Visibilities and invisibilities in academic work and career building

Abstract

In the current turbulent higher education environment, academic work and career building are in a state of flux. The implementation of the principles of New Public Management have intensified managerial control over academic work. Growing dependence on external funding and metrics-based performance assessments have made career building increasingly competitive, selective, and risky. Disciplinary and organisational boundaries have been dissolving as interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral ways of collaboration have become policy priorities. These trends have challenged visible boundaries between disciplines, organisations, sectors, work tasks and academic roles. However, at the same time, new visible and invisible boundaries are being established. In spite of declaring to bring visibility, openness and transparency to academic work and career trajectories, the managerial university invokes new invisibilities which can reproduce some deeply-rooted visible hierarchies. This Special Issue explores the complex interplay between visibilities and invisibilities in academic work and career building. The six articles tackle this question from the perspective of interdisciplinary research, new notions of an ideal academic, resistance to managerial demands, doctoral education, the emergence of invisible researchers, and scholarly profession in different sectors.