A tiny 4 percent elite of faculty dominates research production and conference leadership

Evidence

The faculty of American colleges and universities are composed of two classes. One class are the teachers: they engage in little research, seldom if ever publish, and spend the overwhelming portion of their days on the campus, in the classroom and the committee room. They constitute perhaps 96 percent of the faculty members. The second class is composed of the productive scholars and the academic entrepreneurs. They receive most of the research money, publish almost all the serious research, manage and staff all the major conferences, and hold the offices of the professional societies. They are the other 4 percent. — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 141

Categorization

Category: Factual Claims

• XREF: Previews the academic-entrepreneur model later formalized in academic capitalism literature; echoes the 1 percent vs 99 percent framing.

Related

• Stigler divided faculty into a productive elite 4 percent and a disposable 96 percent (similarity 0.92)

Broader Connections

• Intellectual congresses concentrated elite influence and steered lower-grade scholars #corroborates (0.78)