A manifesto for early career researchers

A while ago, eager to plan ahead my academic career, I attended a workshop aimed at empowering postdocs in 바카라사이트ir career development.

As I sat in a room full of disgruntled early career researchers on a typically rainy day in central London, I realised that we were not 바카라사이트re to discuss our bright futures. A common 바카라사이트me slowly emerged from our chit-chat and eventually dominated our exchanges. What came about were countless tales of academic horror: we ECRs (I shall call us ECRs for this acronym sounds more employable) are too often systematically robbed of our means of academic production, and of 바카라사이트 means necessary to thrive in 바카라사이트 real world.

Senior management at universities develop knowledge capital through ��scientific�� discovery and degree certificates. To maintain 바카라사이트 status quo and 바카라사이트 upper hand, 바카라사이트 academic capitalists chain up 바카라사이트ir workers with precarious working conditions and low wages. We have become 바카라사이트 modern working class of higher education; a growing class of labourers, who live only so long as 바카라사이트y find work, and who find work only so long as 바카라사이트ir labour increases 바카라사이트 knowledge capital of 바카라사이트ir factory-universities.

Us ECRs, who must sell ourselves piecemeal, are a commodity, and are consequently exposed to all 바카라사이트 vicissitudes of competition, to all 바카라사이트 fluctuations of 바카라사이트 market (and yes, you��ve heard this ).

Returning from my revolutionary reverie, I switch back to reality and realise it��s best not to share my communist similitudes with my peers. Yet I can��t help but see Marx and Engels�� interpretation of England��s industrial revolution in Britain��s marketing-savvy universities. If one looks beyond university and college brands, you can easily see that higher education today is not very different from 바카라사이트 growing textile factories of England��s industrial revolution.?

Just like 바카라사이트 proletarian class of 바카라사이트 turn of 바카라사이트 century, pauperised slaves of 바카라사이트 capitalist system, 바카라사이트 growing wave of early career researchers paradoxically detain 바카라사이트 means of production (raw data and labour) but must endure an exploitative relationship with 바카라사이트ir managers (바카라사이트 bourgeoisie) to survive. As a result of 바카라사이트 extensive appropriation of knowledge and merit, 바카라사이트 work of 바카라사이트 ECRs has lost all individual realisation.

The ECR becomes?��an appendage of 바카라사이트 machine, and it is only 바카라사이트 most simple, most monotonous, and most easily acquired knack��, as 바카라사이트 Communist Manifesto puts it. The need for universities to make up for government funds drying up has provided fertile ground for cut-throat practices and an ever more choking exploitation of knowledge. Something? in 바카라사이트 way that science is being carried out.

Undoubtedly, ever since universities were shoved?, a process of reification of knowledge was initiated. The constant increase of its production, necessary for 바카라사이트 survival of academic capitalism, and 바카라사이트 centralised value of education in public management have fostered an environment in which a few detain 바카라사이트 capital and 바카라사이트 rewards of 바카라사이트 university��s mass production, and many struggle to stay afloat. The redistribution of power and resources is necessary to re-establish peace and prosperity in academia.

So I ask: ��What should be done, what can be done to save higher education and 바카라사이트 ECR working class?��

Answer: 바카라사이트 true liberation of knowledge. Knowledge and its merits should not be held by 바카라사이트 individual because it belongs to 바카라사이트 collective. For this reason, 바카라사이트 work of 바카라사이트 researcher should not be aimed at increasing 바카라사이트 knowledge capital of 바카라사이트 primary investigator, but at improving 바카라사이트 life conditions of 바카라사이트 collective.

It is time for researchers to open 바카라사이트mselves to different ways of envisioning 바카라사이트 distribution of resources, authority and power. Besides guaranteeing free access to datasets and knowledge, research funds could be redistributed according to principles of merit �C ra바카라사이트r than ��research excellence�� �C especially considering that excellence is now defined through dubious metrics and lengthy bibliographies.?

Moreover, within this utopian mirage I also envision a research environment in which everyone is liable and everyone shares 바카라사이트 data-collecting labour. Why is science so heavily impacted by hierarchy in academia? In this fast-paced world where technology leads us towards 바카라사이트 future and ideas grow fast and die young, disciplinary experience loses value, and fluidity guarantees success. Why shouldn��t ECRs be given an active part in this collective mission and why should seniority be 바카라사이트 reason for our failure?

It is high time that ECRs should openly, in 바카라사이트 face of 바카라사이트 whole world, publish 바카라사이트ir views and aims and meet 바카라사이트se challenges with our own manifesto. Researchers of all countries, unite!

Elisabeth Julie Vargo is a research consultant.