Strategies of resistance in the neoliberal university

2019 ◽  
pp. 135-150
Author(s):  
Mary Hamilton
Keyword(s):  
Working Conditions ◽  
Academic Staff ◽  
International Market ◽  
Interview Study ◽  
Work Loss ◽  
Writing Practices ◽  
Loss Of Autonomy ◽  
Collective Resistance ◽  
Everyday Resistance ◽  
The Uk

Major changes are taking place in the UK university sector as HE is transformed into a high value commodity on the international market. These changes impact strongly on the day-to-day experience, relationships and identities of academic staff. This chapter reports on an interview study of academics’ writing practices in three UK Universities and three disciplines. Despite ample and vivid evidence of stress, acceleration of work, loss of autonomy and deteriorating working conditions we found little trace in our data of organized, collective resistance. However, there were many examples of tactical and symbolic workarounds and of staff holding on to core disciplinary values and vocational commitments. The chapter suggests that the framework of "everyday resistance" as proposed and documented in many contexts by Scott and others helps us to understand these reactions and how they reflect high levels of discomfort and wider frustration with the directions in which universities are moving.

scholarly journals Exit, Voice, Loyalty … or Deliberate Obstruction? Non-Collective Everyday Resistance under Oppression.

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Stephanie Dornschneider
Keyword(s):  
Palestinian Territories ◽  
Common Response ◽  
Low Visibility ◽  
Collective Resistance ◽  
Important Addition ◽  
Everyday Resistance ◽  
And Coping

In highly oppressive environments, collective resistance is very costly. Non-collective resistance constitutes a less risky alternative. Focusing on a particular oppressed setting, the Occupied Palestinian Territories, I identify everyday forms of non-collective resistance: signaling, persevering, eschewing, and coping. Characterized by low visibility and targeting political goals indirectly, these activities have not yet been recognized as forms of resistance. However, they constitute important resistance efforts that deliberately obstruct oppressive regimes. These efforts show that individuals who are not visibly resisting their rulers cannot be assumed to be loyal or to suffer from a barrier of fear, as often suggested by theories in politics. They also offer an important addition to theories that identify violence as a common response to oppression, suggesting that peaceful non-collective activities constitute an everyday alternative.

The Relationship between Job Stressors and Organizational Change Among Academic Staff at Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) Cawangan Kelaantan.

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 201
Author(s):  
Nik Mohd Faris Nik Min ◽  
Intan Nurul ‘Ain Mohd Firdaus Kozako ◽  
Muhammad Ammar Haidar Ishak ◽  
Mohd Hafeez Al-Amin Abdul Wahab ◽  
Ayu Kamareenna Abdullah Thani ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Change ◽  
Working Conditions ◽  
Role Ambiguity ◽  
Academic Staff ◽  
Product Diversification ◽  
Role Overload ◽  
Job Stressors ◽  
Peer Relation ◽  
Job Stressor ◽  
The Relationship

Change usually occurs when an organization replaces its management, technological change or product diversification, et cetera. However, organizational change can increase work stress levels, and employees need to cope with new and old stressors.  This research emphasizes the factors of job stressors, such as role overload, role ambiguity, unprofitability, poor peer-relation, and strenuous working conditions. The purpose of this research was to identify the relationship between job stressors and organizational change among academic staff at Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Cawangan Kelantan (Machang Campus) and to identify the most affected job stressor during the organizational change. The research was non-experimental which was categorized by correlation. Quantitative data was collected using a questionnaire contained three separate sections and was distributed to 155 academic staff at UiTM Cawangan Kelantan (Machang Campus). The reliability analysis was conducted and the Cronbach Alpha value ranged from 0.529 to 0.852. Pearson Correlation was used to examine the relationship between job stressors and organizational change, and it was found that all variables of job stressors had a significant relationship with organizational change except for unprofitability. It was also found that the most affected job stressor during organizational change was poor peer-relation. The researchers hope that this study would educate employees regarding factors affecting job stressors towards organizational change.  Keywords: Organizational change, role overload, role ambiguity, unprofitability, poor peer-relation, strenuous working conditions.

scholarly journals Facilitating the Acquisition of Critical Writing Skills? An Exploration of Pedagogical Practices Within a Business School at a New University in the UK

