Emerging Neoliberal Academic Identities: Looking beyond "Homo Economicus"

Autor/in	Skea, Claire
Titel	Emerging Neoliberal Academic Identities: Looking beyond "Homo Economicus"
Quelle	In: Studies in Philosophy and Education, 40 (2021) 4, S.399-414 (16 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Zusatzinformation	ORCID (Skea, Claire)
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0039-3746
DOI	10.1007/s11217-021-09768-7
Schlagwörter	Neoliberalism; Universities; Professional Identity; College Faculty; Collegiality; Competition; Productivity; Accountability + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Neo-liberalism; Neoliberalismus; University; Universität; Fakultät; Kollegialität; Wettkampf; Produktivität; Verantwortung
Abstract	In this article, I deal with the notion of 'academic identity' holistically, seeking to bring together the teacher and researcher roles of academics in the neoliberal university. The article begins from the perspective of early-career academics who occupy the majority of fixed-term, teaching-only contracts in Higher Education, arguing that such casualisation of academic labour entrenches the role of the academic as "Homo economicus." Drawing on the work of Foucault, I demonstrate how a neoliberal governmentality is now not only exerted upon academics from without, but increasingly they are subjecting themselves to the logic of efficiency and effectiveness too. The neoliberal governmentality of the university thus influences and shapes academic subjectivities, such that what it means to "be" an academic is confined to this marketised logic. Despite the pressures placed on academics to 'produce' measurable outputs and demonstrate their impact, I argue that moving beyond "Homo economicus" is possible, arguing instead for a re-claiming of 'the academic' as "Homo academicus." The idea of "Homo academicus" can only be supported when three conditions are present: collegiality is afforded greater importance than competition; the discourses of 'productivity' and performativity are balanced against simply 'doing good work well' (Pirrie in Virtue and the quiet art of scholarship, Routledge, London, 2019), and; academics are mindful to practice the 'quieter' intellectual virtues, including the virtue of 'unknowing' (Smith in J Philos Educ 50:272-284, 2016). (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2024/1/01