Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The future of the academic calling? Junior researchers in the entrepreneurial university

  • Published:
Higher Education Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This article explores what motivates junior researchers to engage in academic work and what questions are central for their academic identities. The context of the study is the entrepreneurial orientation of today’s university, which according to many leaves little space for the academic calling. The main argument is that the identity work of the junior researchers interviewed revolves around four key questions: What kind of research should I do? What kind of tasks should I prioritize? Am I good enough at what I am doing? What would be the right place for me in the future? Their answers to these questions show that while some elements of the traditional academic identity continue to appeal to the junior researchers, they also search for new interpretations and sources of meaning.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. Interviews were also conducted with senior researchers in these units. In this paper, these interviews have been used to provide background information on the units, together with annual reports, www-pages, etc.

References

  • Ahola, S. (2007). Doctoral education in Finland. Between traditionalism and modernity. In H. Green & S. D. Powell (Eds.), Doctoral study in contemporary higher education (pp. 29–39). Buckingham: Society for Higher Education Research & Open University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Alasuutari, P. (2000). Researching culture. London: SAGE Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Allen Collison, J. (2003). Working at a marginal ‘career’: The case of UK social science contract researchers. The Sociological Review, 51, 405–422.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Amabile, T. M. (1994). The “atmosphere of pure work”: Creativity in research and development. In W. R. Shadish & S. Fuller (Eds.), The social psychology of science (pp. 316–328). New York: The Guilford Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bagilhole, B. (2002). Academia and the reproduction of unequal opportunities for women. Science Studies, 15(1), 46–60.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barry, J., Berg, E., & Chandler, J. (2006). Academic shape shifting: Gender, management and identities in Sweden and England. Organization, 13, 275–298.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Becher, T., & Trowler, P. R. (2001). Academic tribes and territories (2nd ed.). Milton Keynes: SRHE & Open University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Behrens, T. R., & Gray, D. O. (2001). Unintended consequences of cooperative research: Impact of industry sponsorship on climate for academic freedom and other graduate student outcome. Research Policy, 20, 179–199.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bryson, C., & Barnes, N. (2000). The casualisation of employment in higher education in the United Kingdom. In M. Tight (Ed.), Academic work and life (pp. 187–241). Amsterdam: JAI.

    Google Scholar 

  • Calvert, J. (2000). Is there a role for ‘basic research’ in Mode 2? VEST, 13(3/4), 35–51.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clark, B. R. (1987). The academic profession. National, disciplinary, and institutional settings. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clark, B. R. (1997). Small worlds, different worlds: The uniqueness and troubles of American academic profession. Daedalus, 126, 21–41.

    Google Scholar 

  • Commission of the European Communities. (2003). Researchers in the European Research Area: One profession, multiple careers. Communication from the Commission to the Council and the European Parliament. COM(2003) 0436 final. Retrieved May 3, 2004 from http://ec.europa.eu/research/fp6/mariecurie-actions/.

  • Delamont, S., Atkinson, P., & Parry, O. (2000). The doctoral experience. Success and failure in graduate school. London: Falmer Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Elzinga, A. (1985). Research, bureaucracy and the drift of epistemic criteria. In B. Wittrock & A. Elzhinga (Eds.), The university research system: The public policies of the home of scientists (pp. 191–220). Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell International.

    Google Scholar 

  • Enders, J. (2005). Border crossings: Research training, knowledge dissemination and the transformation of academic work. Higher Education, 49, 119–133.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Etzkowitz, H. (1998). The norms of entrepreneurial science: Cognitive effects of the new university–industry linkages. Research Policy, 27, 823–833.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Etzkowitz, H. (2003). Research groups as ‘quasi-firms’: The invention of the entrepreneurial university. Research Policy, 32, 109–121.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gibbons, M., Limoges, C., Nowotny, H., Schwartzman, S., Scott, P., & Trow, M. (1994). The new production of knowledge: The dynamics of science and research in contemporary societies. London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gumport, P. J. (1993). Graduate education and research imperatives. Views from American campuses. In B. R. Clark (Ed.), The research foundations of graduate education (pp. 261–293). Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hackett, E. J. (1990). Science as a vocation in the 1990s. The changing organizational culture of academic science. Journal of Higher Education, 61, 241–279.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Harman, K. (2002). The research training experiences of doctoral students linked to Australian cooperative research centres. Higher Education, 44, 469–492.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Henkel, M. (2000). Academic identities and policy change in higher education. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Henkel, M. (2005). Academic identity and autonomy in a changing policy environment. Higher Education, 49, 155–176.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Huisman, J., de Weert, E., & Bartelse, J. (2002). Academic careers from a European perspective. The declining desirability of the faculty position. Journal of Higher Education, 73, 141–160.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Husso, K. (2005). Tohtorit, tiedepolitiikka ja työmarkkinat. (PhDs, science policy and labour markets.) Opetusministeriön julkaisuja, 21.

