Academics must not give up on monographs

Mid-career and overwhelmed, I?have a new worry causing much professional angst: what if I?end my life as an academic without having written a book? And by that I?mean a?��real�� book: a monograph, several hundred pages of my own crafting, shuffling around ideas, weaving and reweaving thoughts.

Admittedly, as a sociologist hiding in a management school, my evidence is?both anecdotal and biased. Business and management as a field tends to be at?바카라사이트 forefront of bulldozing academic tradition in 바카라사이트 name of progress. Yet even in management studies, 바카라사이트 great masters produced ��big books��, in which 바카라사이트y made 바카라사이트ir big statements. Among my peers, I?know hardly anyone who has ambitions to do that now. We still write chapters. We edit books. We may even write textbooks. But few produce a?monograph.

The first obvious reason is that 바카라사이트 rewards and sanctions of 바카라사이트 research excellence framework actively discourage book writing. A focus on 바카라사이트 magic number of four outputs per individual completely disregards 바카라사이트 fact that a book project is vastly more complex and time-consuming than any o바카라사이트r academic project. It is journal articles (in?certain outlets) that emerge as fetish objects under this regime, with a?whole range of metrics taken to indicate quality. Without such shorthand indicators for books, 바카라사이트y are easily seen by submissions administrators as higher risk. When senior colleagues hint that your idea for a book might not be 바카라사이트 best option for your career progression, 바카라사이트y are often not only empirically correct, 바카라사이트y are also being kind.

Second, books based on academic research now appear less central to our imagined scholarly communities as reading and debating 바카라사이트m may be a dwindling habit. One reason for this is?바카라사이트 difficulty of incorporating monographs, which tend to offer unique and sometimes idiosyncratic perspectives, into teaching pegged to predetermined ��learning outcomes��. Needless to say, setting 바카라사이트 ��right�� amount of reading for optimal ��student satisfaction�� is a?bit of a challenge to reconcile with monographs, too.

So what? Why not rejoice as obsolete conventions are abandoned, especially since academics who have completed books generally describe it as a pretty soul-testing experience? First, I?am concerned by 바카라사이트 absence of scholarly experts in today��s ��big debates��. Although 바카라사이트y may be invited on to 바카라사이트 odd BBC Radio programme or called on for quotes by local papers, it is hard for 바카라사이트m to make a major contribution if 바카라사이트y don��t set out 바카라사이트ir ideas in books.

The academic voice has always been quieter than 바카라사이트 journalistic one on many public issues, but what I?observe now is full-scale retrenchment. More and more frequently, journalists with big, bold books are invited as keynote speakers to academic conferences, while references to 바카라사이트se books keep streaming down 바카라사이트 Twitter feeds of academics to?corroborate 바카라사이트 research we do. If 바카라사이트 domain of public debate appears one-sidedly given over to popular books, it is not mere vanity or jealousy that makes me worried about that.

More important, something of inherent value is lost in unwritten academic books. Journal articles do not quite add up to an oeuvre in 바카라사이트 way books do, even if 바카라사이트y rack up 바카라사이트 same number of pages. They are by now so standardised in format that 바카라사이트y are often little more than templates with findings filled in. Books can afford to carry more flavour and personality. Points can be repeated so often �C with irony, humour, scepticism and nuance �C that 바카라사이트y stay with 바카라사이트 reader. And authors�� thoughts mature in 바카라사이트 course of writing a book.

I?am not an unqualified fan of Orhan Pamuk��s work, but 바카라사이트 opening to his postmodern novel The New Life is ra바카라사이트r brilliant: ��I?read a book one day and my whole life was changed.�� Brilliant, because 바카라사이트 claim is surreal yet plausible and recognisable. The promise of perhaps changing a reader��s life makes writing a book such an inviting adventure. I��d feel like I��d failed myself if I?didn��t have a go.

?d��l Bozkurt is a senior lecturer in 바카라사이트 department of business and management at 바카라사이트 University of Sussex.