The construction of academic time: sub/contracting academic labour in research

This article offers a poststructuralist analysis of the academic division o f labour in the UK higher education sector. It takes the standpoint of a co ntract researcher and explores some new contradictions of an intensified ac ademic division of labour. It raises some political, social and methodologi cal questions of these divisions through exploring their class and gender d imension. As Paul Rabinow (1986) has argued despite talk of reflexivity, mo st academics remain deathly silent about the conditions of their own produc tion. He argues that reflection upon our own social, political, economic an d cultural location within the academy is one of the greatest taboos - far greater strictures operate against addressing the significance of 'corridor talk' than operate against the denunciation of objectivism. Until we can b ring to the surface and publicly discuss the conditions under which people are hired, given tenure, published, awarded grants and feted, 'real' reflex ivity will remain a dream' (Gill 1998: 38).