D 2.1
Session: D
Parallel Session: 2.1
Research Domain: Reshaping Academic Practice, Work and Cultures
Lars Geschwind, Karin Larsson
Swedish Institute for Studies in Education and research, Stockholm, Sweden
ABSTRACT:
Identities and career strategies of young researchers in the arts and humanities
The aim of the study is to analyse the career strategies and the character of
academic identities of young researchers in the arts and humanities in Sweden. In
what way do the social and scientific conditions in the local academic environment
affect the identities of young researchers in their strategies for a future career, and
how can individuals in turn affect the institutions and bring new ideas and visions
into the scientific context? Data is drawn from a questionnaire addressed to all
researchers with a doctoral degree awarded from 2002 and onwards.
It is assumed that people act rationally but within the parameters of existing formal
and informal social structures (March & Olsen 1989, Rothstein 2003). Academic
norms and the relationship between the individual and the academic community are
discussed by Mary Henkel (2000). She argues that scientists strive to do research
on what they find interesting and important. But, the ambition for profit, power and
acknowledgement requires that they distinguish themselves from predecessors yet
at the same time integrate in the academic community. “Traditional academic
reward systems reflect the cultivation of an institutionalized individualism within a
community of peers”, she says.
Several studies have dealt with career opportunities and shaping of academic
identities with respect to young researchers. However, when looking at the arts and
humanities, the social formation is particularly interesting as it goes hand in hand
with difficulties to adapt to the ongoing changes of the preconditions for
conducting science, which are often seen as consequences of the globalisation
process. Today, many recently graduated PhDs in this area are facing insecure
conditions of employment and limited opportunities for research. Research funding
is to a higher extent competitive. Becoming a successful researcher does not only
require devotion and talent, but also strategic entrepreneurial thinking, ability to
attract funding from various external parts, and to connect and collaborate within
and outside academia. While young scientists in the ‘hard’ sciences seem to adapt
to this new situation rather easily, this is not the case within arts and humanities.
Thus, our ambition is to study identities and career strategies in the context of the
recent and ongoing changes regarding the conditions for doing research. This
includes locating, describing and analysing scientific environments where
strategies to manoeuvre in this new context have developed, as well as
environments which have failed in this respect.
With its focus on career strategies and identities in transition, the study is closely
linked to the research domain Reshaping Academic Practice, Work and Cultures.
References:
Henkel, M. (2000) Academic Identities and Policy Change in Higher Education.
London: Jessica Kingsley
March, J P. & Olsen, G. (1984) The new institutionalism: Organizational Factors in
Political Life, The
American Political Science Review, Vol 78, No 3.
Rothstein, B. (2003) Sociala fällor och tillitens problem, Stockholm: SNS förlag