Precarity and ‘uberisation’ in higher education: What crisis?

This paper problematises the identification of crises by management in higher education (HE). It argues that HEIs are unwilling to define phenomena as crises that have implications for their structure and global rank. Hence, they are unwilling to identify the precarity and ‘uberisation’ of early career academics and researchers (ECARs) as a crisis. The theoretical perspective asks who benefits from the identification/non-identification of a problem as a crisis (Bacchi, 1999) and uses the concepts of transitional citizenship and non-citizenship (Sumer et al, 2020) to understand the precarious situation of ECARs. Drawing on fragmented national data in Ireland and Portugal, the extent and gendered nature of these patterns will be explored. Both experienced severe economic recession in 2008 with austerity measures; both bought into Research and Development as a way to foster economic competitiveness, into managerialism as an appropriate mode of governance in HEIs, and into projectification and an entrepreneurial research funding model (Goastellec et al, 2021). The numbers of those with doctorate degrees increased exponentially in both countries- with Ireland being above the EU average for 25-64year olds with doctorates and Portugal being just below it (OECD, 2019). They differ in terms of the structure of the academic career; the data available and state interest in the issue of precarity. It will be suggested that HEIs do not see the precarity of ECARs as a crisis partly because many ECARs increase research outputs and global ranking (Ahmed, 2016). Managerialism, exacerbated by global ranking and research funding models, and more fundamentally, by a model underpinning valued knowledge production in hierarchical HEIs (one which accepts the exploitation of ECARs by permanent academics) facilitates this denial. HEIs appear unwilling to define it as a crisis despite pressure by international bodies (EC Directive 99/70/EC; OECD, 2021). Variation in the manifestation of the ECAR situation in Ireland and Portugal will be explored i.e. non-citizenship in Portugal and transitional citizenship in Ireland, with the gendered implications of these different patterns being explored within the limits of the available national data.