The Academic Productivist Regime: Affective Dynamics in the Moral-Political Economy of Publishing

Lorenz-Meyer, Dagmar

doi:10.1080/09505431.2018.1455821

Cited by 13 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…But this emphasis on production is neither taken for granted nor beyond criticism; indeed, a central focus of the critique that runs as a thread throughout the material is of the ability to produce being prioritized above well-being, mental health, or care for one's community, and of unequal access to the possibility of such productivity. In this respect there are parallels with the literature that has analyzed the rise of "excellence" narratives within academia (Lund, 2015), discussed expectations of entrepreneurialism, self-reliance, and individual responsibility (Hakala, 2009;Loveday, 2017), or discussed current affective regimes of academic practice (Lorenz-Meyer, 2018). In such accounts, as in the material analyzed here, academics are expected to take personal responsibility for their careers, prioritizing the production of "excellent" research in order to ensure access to stable, long-term positions.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 92%

“…Much of this literature has thus been concerned, explicitly or implicitly, with questions of equity and diversity (Ackers, 2008;Leemann, 2010;Heijstra et al, 2017;Angervall and Beach, 2018), as it suggests that only some people can afford-financially, emotionally, or intellectually-to maintain an existence within academia as it is currently instantiated. Relatedly, it has been argued that the emotional tenor of academic life has become skewed toward anxiety and a sense of insecurity, and away from practices of care or support (Cardozo, 2017;Lorenz-Meyer, 2018;Ivancheva et al, 2019).…”

Section: Life and Work In The Contemporary Academymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Chaos, Care, and Critique: Performing the Contemporary Academy During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Davies

2021

Front. Commun.

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The starting point for this article is that the COVID-19 global pandemic has brought normally invisible, taken-for-granted aspects of contemporary societies into sharp relief. I explore the analytical affordances of this moment through a focus on the nature of the contemporary academy, asking how this was performed on “academic Twitter” in the early months of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, therefore contributing to work that has characterized contemporary university, research practice, and social media discussion of this. I draw on a dataset of tweets from academic Twitter, systematically downloaded between 1 March and 24 July 2020, that are concerned with the pandemic, analyzing these through a qualitative, multimodal, and practice-oriented approach. I identify themes of the disruption of academic work, of care and care practices, and of critiques of injustice and inequity within academia, but also argue that the ways in which these topics are instantiated—through distinctive repertoires of humor and of emotional honesty, positivity, and gratitude—are central to performances of academic life. The analysis thus further contributes to studies of communication to and by other publics, and in particular, the ways in which the content and form of social media communication are intertwined.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 92%

Section: Life and Work In The Contemporary Academymentioning

confidence: 99%

Chaos, Care, and Critique: Performing the Contemporary Academy During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Davies

2021

Front. Commun.

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“…Recent studies of both natural sciences and STS have started to explore notions of care as integral to academic practice. This work emphasizes that experiences of academia are affective and intimate, relating to questions of togetherness, identity, and self-worth (Lorenz-Meyer 2018;Schikowitz 2021). Care is central to these accounts: one might, for instance, care for one's research subjects (Friese 2013), one's colleagues (Davies and Horst 2015), one's data (Pinel, Prainsack, and McKevitt 2020), or one's own well-being or career (Fochler and Sigl 2018;Schönbauer 2020).…”

Section: Care In the Academymentioning

confidence: 99%

Pinboarding the Pandemic: Experiments in Representing Autoethnography

et al. 2022

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This visual essay draws on an autoethnographic study to present snapshots of mundane academic practice during the pandemic, using these to reflect on care and care practices within academia. Our approach is inspired by a “pinboard” (Law 2007): we use an echo of the two-dimensional space the pinboard offers to present our material through logics of juxtaposition and resonance, rather than attempting to craft a linear argument.

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“…The central point, however, is that it is increasingly precarious to craft a life in science. One’s career – and often one’s identity – hangs by fragile threads that may easily be broken by missed funding, a troublesome publication, or the inability to move to a different country ( Lorenz-Meyer, 2018 ; Loveday, 2018 ; Müller, 2014 ). Accordingly, the situation of (junior) scientists appears to be marked by intermingled affects of hope, excitement, combativeness, and anxiety ( Lorenz-Meyer, 2018 ; Loveday, 2018 ) – a condition that may be linked to Berlant’s notion of ‘cruel optimism’: ‘when something you desire is actually an obstacle to your flourishing’ ( Berlant, 2011 : 1; see also Lipton, 2017 ).…”

Section: Building a Life In Contemporary Science: Mobility And Precarmentioning

confidence: 99%

Atmospheres of science: Experiencing scientific mobility

Davies

2020

Soc Stud Sci

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This article uses notions of the atmospheric to engage with empirical material concerned with international mobility in science. It draws on recent conceptual work on atmospheres that frames them as allowing access to the affective qualities of everyday life and as ‘productively nebulous’: atmospheres exist between the local and the globally diffuse, the emergent and the staged, the intangible and the brutally present. Using atmospheric thinking, I devise ‘apparatuses of attunement’ to capture elusive aspects of life in science, as discussed in interviews with natural scientists about their experiences of international mobility. In particular I use ideas of the situation, atmospheric threads, and the staging of atmospheres to argue that scientists represent themselves as existing in between the particular and the general: they are never wholly at the mercy of the structures and expectations of globalized science, but are also never not in the grip of them. In closing I reflect on what this analysis reveals about the affective qualities of contemporary science, the forms of life being nurtured by the norms and expectations of research (policy), and the kinds of agency available to (these) scientists. The aim of the article is thus twofold: to demonstrate how concepts of atmospheres can be put to work in STS, and to contribute to research on international mobility in science and contemporary scientific careers.

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The Academic Productivist Regime: Affective Dynamics in the Moral-Political Economy of Publishing

Cited by 13 publications

References 23 publications

Chaos, Care, and Critique: Performing the Contemporary Academy During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Chaos, Care, and Critique: Performing the Contemporary Academy During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Pinboarding the Pandemic: Experiments in Representing Autoethnography

Atmospheres of science: Experiencing scientific mobility

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