Symbolic Violence in Academic Life: A Study on How Junior Scholars are Educated in the Art of Getting Funded

It is widely recognized that universities all around Europe have taken on a more market-oriented approach that has changed the core of academic work life. This has led to a precarious situation for many junior scholars, who have to seek research funding to cover their own wages in an increasingly fi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inMinerva (London) Vol. 57; no. 2; pp. 197 - 218
Main Author Roumbanis, Lambros
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Dordrecht Springer 01.06.2019
Springer Netherlands
Springer Nature B.V
Subjects
Aggression
Barriers
Beginning Teachers
Careers
College Faculty
Colleges & universities
Competition
Entrepreneurship
Financial Support
Foreign Countries
Funding
Higher Education
Junior scholars
Markets
Novices
Peer review
Performance management
Power Structure
Research funding
Scholarship
Science and Technology Studies
Social Sciences
Socialization
sociologi
Sociology
Symbolic violence
Teacher Researchers
Violence
Sweden
Symbolic violence
Junior scholars
Peer review
Higher education
Performance management
Research funding
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Summary:It is widely recognized that universities all around Europe have taken on a more market-oriented approach that has changed the core of academic work life. This has led to a precarious situation for many junior scholars, who have to seek research funding to cover their own wages in an increasingly fierce competition over scarce resources. Thus, at present, research funding is a Gordian knot that must be cut by each individual researcher. As a response to this situation, some Swedish universities provide guidance to junior scholars on how to navigate in an increasingly entrepreneurial academia through open lectures by senior and successful professors. In this paper, I study these lectures as socialization processes and the role of symbolic violence in the justification of a competitive academic work ethos as well as a pragmatic acceptance of the prevailing funding conditions. The aim is to explore the role of a subtle form of power wielding that is not immediately understood or recognized as power, but that nonetheless reproduces a market-like behavior and legitimizes a career system marked by uncertainty, shortcomings and contradictions.
ISSN:0026-4695
1573-1871
1573-1871
DOI:10.1007/s11024-018-9364-2