Power at the Interfaces: The Contested Orderings of Academic Presents and Futures in a Social Science Department

0434405 - SOÚ 2015 RIV GB eng J - Journal Article
Stöckelová, Tereza
Power at the Interfaces: The Contested Orderings of Academic Presents and Futures in a Social Science Department.
Higher Education Policy (The Quarterly Journal of the International Association of Universities). Roč. 27, č. 4 (2014), s. 435-451. ISSN 0952-8733. E-ISSN 1740-3863
R&D Projects: GA ČR(CZ) GAP404/11/0127
Institutional support: RVO:68378025
Keywords : audit * Czech Republic * modes of ordering
Subject RIV: AO - Sociology, Demography
Impact factor: 0.596, year: 2014

The changes in and transformations of academic institutions and practices we are currently witnessing are complex. I argue that there are no clear-cut historical transitions between different regimes of science, such as from the ‘public knowledge regime’ to ‘academic capitalism’. Drawing upon John Law’s analysis of ‘modes of ordering’, I investigated the multiplicity of academic realities at a leading social science department at a university in the Czech Republic. Using ethnographic data generated during my fieldwork in the department in 2006–2008, I explore how the modes of ordering operate and how they are strategically mobilised by different actors. In contrast to Law, I particularly focus on the interfaces and switches between modes, where, I observe, power is prominently enacted. I conclude by arguing that resistance to the rising managerial governance of universities cannot simply resort to citing the ‘traditional’ academic values of autonomy, vocation and internal quality but must also challenge those values.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0238476