Cutting NSF Is Like Liquidating Your Finest Investment
Look closely at your mobile phone or tablet. Touch-screen technology, speech recognition, digital sound recording and the internet were all developed using […]
De profundis
At the moment, some universities do seem to be very happy with quite a lot of inequality. Apparently, universities are even more likely than other employers to make extensive use of zero-hour contracts. This coincides in a striking manner with reports about a growing elitism in British academia.
The Sociologist, the Consultant, the University and the Real World
In the context of consulting projects there may be very little room for the sociological imagination, the questioning of common sense, and, least of all, challenges to the status quo.
Universities for the Post-Democratic Age
Critical scholarship and intellectual dissent are currently being closed down in favour of a model of academic life that accords scholars a limited role as purveyors of practically useful skills in ‘real-world’ labour markets.
Can Brands be Intellectuals?
As an academic, you are a brand not only as a matter of choice, but, increasingly, due to powerful institutional imperatives that are becoming harder and harder to ignore.
The Myth of Academic Stardom
The recent and on-going reforms of higher education are enforcing an individualisation of academic labour. That academics would gamely play along with such a system is astonishing.
The Branded Sociologist: Can We Still Be On Anyone’s Side?
Sociology is a brand. To survive or even thrive in the academic marketplace, sociology needs to take care of its image. But at what cost?
So Much Noise: Are Academics being Over-Branded?
The Ivory Tower has been toppled and academia has an impact in the ‘real world’. The problem is that this may have come at the expense of truly innovative and critical scholarship.
