Academic Resistance to the Neoliberal University

Abstract

As with other professions, the declining rates of recruitment and retention of lawyers in rural and regional Australia is of significant concern. Whilst the causes of this vary between communities, common depictions of the rural and regional lawyer’s role indicate that employment as a lawyer in such areas is characterised by unique personal and professional challenges. Nonetheless, employment as a rural and regional lawyer also offers practitioners rewarding opportunities and lifestyle benefits. Research from other disciplines indicates that the challenges inherent in rural and regional professional practice may be alleviated, and benefits more easily harnessed, via place conscious discipline-specific curriculum that sensitises tertiary students to, and prepares them for, the rural and regional career context. Largely oriented towards substantive content to satisfy external accrediting bodies, undergraduate legal education does not typically acknowledge the ‘places’ in which graduates will practice as professionals. This article argues however that there is scope to incorporate place within legal education, and documents an innovative curriculum development project which embeds place consciousness to better prepare law students for employment in rural and regional legal practice. Drawing upon methods from other disciplines, the project team designed a curriculum package which aims to sensitise students to the rural and regional legal practice context, and equip them with the skills to overcome challenges and take advantage of the opportunities available in a rural or regional professional career.

Diversity and Discrimination in Research Organizations: Theoretical Starting Points

“…A new managerialism tied to the introduction of Total Quality Management principles (Aspinwall and Owlia, 1997) -for example -as well as a marketization of the public sector have undermined the autonomy and independence of the academy and provoked considerable resistance among scholars. However, although the discriminatory effects of the so-called neoliberal working conditions in academic contexts is a burgeoning field of research (Pereira, 2016;Berg, Huijbens, and Larsen, 2016;Heath and Burdon, 2013;Craig, Amernic, and Tourish, 2014), there is clearly a dearth of studies addressing how the wider organizational culture associated with competitiveness, performance demands, or audit culture affects the perception of discrimination. As some studies suggest, especially vulnerable minorities are likely to be disproportionately affected by these more demanding, neoliberal work environments (Anderson, Gatwiri, and Townsend-Cross, 2019;Cech and Rothwell, 2020).…”

Academic Activism in the Wake of a Pandemic

“…The broad sweep of scholarly literature detailing neoliberal reforms in universities, while substantive, offers little discussion about strategies for resistance (Lucas, 2014; Shahjahan, 2014). Heath and Burdon (2013) argue that the lack of organized academic resistance to neoliberal management results from the hostile, precarious, and overloaded nature of academic work. Such conditions further strain, divide, and hierarchize staff on the basis of their employment status, creating class conflict between permanent and nonpermanent staff by positioning their interests as at odds with one another and thus reducing solidarity (Courtois & O'Keefe, 2015; Hoeller, 2014; Ivancheva, 2015; Kalfa et al, 2018; Schwartz, 2014).…”

“…We begin with an exploration into the neoliberal transformation of universities within Western countries. Conceptually, we draw on a range of critical perspectives from sociology, cultural studies, and critical education studies, which explicitly articulate the detrimental effects of such changes to universities and higher education more broadly (e.g., Caivano et al, 2016; Heath & Burdon, 2013; Morrish, 2017, 2020; Pan, 2020; Schwartz, 2014; Shahjahan, 2014). We argue that these neoliberal shifts have fundamentally changed the realities faced by early career academics such as ourselves.…”

Resistance as commitment. A reflective case study of teacher professionalism in neoliberal times

“…While feigning conformity and maintaining distance might enable the short-term survival of individuals, silence is a normalizing cultural force. In contrast, discussing shared struggles, naming unacceptable behaviors and actions, and responding to one another's troubling experiences as though they matter are powerful acts of much needed collective resistance (Fleming 2020;Heath and Burdon 2013). In Ursula's case, collective resistance is evident first in the solidarity between Ursula and the other Campus Coordinator during the team meeting, and again in the early morning consultation when Ursula is able to share her troubling experience with a responsive colleague.…”