The Transformation of Academic Work: Fractured Futures? (Palgrave Critical University Studies)

This book offers a unique grounded analysis of recent crises and transformations in academic work. It charts international and Australia-based efforts to overcome academic fragmentation and precarity, and to advance agendas for the public university. It is based on extensive qualitative interviews with academics and managers across several universities in Australia. It finds new grounds for ‘universal’ universities, with decent jobs, to serve the public good. The book is aimed at students and scholars from sociology, education, politics and industrial relations, and a wider readership concerned about the future of universities. Analysis centres on a trade union-led initiative in Australia aimed at decasualising universities, and ensuing debates about the impact of academic fragmentation. The authors argue for strengthening the teaching/research nexus as the foundation-stone for public purpose universities. Foreword Acknowledgements Contents About the Authors Abbreviations List of Tables 1 Introduction Introduction Generative Analysis Book Structure A Note About the Research and Researchers Terminology References 2 The Crisis of Higher Education: International and Australian Introduction The Crisis as a Global Phenomenon Building High Participation Systems Declining State Support Per Domestic Student Widening the Net Internationally Intra- and International Competition and Ranking The Shaping of the Neoliberal University Redistribution of Resources and New Sources of Revenue Commodification of Education and Destabilisation Doing Academic Work in the Audit Culture Unbundling of Universities and the Creation of Para-Academics Unbundling Courses and the Emergence of Para-Academics Unbundled Roles and the Rise of Teaching-Focused Positions Conclusion References 3 Struggles Against the Precariousness and Fragmentation of Academic Work Introduction Precarious Work in Universities Weak Employment Security Poverty Wages Stagnant Labour Market Little Support for Career Development Academic Work as a Health Hazard Collective Representation Cultures that Preclude Care and Solidarity Resisting the Corporate University Model Union Structure and Regulatory Environment for Organising Demanding to Be Seen: Visibility for Contingent Staff Politicising Precarity A Stronger Collective Voice: Surge in Militancy Among University Workers Better Pay and Conditions for Contingent Workers Resisting the Rationalisation and Intensification of Academic Work Teaching-Focused Roles as a Path Out of Precarity? References 4 The Australian Context and Background to the Research Introduction A Union Faced with an Increasingly Casualised Membership Changing University Landscape The Union’s Representation in Universities Activity and Demands for Representation from Casual Academic Members Mixed Assessment of the STF Initiative Methodology and Scoping Analysis Documenting Sector Impact: Scoping the Study Site Selection and Interviewee Demographic Analysis of Interview Data Conclusion References 5 From Precarity to Security? ‘We’ve Got to Do a Better Job for the Casuals’ Introduction Impacts of Precarious Work Impacts of Financial Insecurity Professional Exclusion Teaching-focused Continuing Roles: A Pragmatic Response Income Security, at What Cost? Extreme Workloads Personal and Health Impacts Equity and Compliance Issues Career Insecurity Conclusions: Understanding the Dimensions of Precarity References 6 Managerial Motivations and Contexts Introduction Management Drivers for Teaching-focused Roles Decasualisation Commitment and Continuity Selection Criteria and Expectations Cost Incentives Industry Experience Prioritising Teaching? Unbundling Roles to Game Research Metrics The Limited Prospects for a Teaching-Focused Career From the Teaching-Research Nexus to the “Scholarship of Teaching” The Myths of Leadership and Innovation Conclusions: Towards an “Excellence Strategy”? References 7 Silence in the Academy? Impacts of Role Fragmentation Introduction Recomposing the Academic Workforce Displacing Research-and-Teaching Roles Benefits of Specialisation? A Budget-Saving Measure Research and Scholarship Requirements Hierarchies of Academic Work A Teaching-Focused Career? Redefining Academic Work? Impact on Casualisation A Dead-End for Academics? Conclusion References 8 Teaching and Research in the Twenty-First-Century University Introduction The Purpose of Universities The Role of an Academic Teaching and the ‘Research Culture’ Conclusion: Revisiting the NTEU Decasualisation Strategy Reference 9 Conclusion Introduction Decasualisation Renewed? Advancing the Agenda References Index