Final published version
Licence: CC BY: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - On Quitting
AU - Coin, Francesca
PY - 2017/8/30
Y1 - 2017/8/30
N2 - Over the past few years, there has been an ostensible growth in ‘quit lit’, a new genre of literature made of columns and opinion editorials detailing the reasons why scholars – with or without tenure – leave academia. This paper examines the impact of the neoliberal academia on subjectivity. In the neoliberal university, subjectivity is caught into a web of conflicting expectations. On the one hand, it is expected to live up to high standards of competition. On the other hand, the body experiences competition as a celebrated form of self-abuse. In this context, quitting is not merely about resigning an academic position. It is a symptom of the urge to create a space between the neoliberal discourse and the sense of self; an act of rebellion intended to abdicate the competitive rationality of neoliberal academia and embrace different values and principles.
AB - Over the past few years, there has been an ostensible growth in ‘quit lit’, a new genre of literature made of columns and opinion editorials detailing the reasons why scholars – with or without tenure – leave academia. This paper examines the impact of the neoliberal academia on subjectivity. In the neoliberal university, subjectivity is caught into a web of conflicting expectations. On the one hand, it is expected to live up to high standards of competition. On the other hand, the body experiences competition as a celebrated form of self-abuse. In this context, quitting is not merely about resigning an academic position. It is a symptom of the urge to create a space between the neoliberal discourse and the sense of self; an act of rebellion intended to abdicate the competitive rationality of neoliberal academia and embrace different values and principles.
KW - higher education
KW - casualisation
KW - neoliberalism
KW - burnout
KW - quitting
KW - precarious work r
KW - academic labour
M3 - Journal article
VL - 17
SP - 235
EP - 249
JO - Ephemera : Theory and Politics in Organization
JF - Ephemera : Theory and Politics in Organization
SN - 1473-2866
IS - 3
ER -