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 104-119
Author(s):  
Martin Andrew Percy
Keyword(s):  
Business School ◽  
Pedagogical Practices ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Constructivist Learning Theory ◽  
Critical Writing ◽  
Academic Texts ◽  
Writing Practices ◽  
Critical Skills ◽  
Dialogic Approach ◽  
The Uk

This case study of writing practices at a Business School at a “new university” attempts to ascertain whether a constructivist and dialogic pedagogical approach is utilised in order to facilitate the acquisition of critical writing practices among predominantly undergraduate non-traditional students. Constructivist learning theory assumes that knowledge is constructed by individuals through a phenomenological subjective interpretation of experience. Hence learning is a dialectic process resulting from a synthesis between preconceived ideas and reflections on experience. It is assumed that a student-centred dialogic approach to teaching is likely to facilitate learning and the acquisition of the higher critical skills within the disciplinary context. Therefore, dialogic feedback plays a crucial role in the learning process and guidance on the pre-writing tasks of selecting and evaluating source material, planning, feedback and disciplinary interpretations of criticality are likely to have an impact on the production of academic texts. The research triangulated semi-structured interviews with academics and students and incorporated an examination of educational artifacts. The paper concludes that assumptions of the unidirectionality of student-teacher relationships and a perception that the acquisition of critical skills is external to disciplinary practice may have mitigated against a truly dialogic approach to facilitate critical writing. In addition, the increasing marketisation of higher education and promotion of generic attributes to produce employable graduates has seemingly led to an emphasis of reproducing institutional normative perspectives and writing practices, thus blurring the distinction between education and training.

scholarly journals Clinical academic research in the time of Corona: a simulation study in England and a call for action

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amitava Banerjee ◽  
Michail Katsoulis ◽  
Alvina G. Lai ◽  
Laura Pasea ◽  
Thomas A. Treibel ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Academic Staff ◽  
Academic Research ◽  
Academic Community ◽  
System Level ◽  
Clinical Activity ◽  
Infection Rates ◽  
Community Needs ◽  
Academic Workforce ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Impact

AbstractBackgroundCoronavirus (COVID-19) poses health system challenges in every country. As with any public health emergency, a major component of the global response is timely, effective science. However, particular factors specific to COVID-19 must be overcome to ensure that research efforts are optimised. We aimed to model the impact of COVID-19 on the clinical academic response in the UK, and to provide recommendations for COVID-related research.MethodsWe constructed a simple stochastic model to determine clinical academic capacity in the UK in four policy approaches to COVID-19 with differing population infection rates: “Italy model” (6%), “mitigation” (10%), “relaxed mitigation” (40%) and “do-nothing” (80%) scenarios. The ability to conduct research in the COVID-19 climate is affected by the following key factors: (i) infection growth rate and population infection rate (from UK COVID-19 statistics and WHO); (ii) strain on the healthcare system (from published model); and (iii) availability of clinical academic staff with appropriate skillsets affected by frontline clinical activity and sickness (from UK statistics).FindingsIn “Italy model”, “mitigation”, “relaxed mitigation” and “do-nothing” scenarios, from 5 March 2020 the duration (days) and peak infection rates (%) are 95(2.4%), 115(2.5%), 240(5.3%) and 240(16.7%) respectively. Near complete attrition of academia (87% reduction, <400 clinical academics) occurs 35 days after pandemic start for 11, 34, 62, 76 days respectively – with no clinical academics at all for 37 days in the “do-nothing” scenario. Restoration of normal academic workforce (80% of normal capacity) takes 11,12, 30 and 26 weeks respectively.InterpretationPandemic COVID-19 crushes the science needed at system level. National policies mitigate, but the academic community needs to adapt. We highlight six key strategies: radical prioritisation (eg 3-4 research ideas per institution), deep resourcing, non-standard leadership (repurposing of key non-frontline teams), rationalisation (profoundly simple approaches), careful site selection (eg protected sites with large academic backup) and complete suspension of academic competition with collaborative approaches.

