Deepening understandings of Bourdieu’s academic and intellectual capital through a study of academic voice within academic governance

ABSTRACT

This article presents comparative empirical data from England, the US and Australia on academic boards (also known as faculty senates or academic senates) to highlight ways in which changes within contemporary academic governance effect a diminution of academic voice within decision-making about and that affects teaching and research. Drawing on Bourdieu’s notions of academic and intellectual capital, it highlights the limited capacity of analyses of university power relations that are predicated upon managerial and collegial governance as being at opposite ends of a spectrum to account for the multiple academics who have taken up line management or executive-level roles, and the many practising academics who undertake quite substantial administrative roles alongside their teaching and research. The article concludes by arguing that a more nuanced reading of Bourdieu’s academic and intellectual capital, combined with his concept of the divided habitus, offers significant potential for a deeper understanding of the complex ways in which the asymmetries of power within universities are developed and maintained. In turn, this opens the way to transformational academic governance practices that could reassert academic voice within decision-making about academic matters.

KEYWORDS:

• Universities
• governance
• academic voice
• Bourdieu

Acknowledgements

The author acknowledges The Warrnambool Collective group of researchers for their ongoing encouragement and support. Thanks are due to the three Australian and two US universities that generously participated in this research and to all those who were interviewed. Thanks are also due to Dr Shaun Rawolle for comments on an earlier draft of the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

The author thanks the Faculty of Arts and Education at Deakin University for the academic study programme funding that enabled the US fieldwork to take place.