Academic Tribes and Territories : Intellectual Enquiry and the Culture of Disciplines

by Becher, Tony; Trowler, Paul

• ISBN13: 9780335206278
• ISBN10: 0335206271
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-11-01
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill

Summary

Acclaim for the first edition of Academic Tribes and Territories: '...Becher's insistence upon in-depth analysis of the extant literature while reporting his own sustained research doubled the thickness of the material to be covered...Academic Tribes and Territories is a superb addition to the literature on higher education...There is here an education to be had.' (Burton R. Clark, Higher Education) '...Becher's landmark work. The higher education community - both practitioners and educational researchers - need to assimilate and to heed the message of this important and insightful book.' (Alan E. Bayer, Journal of Higher Education) 'a bold approach to a theory of academic relations...The result is a debt to him {Becher} for all students of higher education.' (The Times Educational Supplement) 'a classic in its field...The book is readily accessible to any member of the academic profession, but it also adds significantly to a specialist understanding of the internal life of higher education institutions in Britain and North America. I confidently predict that it will appear prominently on citation indices for many years.' (Gareth Williams, Studies in Higher Education) How do academics perceive themselves and colleagues in their own disciplines, and how do they rate those in other subjects? How closely related are their intellectual tasks and their ways of organizing their professional lives? What are the interconnections between academic cultures and the nature of disciplines? Academic Tribes and Territories maps academic knowledge and explores the diverse characteristics of those who inhabit and cultivate it. This second edition provides a thorough update to Tony Becher's classic text, first published in 1989, and incorporates research findings and new theoretical perspectives. Fundamental changes in the nature of higher education and in the academic's role are reviewed and their significance for academic cultures is assessed. This edition moves beyond the first edition's focus on elite universities and the research role to examine academic cultures in lower status institutions internationally and to place a new emphasis on issues of gender and ethnicity. This second edition successfully renews a classic in the field of higher education.

Author Biography

Tony Becher was Professor of Education at the University of Sussex Paul Trowler is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Educational Research at Lancaster University

Table of Contents

Preface to the First Edition	ix
Preface to the Second Edition	xiii
Abbreviations	xvi
Landscapes, Tribal Territories and Academic Cultures	1	(22)
He in the post-industrial environment	1	(1)
The globalized landscape	2	(2)
The phenomenon of massification	4	(2)
The regulatory state	6	(1)
The triple helix	7	(1)
Marketizing knowledge	8	(2)
Economy, efficiency and effectiveness	10	(4)
Patterns of growth and fragmentation	14	(1)
Changing landscapes, shifting territories	15	(4)
Levels of analysis	19	(3)
Note	22	(1)
Points of Departure	23	(18)
Relating tribes and territories	23	(2)
The source material	25	(2)
Academic cultures and structural location	27	(1)
Some landmarks in the argument	28	(1)
The pieces of the patchwork	29	(2)
Restrictions and paradigms	31	(2)
Knowledge as portrayed by the knower	33	(2)
Characteristics of subject matter	35	(5)
Notes	40	(1)
Academic Disciplines	41	(17)
The nature of a discipline	41	(1)
Disciplines and organizational structures	41	(1)
Global disciplines: unity and diversity	42	(1)
Tribalism and tradition	42	(1)
Disciplinary socialization	42	(8)
Some relevant writings	50	(4)
Some complicating factors	54	(1)
Notes	54	(4)
Overlaps, Boundaries and Specialisms	58	(17)
Adjoining territories	58	(2)
Areas of common ground	60	(2)
The cause of unification	62	(2)
Disciplines under the microscope	64	(1)
The nation of a specialism	65	(3)
Some social considerations	68	(2)
Some cognitive considerations	70	(1)
Types of specialization	71	(1)
Frames of reference	72	(1)
Notes	73	(2)
Aspects of Community Life	75	(29)
The quest for recognition	75	(3)
The way to get on	78	(3)
Pecking orders, elites and the Matthew effect	81	(3)
Leading academics, gatekeepers and the exercise of power	84	(2)
Peer review and the process of validation	86	(4)
Networks and social circles	90	(5)
The influence of fashion	95	(2)
Reactions to innovative ideas	97	(3)
The revolutionary and the normal	100	(1)
Notes	101	(3)
Patterns of Communication	104	(27)
The life-blood of academia	104	(1)
Population density	105	(1)
Urban and rural scenarios	106	(2)
Informal communication channels	108	(2)
Formal modes of interchange	110	(2)
Speed, frequency and length of publication	112	(2)
Citation practices and their implications	114	(2)
Questions of style and accessibility	116	(2)
Competition	118	(4)
Collaboration	122	(4)
Controversy	126	(2)
Some significant distinctions	128	(1)
Notes	129	(2)
Academic Careers	131	(28)
Personality and environment	131	(3)
Recruitment and the choice of specialisms	134	(2)
The achievement of independence	136	(4)
The mid-life crisis	140	(4)
The end-point of active research	144	(3)
Personal matters	147	(2)
Women's academic careers	149	(4)
Race, ethnicity and academic careers	153	(3)
Notes	156	(3)
The Wider Context	159	(22)
The academy in the marketplace	159	(2)
Academics as social animals	161	(4)
Outside influences on specialist groups	165	(5)
Disciplinary status and power	170	(6)
Knowledge domains and social relevance	176	(3)
Notes	179	(2)
Implications for Theory and Practice	181	(27)
Tidying up the categories	181	(2)
The basic dimensions	183	(3)
Applying the taxonomy	186	(3)
Connections between categories	189	(2)
A further note on status	191	(3)
Diversity and its consequences	194	(6)
Managerialist intervention and academic autonomy	200	(4)
Mutual understandings and common causes	204	(2)
Notes	206	(2)
Appendix: Data for the Initial Study	208	(5)
Subject coverage	208	(1)
Methods of data collection	208	(3)
Variables in the research design	211	(2)
Bibliography	213	(23)
Index	236	(3)
The Society for Research into Higher Education	239