Workplace and Health: A Survey of Classical Orchestral Musicians in the United Kingdom and Germany

2002 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 83-92
Author(s):  
Beatrice S Harper
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Working Conditions ◽  
Classical Music ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Work Related ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Working Lives ◽  
The Status ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Orchestral Musicians

This article presents the results of a survey that was carried out among UK and German professional classical musicians between November 2000 and April 2001. The UK Musicians’ Union and the German musicians’ union, the Deutsche Orchester Vereinigung (DOV), assisted greatly with the duplication and distribution of the questionnaires. Selected results have been disseminated to the respondents via the UK Musicians’ Union journal, Musician. A full report will appear in Cultural Trends, to be published in 2002 by the Policy Studies Institute, London. The survey covered many aspects of musicians’ perceptions of occupational health and safety, the provision of appropriate information, their general working conditions, and their health. One of the main aims was to bring to the forefront a discussion of musicians’ working conditions and to raise awareness of the range of problems that exist. Key findings identify areas of concern to the respondents, in particular, regarding the environmental conditions of their workplaces. Additionally, findings indicate the use and effectiveness of the measures used by musicians to ameliorate a range of occupational hazards. This article also reports the respondents’ hearing problems, and which medical and alternative practitioners the sample consulted in cases of work-related ill health. The contrasting structure of the profession determined the choice of the United Kingdom and Germany for this study. The UK classical music workforce is predominantly freelance, whereas in Germany there are relatively few freelance musicians, and most orchestral musicians have the status of local government employees. One of the aims of the survey was to elicit information that might indicate whether such different conditions of employment affect the working lives of musicians. This article is organized in two parts. The first part places this survey in context and discusses the particular range of health problems highlighted by the respondents. The second part presents the survey and its findings.

Distressful Situations, Non-Supportive Work Climate, Threats to Professional and Private Integrity

2020 ◽  
pp. 54-79 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisabet Tiselius ◽  
Elisabet Hägglund ◽  
Pernilla Pergert
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Grounded Theory ◽  
Working Conditions ◽  
Language Barriers ◽  
Work Climate ◽  
Interview Study ◽  
Equal Access ◽  
Main Concern

This chapter describes situations of distress and the working climate of healthcare interpreters in Sweden. A questionnaire focused on distressful situations was administered to interpreters with experience in healthcare interpreting. The results indicated that distress in healthcare interpreting could be traced back to ethically and emotionally challenging interpreting situations and working conditions, and a lack of respect for the interpreters' work. An interview study using Grounded Theory showed that interpreters' main concern was the threat to professional and private integrity. Despite the fact that in general the interpreting profession in Sweden may seem professionalized, interpreters struggle with dilemmas connected to less professionalized activities. Our study was conducted in Sweden, but we argue that the results can be generalized to other countries. Although differently organized in different countries, health care interpreters experience similar dilemmas. Equal access to equitable care can be effectively hindered by language barriers.

Ill health retirement

2019 ◽  
pp. 262-274
Author(s):  
Jon Poole ◽  
Glyn Evans
Keyword(s):  
Health Status ◽  
Working Conditions ◽  
Perceived Health ◽  
Perceived Health Status ◽  
Pension Schemes ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Pensions Ombudsman

This chapter gives advice to doctors who provide reports for pension schemes about the merits of a patient’s application for ill health retirement. This is a challenging area of practice in which the structure and wording of the report is important if difficulties are to be reduced. An overview of pension provision in the UK is included as well as advice contained in determinations by the Pensions Ombudsman. Rates of ill health retirement for national schemes are shown against which doctors should audit their practice. In general, a retiree’s perceived health status tends to improve after retirement, although the improvement will attenuate over time. Heavy manual workers are more likely to retire on the grounds of ill health than non-manual workers, which has been attributed to their poorer health and less favourable working conditions.

scholarly journals The interweaving of diaries and lives: diary-keeping behaviour in a diary-interview study of international students’ employability management

2020 ◽  
pp. 146879412092026
Author(s):  
Xuemeng Cao ◽  
Emily F. Henderson
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
International Students ◽  
Interview Study ◽  
Master's Students ◽  
Diary Method ◽  
Diary Research ◽  
Diary Studies ◽  
Key Issues ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Academic Year

This article explores ‘diary-keeping behaviour’, or the ways in which participants conduct the completion and submission of diaries in diary research. There is a paucity of methodologically oriented literature on diary method and as such this article makes a contribution to extending the existing knowledge of this method. The primary aim of this article is to set out in detail the key issues relating to diary-keeping behaviour, in order to provide a foundation for future critical explorations of this facet of diary research. The research that this paper is based on involved a 12-month diary-interview study. This project explored the employability management of Chinese international Master’s students in social sciences studying in the UK during one academic year. The article sets out key facets of diary-keeping behaviour and explores specific considerations for diary studies in higher education contexts, where diary research has been particularly neglected.

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