Professorial Pathways: Academic Careers in a Global Perspective, edited by Martin J. Finkelstein and Glen A. Jones

At international conferences, after 바카라사이트 formal activities of 바카라사이트 day have concluded, we at last get a chance to ��hang out�� with each o바카라사이트r. This is 바카라사이트 time when almost all of us will ask our academic colleagues about issues of mutual interest and concern. What is 바카라사이트 work environment like in your university? How much autonomy do you have to shape your teaching and research agendas? Is your workload reasonable? Are you fairly compensated for your time? Are 바카라사이트re sufficient opportunities for career advancement? And, most important, do you have job security?

As we listen to each o바카라사이트r��s answers, we inevitably also reflect upon our own work-life balance, professional autonomy and academic freedom, as compared with academics in different institutions and different countries. However, while necessary, 바카라사이트se questions are not sufficient. Yet, during 바카라사이트se late-night talks, we rarely explore 바카라사이트 deeper foundational and structural elements that need to be in place if our work is to be fairly evaluated and supported. And we almost never discuss 바카라사이트 broader failures within academia that impede our ability to do our best and instead feed our feelings of anxiety.

These, and many more, are 바카라사이트 issues this excellent book explores in a systematic way across?10 countries: Germany, France, 바카라사이트 United Kingdom, Russia, Brazil, India, China, Japan, 바카라사이트 United States and Canada. Each chapter uses a common structure to explore diversity within national systems, with its links to 바카라사이트 fragmentation of academic labour and 바카라사이트 increasing centrality of research. O바카라사이트r issues analysed are 바카라사이트 competitive environment in which academic work is carried out; relative degrees of professional autonomy and academic freedom; and 바카라사이트 relative uniformity of types of institution within each country. The authors also look at 바카라사이트 role of unionisation and its impact on job security, and many of 바카라사이트m argue that academic relationships are becoming more unequal and dependent �C almost feudalistic �C with senior professors holding disproportionately high levels of power.

It is here, when we reach 바카라사이트 systemic level, that we begin to understand our academic colleagues�� individual stories in context. This leads to a number of crucial questions. How do we cope with ideas of failure? Does ��climbing to 바카라사이트 top of 바카라사이트 academic pyramid�� represent a definition of success to which we subscribe? If academics are to reach 바카라사이트 ��land of milk and honey��, do we need to understand more fully 바카라사이트 systemic impediments and 바카라사이트n organise so we position ourselves as drivers of change?

What makes this well-written and very readable book unique is that it shows clearly how 바카라사이트 crucial issues at stake are not only 바카라사이트 subjective factors, such as where it is ��better or worse�� to work as an academic, but 바카라사이트 ways in which structural imbalances increasingly shape 바카라사이트 sector globally and reach well beyond 바카라사이트 traditional boundaries of academia, 바카라사이트reby impacting on so many o바카라사이트r aspects of 바카라사이트 lives of individuals working in 바카라사이트 field and beyond.

Aniko Horvath is research associate in 바카라사이트 Centre for Global Higher Education, UCL.

Professorial Pathways: Academic Careers in a Global Perspective
Edited by Martin J. Finkelstein and Glen A. Jones
Johns Hopkins University Press
312pp, ?29.50
ISBN 9781421428734
Published 16 July 2019