The new tools of the science trade: contested knowledge production and the conceptual vocabularies of academic capitalism

Abstract

Over the last three decades, scientists at research universities have responded in a wide variety of ways to the pressures of academic capitalism. Institutional research has under theorised this trend by assuming entrepreneurialism passively follows formal organisational change. In contrast, I treat academic capitalism not as but as a complex field characterised by contested knowledge production. An increased emphasis on knowledge capitalisation does not necessarily displace traditional academic values, although it may, but it has facilitated the diffusion of conceptual vocabularies that are retooling scientific culture and practice at the centre and margins. These vocabularies are (1) market‐oriented entrepreneurialism, (2) external consulting work, (3) consumer‐oriented research, and (4) interdisciplinarity. Their impact is diffuse across units, but involves processes of group and individual adoption, adaptation or resistance, as the case may be. Their local flavour varies by research domain, level and type of university embeddedness, and epistemic identity.