Games of Truth, Managerial Culture and Subjectivity. Towards a Microphysics of Resistances in the Academic Field

Journal title SOCIOLOGIA DEL LAVORO
Author/s Emiliano Bevilacqua, Davide Borrelli, Marialuisa Stazio
Publishing Year 2021 Issue 2021/160 Language Italian
Pages 23 P. 134-156 File size 230 KB
DOI 10.3280/SL2021-160007
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The managerial transformation of Higher Education rules the university according to criteria of business efficiency and accountability (e. g. competitive diversifica-tion between academic structures, use of performance indicators, administrative and standardised evaluation of research, reward systems). In this paper we aim to investigate the university’s managerialisation implications on the researcher’s self-understanding, the pressures it puts on her/his ethos and professional ethics, and the reactions it elicits. In particular, we explore the focal points of experience, prac-tices of self, counter-conducts and points of resistance expressed in appeals, edito-rial initiatives and movements which have briefly gained national prominence. By using a qualitative methodology through twelve in-depth interviews, we have identified three discursive focuses: the critique of the centralised device of evaluation and academic management, the resistance through the form of movement and processes of subjectivation and, finally, the salience of a gender point of view transversal to these dimensions

Keywords: Management, Higher Education, Subjectivity, Social Movements, Gender Bias

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Emiliano Bevilacqua, Davide Borrelli, Marialuisa Stazio, Giochi di verità, cultura manageriale e soggettività. Per una microfisica delle resistenze in ambito accademico in "SOCIOLOGIA DEL LAVORO " 160/2021, pp 134-156, DOI: 10.3280/SL2021-160007