In this article we examine the ways in which institutional stratification and academic labor segmentation contribute to shaping faculty collaborative activities. We draw on interviews from science and engineering faculty at two institutions in the United States to highlight how collaboration, as an essential form of academic labor, is shaped by…

Americans are increasingly divided in their views on higher education, often in alignment with their political affiliations. This study examines how perspectives on one of the most pressing issues in higher education, college affordability, differ across political ideologies. For our analysis, we exploit an original dataset of text appearing on…

Research often considers vertical stratification between U.S. higher education institutions. Yet differences also exist within higher education institutions, which we term "organizational segmentation." We understand organizational segmentation as a consequence of the external "prestige economy," which favors research revenues…

Since the 1980s the number of postdocs employed at U.S. research universities has increased dramatically as has the importance of postdocs to academic research. Growth in postdoc employment has coincided with increased dependence on external research funds. Using panel regression analysis, this article explores the organizational characteristics…

With the aim of advancing the growing research literature on faculty development, a model of pretenure faculty success in teaching and research was proposed. Building from the early-career faculty literature and self-determination theory, we hypothesized that balance, clear expectations, and collegiality predict success by supporting autonomy,…

Dissatisfaction with postdoctoral appointments is associated with demographics, career goals, types of research, postdoc-advisor interaction, and program quality. Rather than a simple inverse relationship to dissatisfaction, the effect of program quality depends on the postdoc's autonomy to shape a research project, interaction with an advisor,…

This study uses multilevel modeling to analyze data from a national sample of full-time, undergraduate faculty at four-year institutions to examine the connections among race, gender, sources of stress, and productivity in the areas of research, teaching, and service. We find that stress due to discrimination has particular negative salience for…

This study shows a case of a department heavily involved in industry-academia collaborations and patenting activities while exhibiting high levels of academic norms such as teaching, basic research, academic freedom and free dissemination of knowledge. Based on the findings, the author argues that academic capitalism is a highly contextual…

We present Bourdieu's notions of field, capital, "habitus," and strategy and how these concepts apply today in light of academic capitalism using an empirical study of faculty work in one specific field in engineering that exemplifies current tendencies brought by academic capitalism. We conclude with a discussion of practical implications.…

The role of research in higher education is analyzed with a history of how it achieved its status and an analogy of what circumstances must surround its continuance. (HS)

Describes a project at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, to illustrate the conflicts of doing research on social problems in a university setting. It was concluded that doing research on social problems affects the conduct of science as it relates to control and self-determination over research. (Editor/PG)

A study at one research university investigated whether differences in departmental teaching and research climates are associated with differences in student outcomes. Results suggest departments with a balanced orientation toward research and teaching have the most favorable impact on students in terms of intellectual growth, disciplinary skills,…

Concludes that: (1) the biases inherent in the system of research support encourage analytical excesses; (2) major historical forces impinging on the postsecondary educational system will create strains; (3) previous research is of limited usefulness; and (4) large-scale sectoral models only provide the appearance of rationality to policy action.…

The motivations and costs of collaboration in research reflect tensions between scientists' individualistic dispositions and the communal norms of science. Collaboration affects the advancement and integrity of research, and assessment and evaluation help determine the conditions under which collaboration is in the best interests of scholarship.…