Between Delivery and Luck : Projectification of Academic Careers and Conflicting Notions of Worth at the Postdoc Level
(2025) In Minerva 63(1). p.69-92- Abstract
- This paper investigates how early career academics interpret and respond to institutional demands structured by projectification. Developing a ‘frame analytic’ approach, it explores projectification as a process constituted at the level of meaning-making. Building on 35 in-depth interviews with fixed-term scholars in political science and history, the findings show that respondents jointly referred to competition and delivery in order to make sense of their current situation. Forming what I call the project frame, these interpretive orientations were legitimized by various organizational routines within the studied departments, feeding into a dominant regime of valuation and accumulation. However, while the content of... (More)
- This paper investigates how early career academics interpret and respond to institutional demands structured by projectification. Developing a ‘frame analytic’ approach, it explores projectification as a process constituted at the level of meaning-making. Building on 35 in-depth interviews with fixed-term scholars in political science and history, the findings show that respondents jointly referred to competition and delivery in order to make sense of their current situation. Forming what I call the project frame, these interpretive orientations were legitimized by various organizational routines within the studied departments, feeding into a dominant regime of valuation and accumulation. However, while the content of the project frame is well-defined, attempts to align with it vary, indicating the importance of disciplines and academic age when navigating project-based careers. Furthermore, this way of framing academic work and careers provokes tensions and conflicts that junior scholars try to manage. To curb their competitive relationship and enable cooperation, respondents emphasized the outcome of project funding as ‘being lucky.’ They also drew on imagined futures to envision alternative scripts of success and worth. Both empirically and conceptually, the article contributes to an understanding of academic career-making as a kind of pragmatic problem-solving, centered on navigating multiple career pressures and individual aspirations. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/8e71b49c-492f-4a69-95c9-4c7300729698
- author
- Nästesjö, Jonatan LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2025
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- in
- Minerva
- volume
- 63
- issue
- 1
- pages
- 69 - 92
- publisher
- Springer
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85203402055
- scopus:86000378863
- ISSN
- 1573-1871
- DOI
- 10.1007/s11024-024-09541-3
- project
- Uncertainty and Worth in Academic Life: Exploring How Early Career Academics Navigate Changing Evaluative Landscapes
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 8e71b49c-492f-4a69-95c9-4c7300729698
- date added to LUP
- 2024-10-14 10:36:33
- date last changed
- 2025-06-24 11:33:29
@article{8e71b49c-492f-4a69-95c9-4c7300729698,
abstract = {{This paper investigates how early career academics interpret and respond to institutional demands structured by projectification. Developing a ‘frame analytic’ approach, it explores projectification as a process constituted at the level of meaning-making. Building on 35 in-depth interviews with fixed-term scholars in political science and history, the findings show that respondents jointly referred to <i>competition</i> and <i>delivery</i> in order to make sense of their current situation. Forming what I call <i>the project frame</i>, these interpretive orientations were legitimized by various organizational routines within the studied departments, feeding into a dominant regime of valuation and accumulation. However, while the content of the project frame is well-defined, attempts to align with it vary, indicating the importance of disciplines and academic age when navigating project-based careers. Furthermore, this way of framing academic work and careers provokes tensions and conflicts that junior scholars try to manage. To curb their competitive relationship and enable cooperation, respondents emphasized the outcome of project funding as ‘being lucky.’ They also drew on imagined futures to envision alternative scripts of success and worth. Both empirically and conceptually, the article contributes to an understanding of academic career-making as a kind of pragmatic problem-solving, centered on navigating multiple career pressures and individual aspirations.}},
author = {{Nästesjö, Jonatan}},
issn = {{1573-1871}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{1}},
pages = {{69--92}},
publisher = {{Springer}},
series = {{Minerva}},
title = {{Between Delivery and Luck : Projectification of Academic Careers and Conflicting Notions of Worth at the Postdoc Level}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11024-024-09541-3}},
doi = {{10.1007/s11024-024-09541-3}},
volume = {{63}},
year = {{2025}},
}