Probationary citizenship in science, technology, engineering and mathematics in an Irish university: A disrupted patriarchal bargain?

Abstract

The model for the creation of knowledge in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) involves the near total career dependence by probationary citizens on senior academics. In this article such probationary citizens include those at the early career stage, mainly but not exclusively post-doctoral researchers (postdocs). Traditionally, the implicit assumption was that senior academics would facilitate their access to a permanent position in return for a time limited period of exploitation as part of an organisational patriarchal bargain. This article is concerned with exploring how these probationary citizens came to access temporary positions, their experience of them and their perception of their future. Drawing on qualitative data from 13 probationary citizens, men and women, on two to five-year contracts in an Irish case study university, it shows that regardless of how they accessed probationary citizenship, their future was uncertain with no guarantee of a permanent academic position. The article raises questions about the valorisation of the highly dependent relationships between probationary citizens and permanent STEM academics as the main model for the creation of knowledge in STEM.

Cross-national variations in postdoc precarity: An inquiry into the role of career structures and research funding models

“…It could also have gender implications since men are more likely than women to be in STEMM and have longer contracts and so more likely to access such permanent positions. A case study in STEM in one Irish university found that postdocs had frequently been ‘groomed’ by a permanent academic as an undergraduate, invited to do a PhD under their supervision, and then offered a postdoc under their sponsorship (O’Connor 2022).…”

The Tenure Track Model: Its Acceptance and Perceived Gendered Character

“…It is important to recognise that in Ireland, unlike, for example, in the United States [3] the tenure track model is only one of the ways of accessing permanent positions. In Ireland, as elsewhere, those on the TT avoid the plethora of fixed-term, contract positions, which are a consequence of increasing numbers of Ph.D. graduates trying to access a limited number of permanent academic positions [4]. However, the higher education system in Ireland is much smaller and less differentiated than in the United States, with implications for the appropriateness of a TT model.…”