Open this publication in new window or tab >>2024 (English)In: Critical Perspectives on Accounting, ISSN 1045-2354, E-ISSN 1095-9955, Vol. 99, article id 102662Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
Existing theorizations on how the proliferation of market-based technologies within universities come to foster so-called academic performer subjectivities have mainly drawn attention to their coercive and seductive powers. However, while these theorizations help explain why researchers either unwillingly adapt to, or identify with and cherish, their neoliberal ideals, they are less useful to explain recent empirical results showing that many researchers willingly comply yet are very critical of the very same ideals. Drawing upon an interview study of Swedish researchers, we address this theoretical gap in the literature by analytically disentangling three important qualities of the technologies per se, in terms of them producing performance numbers characterized by Specificness, Ongoingness, and Emptiness (SOE). These three qualities do not only have the dual power to interchangeably provoke bitter and sweet feelings, but also to foster the adoption of an academic performer subjectivity. In fact, it is precisely by provoking bittersweet feelings that these qualities break the sharp edges of pure coercion and seduction, thereby fostering a type of low-affective, yet highly persuasive form of reasoning about pros and cons of market-based technologies, which make their neoliberal ideals seem acceptable and reasonable at the end of the day.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Elsevier, 2024
Keywords
Coercion/seduction, Market-based technologies, Researcher subjectivities
National Category
Business Administration
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:oru:diva-110218 (URN)10.1016/j.cpa.2023.102662 (DOI)001249279200003 ()2-s2.0-85169831883 (Scopus ID)
Funder
Swedish Research Council, 2014–740The Jan Wallander and Tom Hedelius Foundation, P20-0036Örebro University
2023-12-142023-12-142024-07-25Bibliographically approved