Collegiality as collective affect: who carries the burden of the labour of attunement?

ABSTRACT

Collegiality is at the heart of the academy’s collective endeavour. It is central to how we think about academic governance structures, academic cultures, as well as the norms guiding academic work. This paper examines the less-explored affective dimensions of collegiality, probing the relationship between the collegial affect and the power and hierarchy in modern corporate universities. Three interview accounts describing academic practices in Australian universities are analysed to examine collegiality as academics’ capacity to attune to certain collective affects. This analysis demonstrates how collegial relations can reproduce exclusion in universities. Alternative types of relations that are attentive to differences are then examined, charting possible new directions for a more inclusive academy.

KEYWORDS:

• Collegiality
• academic practice
• affect
• attunement
• difference
• exclusion

Disclosure statement

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