Publish-or-perish pressure converts scholarship into a form of oppression.
Evidence
This frustration is not born out of hatred toward publication; rather, it is the implicit message that I have to publish more than my competition (my colleagues), or else I am not valuable (and nor are my insights). I am constantly told to “publish in top tier journals” because the academic job market is extremely competitive. However, I am hardly ever told to publish because it is a liberating exercise. … The message I receive is to publish because it will enhance my career, not because it will feed my soul and meaningfully contribute to emancipatory thinking and practice. While both these things can be true, when I am all but forced to do something if I want a job, that action is no longer liberating— it becomes oppressive. — James D. Kirylo (ed.), Reinventing Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 1214
Categorization
- XREF: Directly extends ch20’s claim that university administration messages mirror banking education. — connects to: Hierarchical structures reassert themselves in academia unless deliberately deconstructed. — James D. Kirylo (ed.), Reinventing Pedagogy of the Oppressed:…, 1206; Knowledge divorced from application becomes flavorless publication lists — James D. Kirylo (ed.), Reinventing Pedagogy of the Oppressed:…, 1187; Neoliberal authors produce obfuscating scholarship that disguises the movement’s own practices — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 1821 (+2 more)
- SEED: The observation that no one is ever told to publish ‘because it will feed your soul’ is a crisp critique of academia’s instrumentalization of writing worth an essay.
Broader Connections
- Neoliberal authors produce obfuscating scholarship that disguises the movement’s own practices
#exemplifies(0.82) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 1821 - Policy goals created a self-perpetuating scholarly industry justifying itself.
#exemplifies(0.78) — Edward W. Said, Covering Islam, 153 - Even critical scholars forced their work to serve traditional polemic ends.
#exemplifies(0.75) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1580