Revisiting academic work and academic trajectories: Why? How?

1. Revisiting academic work and academic trajectories: Why? How? Christine Musselin (CSO, Sciences Po et CNRS) University of Kent, October 2012

2. Plan • Many studies but still some shadow issues • Towards a sociology of academic work • Academic trajectories/careers • The academic profession and other activities

3. 1. Many studies but still some shadow issues

4. 1. Many studies but still some shadow issues (1) • Comparing national settings to identify common trends • The threat to “permanent” positions • The increase in non-tenure-track faculty • What was previously considered a “normal career path” with a transition period becomes an exception • The variety in status is increasing because the employment of contingent staff is less regulated and more governed by local rules

5. 1. Many studies but still some shadow issues(2) • The development of institutional management expanding along with and superseding self-regulation • Last but not least, the academic profession has lost some of its prestige

6. 1. Many studies but still some shadow issues (3) • Some “shadow” Issues • Measuring evolution over time within a single country and between countries. • The “invisible” workforce: we lack descriptions and analyses of those working in this “secondary academic labor market” • Faculty members as citizens or private persons (some renewal with N. Gross).

7. 2. Towards a sociology of academic work

8. 2. Towards a sociology of academic work (1) • Analyzing Academic Activities • The divide between research and teaching. • Research activities as a profession or as a network • Teaching and pedagogy • Research against teaching

9. 2. Towards a sociology of academic work (2) • Academic work from a more comprehensive perspective • How academics articulate the tensions and complementarities between the many different tasks to be achieved. • Most of the time, academic activities have been approached with the sociology of professions: why not by the sociology of work. • Not much attention has been paid to issues such as the division of work among peers • Teaching and research as loosely coupled activities

10. 2. Towards a sociology of academic work (3) • Academic productivity • Scientometrics and bibliometrics have produced data on scientific productivity of academics • But they rarely look at the qualitative and quantitative impact of the transformation of academic work • Only few scholars, such as Paula Stephan, have observed how the transformation of academic labor markets is jeopardizing quality. • Even less look at the impact of the “industrialization” of teaching or of part time and adjuncts on the quality of teaching

11. 2. Towards a sociology of academic work (4) • The role of universities in the production of new norms (PhD of Simon Paye) • Universities as employers • Human resources offices as norms producers • Formalization of procedures (yearly assessment for instance) • Formalization of criteria • Formalization of career paths

12. 3. Academic trajectories

13. 3. Academic trajectories(1) • Most works on the academic labor markets describe how careers are structured by nation • More recently, • Some studies used the distinction between bounded (organizational) and boundaryless careers • In fact they oppose and separate what sociologists from the Chicago school considered as interdependent.

14. 3. Academic trajectories(2) • First potential development: bringing together labor markets, employment relationships, and organization of work • Second potential development: the transformation of careers using cohort analysis to compare trajectories and the odds of entry, promotions, and institutional mobility

15. 3. Academic trajectories(3) • An example (with M. Sabatier and F. Pigeyre) • Methodology • Comparison between four cohorts in three disciplines (management, history and physics): 1976-1977, 1986-1987, 1996-1997, 2006-2007 • Biographical interviews and statistical analysis • A stablepattern in the entrantsprofiles • Entrants are young, early and rapid and it is more and more so overtime • In physics, entrants are younger, earlier, and more rapid than in management and history

16. 3. Academic trajectories… (3) Age of access in physics for instance

17. 3. Academic trajectories(3) • An example (with M. Sabatier and F. Pigeyre) • Methodology • Comparison between four cohorts in three disciplines (management, history and physics): 1976-1977, 1986-1987, 1996-1997, 2006-2007 • Biographical interviews and statistical analysis • A stablepattern in the entrantsprofiles • Entrants are young, early and rapid and it is more and more so overtime • In physics, entrants are younger, earlier, and more rapid than in management and history

18. 3. Academic trajectories (3) Distribution by age and discipline in cohort 3 for instance

19. 3. Academic trajectories (4) • Profiles are stable overtime but the processes leading to access have deeply changed • A « vacancy chains » model in the 70s and 80s: • Many positions are created to face the first massification • Once a position is vacant, the next in the line got it • Seniority prevails • In the 90s and 200s • Creation of post-docs • Standardization of the process leading to a position • Young, early, rapid get a positions, but for the other, the longer they are post-docs, the less chance they have to get a position

20. 4. The academic profession and other Activities

21. 4. The aca. profession and other activities • Most of the time, the academic profession has been studied as autonomous and specific • It has seldom been compared with other professions, until recently • Some research deals with the transformation of work in firms • Others focus on the transformation of academics into knowledge workers • New perspectives ?

22. Thank you very much !