Precarity and identity in the ivory tower: exploring the effects of performative pressures in UK and French business schools

Gribling Marinova, Maria (2018). Precarity and identity in the ivory tower: exploring the effects of performative pressures in UK and French business schools. University of Birmingham. Ph.D.

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Abstract

Recent marketization trends in Higher Education trigger concerns about growing precarity of the academic profession. Global pressures from reputational mechanisms such as international rankings and accreditations underpin the risk of institutional isomorphism and a possible convergence of academic career paths. This thesis draws from a comparative empirical study of academic careers in UK and French Business Schools and focuses on two areas of inquiry. The first study demonstrates how context-bound career scripts, their validation mechanisms, and the margins they allow for individual agency variously shape permeable and impermeable career boundaries and mechanisms for precarity, and condition the agentic behaviour of academics. I argue that the particular ways in which performance incentives and punishments are balanced in each country under supranational competitive pressures produce different results in terms of segregation and casualization of academics. The second study explores identity responses of female faculty to performative pressures in the two countries and the strategies they adopt to reconcile compliance with managerialist requirements and their own need for recognition and meaningful work in what is traditionally seen as a gendered professional environment. My contributions deepen the understanding of contextual responses to international challenges and highlight the implications for academics and institutions.

Type of Work:

Thesis (Doctorates > Ph.D.)

Award Type:

Doctorates > Ph.D.

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