The neurotic academic: anxiety, casualisation, and governance in the neoliberalising university
by Vik Loveday (2018)
Journal of Cultural Economy, 11(2), pp. 154-166.
ABSTRACT
Based on empirical research conducted with academic staff working on
fixed-term contracts, the article explores the subjective experience of
anxiety in the UK’s ‘neoliberalising’ higher education (HE) sector. As HE
undergoes a process of marketisation, and the teaching and research
activities of academics are increasingly measured and scrutinised, the
contemporary academy appears to be suffused with anxiety. Coupled
with pressures facing all staff, 34% of academic employees are currently
working on a fixed-term contract and so must contend with the multiple
forms of uncertainty associated with their so-called ‘casualised’ positions.
While anxiety is often perceived as an individualised affliction for which
employees are encouraged to take personal responsibility, the article
argues that it should be conceptualised in two ways: firstly, as a symptom
of wider processes at work in the neoliberalising sector; and secondly, as
a ‘tactic’ of what Isin [(2004). The neurotic citizen. Citizenship Studies, 8 (3),
217–235] refers to as ‘neuroliberal’ governance. The article concludes by
proposing that the figure of the ‘neurotic academic’ is emblematic of the
contradictions facing the contemporary academy.
To read the article, click Loveday 2018.