Why do academics do unfunded research? Resistance, compliance and identity in the UK neo-liberal university
Why do academics do unfunded research? Resistance, compliance and identity in the UK neo-liberal university
This article explores the understandings of academics who carry out unfunded research and the nature of their academic identity, in a context where research funding is realigned to government and corporate needs, and the academic career is recast as an entrepreneurial project. It draws on in-depth interviews with academics working in UK universities, at different career stages in a range of disciplines. Main findings include that research is ‘self-funded’ rather than unfunded, and that participants often decided not to apply for external funding. A major reason for this was a sense of resistance motivated by intellectual creativity and flexible autonomy. At the same time, unfunded research also could be compliance with a neo-liberalised university agenda, viewed as entrepreneurial. Unfunded research can be viewed as a way of managing tensions between wanting and needing to do research, throwing light on the identity of being a contemporary intellectual-entrepreneurial academic in the neo-liberalised university.
Unfunded research, resistance and compliance, neo-liberal university, academic identity, knowledge economy
Edwards, Rosalind
e43912c0-f149-4457-81a9-9c4e00a4bb42
Edwards, Rosalind
e43912c0-f149-4457-81a9-9c4e00a4bb42
Edwards, Rosalind
(2020)
Why do academics do unfunded research? Resistance, compliance and identity in the UK neo-liberal university.
Studies in Higher Education.
(doi:10.1080/03075079.2020.1817891).
Abstract
This article explores the understandings of academics who carry out unfunded research and the nature of their academic identity, in a context where research funding is realigned to government and corporate needs, and the academic career is recast as an entrepreneurial project. It draws on in-depth interviews with academics working in UK universities, at different career stages in a range of disciplines. Main findings include that research is ‘self-funded’ rather than unfunded, and that participants often decided not to apply for external funding. A major reason for this was a sense of resistance motivated by intellectual creativity and flexible autonomy. At the same time, unfunded research also could be compliance with a neo-liberalised university agenda, viewed as entrepreneurial. Unfunded research can be viewed as a way of managing tensions between wanting and needing to do research, throwing light on the identity of being a contemporary intellectual-entrepreneurial academic in the neo-liberalised university.
Text
2020 08 04 article revised untracked
- Accepted Manuscript
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Accepted/In Press date: 7 August 2020
e-pub ahead of print date: 8 September 2020
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Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Society for Research into Higher Education.
Keywords:
Unfunded research, resistance and compliance, neo-liberal university, academic identity, knowledge economy
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Local EPrints ID: 443226
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/443226
ISSN: 0307-5079
PURE UUID: 7559c0c9-d62b-4a8a-ae31-50fd2af3e1fe
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Date deposited: 18 Aug 2020 16:30
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 05:48
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