Meaning and purpose in academic research: researchers of the 1990s vs 2010s

This chapter reports on six longitudinal case-studies of the meaning and purpose of research, as experienced by academics on research and teaching appointments in a research-intensive university in Australia. The case-studies are based on a comparison of interviews conducted with these academics in 1997, when neoliberal regulatory policies were first starting to impact research in Australian universities, and interviews with the same academics in 2012, by which time such policies were well entrenched. The aim of the chapter is to provide insight into the impact of the changing regulatory context on how research is being experienced within an academic career. A number of common changes were found in participants’ descriptions of their research and academic life between 1997 and 2012, including (a) references to much higher administrative burdens; (b) expressions of cynicism, stress and fatigue, in particular related to reduced time and increased pressure for research; and (c) less holistic experiences of research, with distinctions drawn between institutionally-required research that is needed to meet university performance expectations and interest-inspired research that is felt to be important and interesting in its own right. In 1997, participants described all of the research they engaged in in a consistent way. But by 2012, they described engaging in different types of research for different purposes. All participants described interest-inspired research, which was experienced as an act of discovery or contribution that enhanced personal understanding and disciplinary/social change. But some explicitly contrasted this with institutionally required research, which was experienced as an academic duty intended to produce concrete outcomes, such as published papers and research grants required to meet institutional performance measures. These findings indicate that conflicts between academic and neoliberal values in research are not simply disappearing over time, despite long-term acculturation to neoliberal values. Such conflicts continue to impact academics’ psychological well-being, and there is evidence that academics’ experience of research may be becoming more fragmented.