congenial to the mass of practitioners (Prichard & Willmott, 1997;Enders, 1999).…”

Being social in organizational studies: the early works of Stewart Clegg

“…Information was only accessible through visits to libraries and therefore the physical location of the authors had an influence on the ideas to which they were exposed and the material they The emergence of an academic "publishing game" (e.g. journals competing for ranking requiring the inclusion of a sizable number of citations to articles published in the same journals) which can make or break and academic career (Starbuck 2005), together with the McDonaldisation of academic knowledge (Parker and Jary 1995) driven by the growing importance of metrics and the dominant role played by publications in academic career advancements, has also produced new institutional norms perpetuated through the indoctrination practices of aspirant academics. It is noteworthy that at the time of writing and editing these six books Clegg had authored very few journal articles.…”