Power and the PhD Journey: ‘Getting in’ and ‘Getting on’

Abstract

In this chapter we examine power processes within academia through an analysis of our personal narratives of undertaking doctoral research (in social sciences) against multi-dimensional frameworks of power (McNay 2000; Morley 1999). The PhD process can encompass a wide range of issues including those related to research methodology, practice and theory as well as the contextual significance of personal and institutional settings to knowledge production, but we focus on issues of power emerging from our transitions and experiences in commencing doctoral research, on what we have called the achievement of ‘getting in’ (accessing doctoral research opportunities) and ‘getting started’ (the first months of study). We write this as two White British able bodied women from differing class backgrounds (as we discuss later). However, commencing PhD research for both authors involved ambivalence and struggle in the transition towards an academic career negotiated within particular personal, biographical and institutional sets of circumstances. The relationship between achieving a PhD, taking our academic careers forward and the wider context of social positioning, institutional settings, power and knowledge constitute our central concerns. The narratives we present in this chapter are based on reflections guided by personal memory, journal entries, and discussions within the Women’s Workshop and elsewhere and situated alongside the analysis of power relations, processes and outcomes in higher education (Morley 1999; David 2000; Wisker 1996).