  • Husu, L. (2001). Sexism, support and survival in academia. Academic women and hidden discrimination in Finland. Helsinki: University of Helsinki.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jacob, M., & Hellström, T. (2000). From networking researchers to the networked university. In M. Jacob & T. Hellström (Eds.), The future of knowledge production in the academy (pp. 81–94). Buckingham: SRHE & Open University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kogan, M., Moses, I., & El-Khawas, E. (1994). Staffing higher education: Meeting new challenges. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • KOTA database (2006). Ministry of Education, Finland. http://kotaplus.csc.fi:7777/online/Etusivu.do. Data retrieved June 2, 2006.

  • Mendoza, P. (2007). Academic capitalism and doctoral student socialization: A case study. Journal of Higher Education, 78, 71–96.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ministry of Education. (2006). Tutkijanuratyöryhmän loppuraportti (Report of the committee on the development of research careers). Reports of the Ministry of Education, Finland, 13.

  • Nieminen, M. (2005). Academic research in change. Transformation of Finnish university policies and university research during the 1990s. Helsinki: Finnish Society of Sciences and Letters.

    Google Scholar 

  • Owen Smith, J., & Powell, W. W. (2002). Standing on shifting terrain: Faculty responses to the transformation of knowledge and its uses in the life sciences. Science Studies, 15(1), 3–28.

    Google Scholar 

  • Parker, M., & Jary, D. (1995). The McUniversity: Organization, management and academic subjectivity. Organization, 2, 319–338.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rhoades, G. (1998). Managed professionals. Unionized faculty and restructuring academic labor. Albany: State University of New York Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Scott, P. (2006). Academic profession in a knowledge society. In U. Teichler (Ed.), The formative years of scholars (pp. 19–30). London: Portland Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shove, E. (2000). Reciprocities and reputations: New currencies in research. In M. Jacob & T. Hellström (Eds.), The future of knowledge production in the academy (pp. 63–80). Buckingham: SRHE & Open University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Silverman, D. (2005). Interpreting qualitative data (2nd ed.). London: SAGE Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Slaughter, S., Campbell, T., Holleman, M., & Morgan, E. (2002). The ‘traffic’ in graduate students: Graduate students as tokens of exchange between academe and industry. Science, Technology, & Human Values, 27, 282–312.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Slaughter, S., & Leslie, L. (1997). Academic capitalism: Policies, politics and the entrepreneurial university. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Statistics Finland. (2004). Tutkimus- ja kehittämistoiminta (Research and development). Tables 2003. http://tilastokeskus.fi/til/tkke/tau.html.

  • Taylor, C. (1989). The sources of the self. The making of modern identity. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tierney, W. G. (1997). Organizational socialization in higher education. Journal of Higher Education, 68, 1–16.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Traweek, S. (1988). Beamtimes and lifetimes: The world of high energy physics. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Trowler, P. R. (1998). Academics responding to change: New higher education frameworks and academic cultures. Buckingham: SRHE & Open University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Välimaa, J. (2001). The changing nature of academic employment in Finnish higher education. In J. Enders (Ed.), Academic staff in Europe (pp. 67–89). Westport: Greenwood Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weber, M. (1985). Science as a vocation. In H. H. Gerth & C. Wright Mills (Eds., Trans.), From Max Weber: Essays in sociology (pp. 129–156). London: Routledge.

  • Ylijoki, O.-H. (2003). Entangled in academic capitalism? A case-study on changing ideals and practices of university research. Higher Education, 45, 307–335.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ylijoki, O.-H. (2005). Academic nostalgia—a narrative approach to academic work. Human Relations, 58, 555–576.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ylijoki, O.-H. (2008). A clash of academic cultures. The case of Dr. X. In J. Välimaa & O.-H. Ylijoki (Eds.), Cultural perspectives on higher education (pp. 75–89). Springer.

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Unit for Science, Technology and Innovation Studies (TaSTI), Institute for Social Research, University of Tampere, Tampere, 33014, Finland

    Johanna Hakala

Authors
  1. Johanna Hakala
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Johanna Hakala.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Hakala, J. The future of the academic calling? Junior researchers in the entrepreneurial university. High Educ 57, 173–190 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-008-9140-6

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-008-9140-6

Keywords

Search

Navigation