'Successful' academics narrating themselves: Work identities in managerial times
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.64966/rl.2268Keywords:
academic work, labor identity, managerialism, university, researchAbstract
Academic work has undergone profound transformations. The implementation of management systems based on accountability through indicators and performance outcomes has reshaped not only university work itself but also the labor identities of those who perform it. Chile constitutes a particularly relevant case due to the early and sustained institutionalization of managerial mechanisms in higher education. This article examines how 36 highly established academics, holding the highest academic ranks across 13 of the country’s 14 research-intensive and doctoral-granting universities, and engaged simultaneously in research and teaching, narratively construct their labor identities within the contemporary university context. Analysis of the narrative-discursive interviews showed that, although participants question the effects of quantification and accountability mechanisms on academic work, they continue to rely on those same indicators to narrate their trajectories and justify their academic worth. The article discusses the fragile development of alternative repertoires to managerial modes of valuing academic work, as well as the need to foster dialogical processes that enable their construction and legitimation.
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