Identifying top researchers in highly metricized academia: two discursive strategies of senior officials in Poland

ABSTRACT

Our study examines the discursive construction of academic subjectivity within the context of the current reforms of academia, driven by the forces of economization and metricization. We focus in particular on the construction of two models of top researchers. Drawing from the theory of Pierre Bourdieu, we call these models ‘autonomous’ and ‘heteronomous’. We investigate 22 in-depth interviews and construct the ideal types of two discursive strategies that Polish senior academic officials use to build the respective models. We also inspect the empirical signs of a tension between those strategies, as well as three ways to deal with limited levels of this tension: using disclaimers, leaving the tension unaddressed, and attempting to reconcile the two strategies. Further, we demonstrate how a high-level tension results in a discursive split, which can be hypothetically linked to the divided habitus of some Polish academics.

KEYWORDS:

• Top researchers
• research evaluation
• discursive strategies
• heteronomy
• autonomy
• senior officials

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 This group was comprised of 1 rector, 5 deputy rectors, 1 head of a PAS institute, 3 deputy heads, 5 deans, and 7 deputy deans. Elsewhere in the paper, we omit the deputy titles for brevity.

2 The figures in square brackets indicate the number of the interview in question. The figures refer to the initial pool of 46 interviews (from which we have selected 22 interviews for a more detailed analysis).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Science Centre in Poland under grant UMO-2017/26/E/HS2/00019; narodowe centrum nauki.