The Boundary Work of Commercialists in Academe
Implications for Postdoctoral Training
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 9008936 |
|---|---|
| Authors | David R Johnson (0000-0003-1094-1341, Higher Education Administration, University of Nevada Reno, Reno, Nevada, USA, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2018 |
| Volume | 89 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 503-526 |
| Publication date | 2018-04-04 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Journal of Higher Education (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0022-1546 • E-ISSN: 1538-4640 |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/00221546.2018.1434281 |
| OpenAlex | W2796036256 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 5 |
| References cited | 32 |
Using two conceptual frameworks—boundary work and field theory—I examined how academic scientists’ strategies for demarcating science from the market have implications for professional socialization. I focused on how field theory’s emphasis on group differentiation, power, and rules within fields can inform analysis of boundary work. The study was organized around two questions: How do academic scientists demarcate the fields of science and the market? What role do noncommerical scientists, graduate students, and postdoctoral scientists play in commercially oriented scientists’ boundary work? Drawing from in-depth interviews with 61 commercialist and traditionalist scientists at commercially intensive research universities, I identified three “rules” that operate as boundaries between science and the market. Commercialist adherence to these rules translated into a particular practice of third party impression management in which commercialists used postdoctoral scientists to segment science from the market. The liminality of postdoctoral scientists, which originates in their status as trainees between formal education and permanent positions, doubled as commercialist advisors situated them in the space between the fields of science and the market. The findings suggest that contemporary ways of protecting the integrity of the professoriate may operate at the expense of the long-term health of the profession by undermining professional socialization
Boundary (topology · Boundary-work · Engineering ethics · Field (mathematics · Liminality · Medical education · Pedagogy · Political science · Public relations · Situated · Social science · Socialization · Sociology · Work (physics · Doctoral Education Challenges and Solutions · Engineering · Management and Organizational Studies · Medicine · scientometrics and bibliometrics research
French Sociology
Professionalism
The sociology of science
Cultural Boundaries of Science
The System of Professions
The NBER Patent Citation Data File
Roads to Institutionalization
The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life
Stuck in the Middle
A Theory of Fields
U.S. Research Universities' Institutional Conflict of Interest Policies
Journal of higher education
From ‘Ivory Tower Traditionalists’ to ‘Entrepreneurial Scientists’
Academic Capitalism and Doctoral Student Socialization
Rise of the Science and Engineering Postdoctorate and the Restructuring of Academic Research
Isolated in the Lab
Faculty and Administrators' Attitudes toward Potential Conflicts of Interest, Commitment, and Equity in University-Industry Relationships
University Rankings in Critical Perspective
The Impacts of Postdoctoral Training on Scientists' Academic Employment
The "Traffic" in Graduate Students
Headhunters
Contradiction, convergence and the knowledge economy
The Locker Room and the Dorm Room
Constructing 'Disinterested' Academic Science
The Oncomouse That Roared
Science, capitalism, and the rise of the 'knowledge worker
The institutionalization of expertise in university licensing
| Unique citing works | 5 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,71 |
| Citation span | 2019 - 2024 (6) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 5 |