scholarly journals Precarity and dehumanisation in higher education

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-59
Author(s):  
Olivia Mason ◽  
Nick Megoran
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Political Economy ◽  
Academic Freedom ◽  
Public Management ◽  
New Public Management ◽  
Life Narrative ◽  
Teaching And Research ◽  
North East ◽  
The North ◽  
New Public

The increased reliance of universities on a pool of highly skilled but poorly paid casualised academic labour for teaching and research has emerged as a defining feature of higher education provision under neoliberal New Public Management. Based on seventeen visual timeline interviews with academics in the North East of England, this article augments and extends existing studies of precarity through a framing of dehumanisation and humanisation. Specifically, we suggest that casualisation is dehumanising in four ways: it renders individuals invisible; it leaves them vulnerable to exploitation; it denies them academic freedom; and it hampers them in constructing a life narrative projecting into the future. We conclude that casualisation is not simply the product of a reprehensible political economy, but that it is an afront to the very meaning and dignity of being human.

The political economy of English public services reform and implications for management knowledges in health care organizations

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ewan Ferlie ◽  
Sue Dopson ◽  
Chris Bennett ◽  
Michael D. Fischer ◽  
Jean Ledger ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Public Management ◽  
Public Services ◽  
New Public Management ◽  
Health Care Organizations ◽  
Public Agencies ◽  
Political Issue ◽  
Management Reform ◽  
New Public

This chapter explores, in greater depth, the idea floated in the Introduction that the macro-level political economy of public services reform can exert effects on preferred management knowledges at both national and local levels. We argue that an important series of New Public Management reforms evident since the 1980s have made UK public agencies more ‘firm like’ and receptive to firm-based forms of management knowledge. We characterize key features of the UK’s long-term public management reform strategy, benchmarking it against, and also adding to, Pollitt and Bouckaert’s well-known comparativist typology. We specifically add to their model a consideration of the extent to which public management reform is constructed as a top-level political issue.

scholarly journals The Neoliberal University in Ireland: Institutional Bullying by Another Name?

Societies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 52
Author(s):  
Margaret Hodgins ◽  
Patricia Mannix McNamara
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Public Management ◽  
New Public Management ◽  
Academic Staff ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The United States ◽  
Decent Work ◽  
New Public ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Health And Well Being

New managerialism and the pervasive neoliberalisation of universities is by now a well-established phenomenon. Commentaries explore the political and economic drivers and effects of neoliberal ideology, and critique the impact on higher education and academic work. The impact on the health and well-being of academic staff has had less attention, and it is to that we turn in this paper. Much academic interest in neoliberalism stems from the UK, Australia and the United States. We draw particularly on studies of public Irish universities, where neoliberalism, now well entrenched, but something of a late-comer to the new public management party, is making its presence felt. This conceptual paper explores the concept of neoliberalism in higher education, arguing that the policies and practices of new public management as exercised in universities are a form of bullying; what we term institutional bullying. The authors are researchers of workplace culture, workplace bullying and incivility. Irish universities are increasingly challenged in delivering the International Labour Organisation (ILO) principles of decent work, i.e., dignity, equity, fair income and safe working conditions. They have become exposed in terms of gender imbalance in senior positions, precariat workforce, excessive workload and diminishing levels of control. Irish universities are suffering in terms of both the health and well-being of staff and organisational vibrancy. The authors conclude by cautioning against potential neoliberal intensification as universities grapple with the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper reviews neoliberalism in higher education and concludes with insight as to how the current pandemic could act as a necessary catalyst to stem the tide and ‘call out’ bullying at the institutional level.

scholarly journals Teaching qualitative research in adverse times

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 42-66
Author(s):  
Joost Beuving ◽  
Geert de Vries
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Public Management ◽  
New Public Management ◽  
Academic Culture ◽  
Culture Wars ◽  
Naturalistic Inquiry ◽  
Socially Responsible ◽  
New Public ◽  
Science Curricula

This article discusses how the teaching of qualitative research in higher education is threatened by the effects of new public management, by academic culture wars and by a growing belief in big data. The controversy over Alice Goffman’s book On the Run presents one recent example of this. In an effort to counterbalance these developments, this article stresses the importance in social science curricula of ‘naturalistic inquiry’ – the artisanal core of qualitative research. Explicitly acknowledging emic viewpoints, naturalistic inquiry upholds the emancipatory ideal of making society transparent to its members. Teaching naturalistic inquiry as a craft may be the best way to assure ‘qualitative literacy’ among graduates in their various careers as socially responsible professionals.

scholarly journals The changing value of higher education in England and Portugal: Massification, marketization and public good

2020 ◽  
pp. 147490412096757
Author(s):  
Mariana Gaio Alves ◽  
Michael Tomlinson
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Public Good ◽  
Knowledge Economy ◽  
Public Management ◽  
New Public Management ◽  
National Policy ◽  
Analytical Framework ◽  
Policy Framework ◽  
New Public ◽  
Global Discourse

This article examines how the value of higher education (HE) is currently being (re)framed in two European countries: England and Portugal. HE has been central to a global discourse on the future of knowledge economy, whilst also being subject to the policy framework of New Public Management. Being so, the changing value of HE is related to the ways in which its missions are understood and must be considered within the context of massification, as well as of a growing importance of employability. Drawing on published research and also considering national policy documents and statistical data produced by international organizations, the analysis demonstrates how HE in these two countries is currently being (re)framed, recognizing differences and similarities that express national specificities, as well as exploring how these have evolved within the wider national and pan-national policy context. Overall, the examination demanded going beyond the marketization approach by complementing it with the idea of public good and leads us to stress the importance of the tension between these two approaches as an analytical framework to better understand the changes occurring in different national contexts, within a transnational framework in which the knowledge economy and the central role of HE seems to be indisputably accepted.

About New Public Management Practices in Russian Universities (on Results of Field Studies)

Upravlenie ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 61-67
Author(s):  
Ломовицкая ◽  
V. Lomovitskaya ◽  
Хватова ◽  
T. Khvatova ◽  
Душина ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Public Management ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
New Public Management ◽  
Field Studies ◽  
New Public ◽  
Control Department ◽  
And Control ◽  
Russian Universities

New public management practices in prestigious universities are researched in this paper. Based on the field study — higher-education teaching personnel (HETP) interrogation — problem areas related to university managerialism policy have been revealed. It has been shown, that the administrative machine and control department extension, as well as low level of professorship involvement in decision-making destroy the academic autonomy and create a latent conflict between managers and HETP.

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