Developing An Academic Career in a Globalising World

Abstract

Among all of the possible topics for a researcher into employment and careers, one of the most difficult must be the study of academic careers. As many analysts have discussed, academics form an unusually independent profession, one that draws heavily on traditional ideals about its proper role even as its present-day operating realities in many countries have become increasingly diverse (e.g., Becher, 1989; Clark, 1987a; Gumport, 1997; Fulton, 1996a). A further complication arises from Teichler's admonition about mad-cow disease, namely that for an academic to undertake a study of academic careers is akin to the cows studying mad-cow disease. Lacking any semblance of psychological distance, how can one make any claim to objectivity or attempt to offer incisive comments? This is a variation on the "familiarity" problem noted long ago by Howard Becker and other anthropologists as they undertook studies of the schooling process. Assessing one's own profession may be an advanced case of the same disease.