The invisible faculty fight back: Contingent academic labor and the political economy of the corporate university.
Item
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Title
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The invisible faculty fight back: Contingent academic labor and the political economy of the corporate university.
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Identifier
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AAI3278423
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identifier
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3278423
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Creator
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Tirelli, Vincent.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Marshall Berman
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Date
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2007
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Political Science, General | Education, Higher | Sociology, Industrial and Labor Relations
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Abstract
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This dissertation examines the potential of worker mobilization under adverse market conditions through an inquiry into efforts to organize contingent academic labor. In doing so, it first provides a historical and theoretical analysis of the development of the corporate university, explaining the central role that contingent academic labor plays in it. Following this groundwork, it then employs the case study method to analyze the experiences of contingent academic labor activists, primarily at the City University of New York and at Yale University. My primary hypothesis is that the reasons for the creation of the corporate university and the contingent academic labor force that characterizes it are as much rooted in class-based politics as they are in economics, and, therefore, that long-term success depends upon political mobilization, not merely upon narrowly construed collective bargaining strategies. The narrative case studies point to both successes and failures of such incipient mobilizations, and they serve as a measure of the validity of the primary hypothesis of this dissertation. By evaluating each case in terms of selected criteria, this dissertation provides a much-needed analysis of the politics of higher education that includes the often excluded contingent academic laborers as a vital part of a democratic movement that has been growing in the university.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
