Insatiable greed
performance pressure and precarity in the neoliberalised university
in Social Anthropology/Anthropologie socialeSearch for other papers by Christian R. Rogler in
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Considerably increasing competition for academic positions/funding as well as managerial control of academic work are two key features of the contemporary university. Both developments result in and are amplified by increasing performance pressures and precarious employment. Combined with a vocational work ethic, these neoliberal dynamics are turning the academic profession into an increasingly greedy and (self-)exploitative endeavour. While allowing employers/funding bodies to ask for much while offering little in return – that is to siphon off the symbolic and economic ‘profit’ generated by academics’ free or under-paid work – the current working conditions leave early-career academics in particular in a highly vulnerable position.