On the concept of the academic community in the conditions. Of contemporary transformations of the institution of the university

Abstract

The concept of “academic culture” represents an unfairly neglected research topic in anthropology and other social sciences. Even though it was given some theoretical attention in sociology during the 20th century, the concept of academic culture remains something which is, in its general meaning considered self-explanatory. Usually viewed as a static and highly formalized agglomeration of ideas and behaviors, academic culture is rarely directly considered as a dynamic process which is susceptible to influences from the “outside world”. The paper considers the idea of “academic culture” as a changeable and incoherent category, and the processes of identification of the members of the “academic community” with a supposed “culture” as fluid and multidimensional. The emphasis in the paper is put on the kinds of influence which contemporary reforms of the university and the new modes of governance which are developing have on the functioning of the university. These kinds of changes directly refer to the changes in the external and internal relationship towards academic work as well as the “academic community”, and some of the changes which were spotted in different academic contexts are considered relevant for the wider understanding of identity changes which members of academic communities go through today.