Academic career making and the double-edged role of academic housework

ABSTRACT

Internationalisation, competition and performance orientation are nowadays essential in the managing and financing of universities. This pattern has intensified with the austerity measures and fiscal consolidation that followed the financial crisis in 2008. This article examines the academic labour process and career making of academics from a gender perspective. Based on findings deriving from an Icelandic University, we argue that the austerity measures and increased focus on becoming one of the top universities in the world has changed the official responsibilities of academics. We show how ‘academic housework’ affects academic capital and how the amount of academic housework is unequally distributed between senior academics and newcomers. While the majority of academics conform to this contemporary academic system, marginalised groups put up some resistance but with limited success.

KEYWORDS:

• Academic capital
• austerity measures
• excellence
• gender
• performance orientation
• Iceland

Acknowledgements

We thank the academics that gave us access to their valuable time and important reflections. We express our gratitude to our colleagues, Guðný Gústafsdóttir and Thomas Brorsen Smidt, for their collaboration.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) [grant number 611737].