Abstract
This paper primarily deals with the relationships between academics and their university in European countries. The aim of this paper is therefore not to produce new results but provide a synthesis of the main trends that can be identified from the literature and then suggest what can be borrowed from sociological theories to highlight the on-going evolutions. The first section of the paper reviews the main results to be drawn from previous research on this issue and focuses on the management of academic careers and the management of academic activities at the university level. The second section suggests alternative interpretative frameworks to be borrowed from sociological theory in order to complete the already existing research and develop new perspectives to explain and interpret these changes in the relationships between academics and their institutions. Four perspectives are successively explored particularly useful here: a sociology of work; a labor market perspective; an analysis in terms of careers and trajectories and finally considerations about the traditional tension between organizations and professions.
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Notes
This means that issues such as the relationships between academics and society, or the interactions between the academic profession and firms, or the role of academics in the policy making will not be addressed here.
One could argue that this might better protect the academic profession from governmental interventions. Within the 20th century the interventions of the state on individual careers (mostly recruitment, and promotions) as well as the direct control over the content of academic activities considerably decreased. But until recently public authorities remained active in defining the scope of the professions (number of positions for instance) and its composition (how many historians, physicists, etc.). Such decisions are now in the hands of most European universities.
In the highly competitive call launched in Germany among universities to identify a small number (no more than 12) of institutions that will receive a large amount of resources (The “Exzellenzinitiative”), competing universities are expected to show that they improved their recruitment process by reducing its length, enlarging their search to international outreach, avoid “old boys” networking, promote women etc.
In the academic profession the segmentation between those more involved in teaching and those more involved in research probably always existed but they were no distinct categories and no formalized labeling of it.
We are not dealing here with the content of academic work, i.e. with what they teach or what their research is concerned with, but with the division of labor (who is doing what activity and who decided this person will achieve this task, him/her-self or someone else). Content is of course a crucial issue but will go far beyond the scope of this paper (changing relationships between academics and universities) and include relations to society, to economic partners, public policies on science, etc.
For instance the level of teaching duties according to national regulation or the often vague description of tasks related to a specific status.
For instance those reducing the role of the deliberative bodies.
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Musselin, C. Redefinition of the relationships between academics and their university. High Educ 65, 25–37 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-012-9579-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-012-9579-3