The social organisation of boasting in the neoliberal university

ABSTRACT

This article unpacks the social construction of the ‘ideal academic’ in the context of major shifts in the global and national governance of academia that have introduced managerial practices, standardised notions of excellence and accounting logics with the aim of increasing the efficiency and quality of higher education and academic knowledge production. More specifically it explores how the enacting of this ideal involves practices of boasting and explores how people are differently positioned in that regard. Drawing on a three-year ethnographic study at Aalto University in Finland the article shows how boasting involves the (re)production of gendered and classed social inequalities and leads to increasing polarisation between those who succeed and those who fail to meet the new quality standards. I draw on the resources of Institutional Ethnography which enables me to analyse the social relations of gender and class and show how culturally and situationally specific forms of boasting, become textually recognised and encouraged as appropriate behaviour for the ‘ideal academic’.

KEYWORDS:

• Boasting
• the neoliberal university
• gender and class relations
• institutional ethnography
• Finland

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Rebecca Lund currently holds an Academy of Finland postdoc position in Gender Studies, Tampere University, Finland. Her work focuses on Epistemic injustice in Feminist Knowledge production, gender and intersectionality in academia and Institutional Ethnography. Her latest passions include Feminist love studies, Indigenous feminisms and methodology. Lund recently became co-editor in chief of NORA: Nordic Journal of Feminist and Gender Research (August 2018–August 2020).

ORCID

Rebecca Lund http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7068-6090

Notes

1 Refers to Aalto University, and the particular ‘rhetoric of excellence or grandiosity’ that shapes communication on the university websites, events, speeches and brochures.

2 Such texts are defined broadly by Smith (2005), as every material replicable thing that may transport a message or intent across different sites to differently located people, who can then pick it up, read it, listen to it or write it, and in that act interpret it and activate it. It may be policy documents, organisational strategies, evaluation standards, questionnaires, forms to be filled in, emails, audio files, films, brochures, websites etc.

3 Aalto University is a flagship project in the recent higher educational reforms in Finland and is an excellent example of a neoliberal university dedicated to becoming world class.

4 https://inside.aalto.fi/display/tapahtumat/Aalto+High5 and https://inside.aalto.fi/display/CurrentAffairs/Nominations+for+the+Aalto+High+5+award

5 See http://www.aalto.fi/en/about/careers/tenure_track/evaluation/ (accessed February 5, 2016).

6 The combination of direct talk and non-conflict may in some cultures seem a contradiction, as to a non-Finn the directness can seem insensitive, rude and provoking. Through direct and concise talk you give the other a chance to change their behaviour and manner. Directness can thus be seen as an expression of loyalty towards the relationship. The directness is not equally expressed in all relations. Despite Finland being a relatively progressive country it has limited protest culture.

7 The Law of Jante, consisting of ten commandments, was formulated in the early twentieth century and has been seen to define the Nordic people. It is a law that defies individualism, in favour of collective orientation: You're not to think you are anything special.