Universities in the Neoliberal Era: Academic Cultures and Critical Perspectives

296 Pages·2017·2.72 MB·English

by  Hakan Ergül

PALGRAVE CRITICAL UNIVERSITY STUDIES
UNIVERSITIES IN THE
NEOLIBERAL ERA
Academic Cultures and Critical Perspectives
Edited by Hakan Ergül
and Simten Cosar
Palgrave Critical University Studies
Series Editor
John Smyth
University of Huddersfield, UK
Universities everywhere are experiencing unprecedented changes and
most of the changes being inflicted upon universities are being imposed
by political and policy elites without any debate or discussion, and little
understanding of what is being lost, jettisoned, damaged or destroyed.
The over-arching intent of this series is to foster, encourage, and publish
scholarship relating to academia that is troubled by the direction of these
reforms occurring around the world. The series provides a much- needed
forum for the intensive and extensive discussion of the consequences of
ill-conceived and inappropriate university reforms and will do this with
particular emphasis on those perspectives and groups whose views have
hitherto been ignored, disparaged or silenced. The series explores the
effects of the sechanges across a number of domains including: the nature
of academic work, the process of knowledge production for social and
public good, along with students’ experiences of learning, leadership
and institutional politics research. The defining hallmark of this series, and
what makes it markedly different from any other series with a focus on
universities and higher education, is its ‘criticalist agenda’.
More information about this series at
http://www.springer.com/series/14707
Hakan Ergül • Simten Coşar
Editors
Universities in the
Neoliberal Era
Academic Cultures and Critical Perspectives
Editors
Hakan Ergül Simten Coşar
Hacettepe University Hacettepe University
Ankara, Turkey Ankara, Turkey
Palgrave Critical University Studies
ISBN 978-1-137-55211-2 ISBN 978-1-137-55212-9 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-55212-9
Library of Congress Control Number: 2017935978
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Kingdom
To all the academics aspiring for peace that would allow Gaia, Evin, Duru,
and all the children of this planet to live in a peaceful present and future.
A
cknowledgments
This edited volume has been made possible only by the commitment,
support, and assistance of a number of people and institutions. First and
foremost, we thank our authors. Without the hardwork and commitment
they put into this collaborative task since the first day, this book would not
exist; so thank you.
We also extend our sincere gratitude to the following institutions and
their administrative teams for their generous financial, academic, and orga-
nizational support during our fieldwork: our own institution, Hacettepe
University (Ankara, Turkey), Centre Jacques-Berque Pour Les Etudes en
Sciences Humaines et Sociales (CJB, Centre national de la recherche scien-
tifique Rabat, Morocco), and École de Gouvernance et d’Economie (Rabat,
Morocco).
In June 2014, we held a collaborative, international workshop,
University in the Neoliberal Era: Cultures, Stories, Voices That Matter, in
Rabat, Morocco, where the majority of the chapters in this compilation
were initially presented. We thank the following individuals for their col-
laboration, insights, and feedback before and during the workshop: Suavi
Aydın (former Dean, Faculty of Communication, Hacettepe University)
for his constant support during his term in office; Baudouin Dupret (for-
mer Director of CJB, Rabat, Morocco) for supporting the workshop and
serving as a discussant; Mohamed Tozy (Dean, EGE-Rabat) for the col-
laboration and the support; and Kerem Öktem (Deputy Director, Center
for Southeast European Studies, University of Graz, Austria) for joining
us in Rabat and serving as a discussant.
vii
viii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Of course, there are also several people to thank at Palgrave Macmillan
Publications: We thank Andrew James, former commissioning editor,
whose early encouragement and motivation was essential in bringing
this collective effort to life. We especially thank Eleanor Christie for her
constant support and patience throughout the project. We thank Laura
Aldridge, editorial assistant, for her excellent work during the production
phase. We are also grateful to those whose designing, proofreading, and
indexing skills were central to the current work.
We thank Petr Pabian (University of Pardubice, Czech Republic) for his
careful review of one of the chapters in the book and Jerry Spring for his
meticulous language editing and valuable advice. As always, we are grate-
ful for the constant tolerance, support, and forbearance we received from
our family members (in particular, Simten thanks Ediz, Elifçe, Cuddles,
Four, and Kızım, and Hakan thanks his wife Regina and his daughter
Gaia). Last but certainly not least, we thank all the participants who facili-
tated our fieldwork, but whose names we will keep anonymous.
Hakan Ergül and Simten Coşar
c
ontents
1 Editorial Introduction 1
Hakan Ergül and Simten Coşar
Part I Emerging Cultures: Between Neoliberal Know-How
and Academic Universals 19
2 Beyond the Third Mission: Toward an Actor-Based
Account of Universities’ Relationship with Society 21
Jana Bacevic
3 Searching for Authenticity and Success: Academic Identity
and Production in Neoliberal Times 41
Özgür Budak
4 Turkish Academics’ Encounters with the Index in Social
Sciences 61
Eda Çetinkaya
ix
x CONTENTS
Part II Stories of Mediation, Negotiation and Resilience 93
5 V ariegated Neoliberalization in Higher Education:
Ambivalent Responses to Competitive Funding in 
the Czech Republic 95
Josef Kavka
6 C reating Jobs for the Social Good: Moving Beyond
the Neoliberal Model of Education for Employment 119
Shana Cohen
7 T ransformation, Reformation or Decline? The 
University in Contemporary Morocco and Turkey 145
Hakan Ergül, Simten Coşar, and Fadma Ait Mous
Part III Voices of Dissent 179
8 T he Historico-Political Parameters of Academic
Feminism in Turkey: Breaks and Continuities 181
İnci Özkan Kerestecioğlu and Aylin Özman
9 ‘Homo Academicus’ in University Inc.: The Ersatz
Yuppie Academic 217
Hasan Ünal Nalbantoğlu
Index 273