Description
Book SynopsisFocusing on how the profit motive is reshaping higher education and redefining what faculty are supposed to do, this book will appeal to scientists and academics, higher education scholars, university administrators and policy makers, and students considering a career in science.
Trade ReviewJohnson thoughtfully considers the norms, tensions, and rules governing commercialization of research in academic settings, as well as the effects of commercialization on scientists' reputations and identity within the institution and profession. Academic scientists would be advised to take Johnson's interview protocol (included in the appendixes) to determine their own identity.
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ChoiceProfessor Johnson's very readable volume addresses debates about university-industry linkages from the under-explored perspective of the moral orders and identity work of academic scientists . . . While debates about the commercialization of university research tend to assume the traditionalist ethos is fragile in the face of commercial interests, this book provides an important antidote by showing the strengths of the traditionalist ethos even in the presence of commercialist peers . . . The book also provides several policy discussions about how to structure funding, university careers and resource allocations, graduate training, and university-industry relations. One hopes that this conversation will be taken up, especially as we are observing a cohort shift from those trained in the traditionalist mileau toward an increasingly commercialist-embedded cohort, making this a critical time for revisiting the roles of each of these camps in the university and the research system more generally.
—John P. Walsh, Georgia Institute of Technology,
Social ForcesDavid R. Johnson advances the literature on academic capitalism by examining how scientists understand commercialization and how it shapes their scientific work and careers. His approach foregrounds culture and professional ideologies more than other research in this area, which tends to favor structuralist theories and emphasize macrolevel changes in the organization of science and higher education systems.
A Fractured Profession is full of rich qualitative data that connect these large institutional changes to the practices and reasoning of scientists themselves . . .
A Fractured Profession makes important contributions to research on academic capitalism. Professors, students, administrators, and policy makers would all benefit from reading it carefully.
—John McLevey, University of Waterloo,
American Journal of SociologyTable of ContentsList of Tables and Figure
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Normative Tension in Commercial Contexts
2. The Reconstruction of Meaning and Status in Science
3. Embracing and Avoiding Commercial Trajectories
4. Identity Work in the Commercialized Academy
Conclusion
Appendix
Notes
References
Index
