Leaving Academia. The Stretching Out of the Academic Self in the Italian Higher Education System

Journal title SOCIOLOGIA DEL LAVORO
Author/s Dora Gambardella, Rosaria Lumino, Emiliano Grimaldi
Publishing Year 2021 Issue 2021/160
Language Italian Pages 22 P. 178-199 File size 250 KB
DOI 10.3280/SL2021-160009
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This article contributes to the analysis of the multiple forms that the academic profession takes on in the contemporary Italian university. It does so presenting the findings of a qualitative and interview-based research on the transformation of the academic profession carried on at the University of Naples Federico II in the social sciences and humanities sector. The article is organized in two sections. The first section presents and discusses the most relevant cognitive and ethical pres-sures insisting on the academic profession in Italy. This involves taking into ac-count the main mechanisms of government, classification, visualization and sanc-tion/reward in the field. The second section moves from an analysis of the narra-tives of the academic self as emerged in a sample of in-depth interviews and offers insights into different modes for the re-definition of the academic profession when coping with these cognitive and ethical pressures. The analysis allows us to identify two main lines of tension. The first one relates to the enactment of multiple ac-countabilities towards different publics and beneficiaries of the academic work. The second concerns the foundational values of the academic profession and the relation between the professional and the organizational.

Keywords: Ethos, Accountability, Professionalism, University

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Dora Gambardella, Rosaria Lumino, Emiliano Grimaldi, Vivere la professione accademica. Lo stretching out del soggetto accademico nell’università italiana in transizione in "SOCIOLOGIA DEL LAVORO " 160/2021, pp 178-199, DOI: 10.3280/SL2021-160009