The Boundary Work of Commercialists in Academe: Implications for Postdoctoral Training

David R. Johnson

The Journal of Higher Education, 2018, vol. 89, issue 4, 503-526

Abstract: Using two conceptual frameworks—boundary work and field theory—I examined how academic scientists’ strategies for demarcating science from the market have implications for professional socialization. I focused on how field theory’s emphasis on group differentiation, power, and rules within fields can inform analysis of boundary work. The study was organized around two questions: How do academic scientists demarcate the fields of science and the market? What role do noncommerical scientists, graduate students, and postdoctoral scientists play in commercially oriented scientists’ boundary work? Drawing from in-depth interviews with 61 commercialist and traditionalist scientists at commercially intensive research universities, I identified three “rules” that operate as boundaries between science and the market. Commercialist adherence to these rules translated into a particular practice of third party impression management in which commercialists used postdoctoral scientists to segment science from the market. The liminality of postdoctoral scientists, which originates in their status as trainees between formal education and permanent positions, doubled as commercialist advisors situated them in the space between the fields of science and the market. The findings suggest that contemporary ways of protecting the integrity of the professoriate may operate at the expense of the long-term health of the profession by undermining professional socialization.

Date: 2018
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/00221546.2018.1434281 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:uhejxx:v:89:y:2018:i:4:p:503-526

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/uhej20

DOI: 10.1080/00221546.2018.1434281

Access Statistics for this article

The Journal of Higher Education is currently edited by Mitchell Chang

More articles in The Journal of Higher Education from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().