Affective Capitalism in Academia: Revealing Public Secrets

This volume offers 12 essays that examine affective capitalism in academia in different national and international contexts, looking at the affective dynamics of the marketization and commodification of higher education and how this marketization structures experiences and social relationships, how affect may be implicated in the production of commodified scholarship in universities, and affect as a dimension of the politics of academic labor. Education, sociology, and other scholars from Europe, Australia, China, and Trinidad and Tobago address the organization and dynamics of affective capitalism in academia, including the concept of capitalism, academia, and affect in Australian academics' experiences of academic labor and higher education management, structures of power in academic labor in the Caribbean, and academic patriarchal capitalism; interpersonal and affective relationships in academia, including the use of storytelling in universities, academic leadership, friendship in academia, and the impact of neoliberalism on academics; and how people do or perform in academia in relation to writing, academic reading, and self-marketing by Chinese university students. Policy Press is an imprint of Bristol University Press. Annotation ©2022 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR (protoview.com)
Drawing on affect theory and research on academic capitalism, this book examines the contemporary crisis of universities. Moving through 11 international and comparative case studies, it explores diverse features of contemporary academic life, from the coloniality of academic capitalism to performance management and the experience of being performance-managed.Affect has emerged as a major analytical lens of social research. However, it is rarely applied to universities and their marketisation. Offering a unique exploration of the contemporary role of affect in academic labour and the organisation of scholarship, this book considers modes of subjectivation, professional and personal relationships and organisational structures and their affective charges. Chapter 9 is available Open Access via OAPEN under CC-BY-NC-ND licence.