University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Intellectuals, Workers or Both? Intellectual Workers in the University

ANTH 411_05-03

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/2310

Description

Title
Intellectuals, Workers or Both? Intellectual Workers in the University
Author(s)
ANTH 411_05-03
Issue Date
2005-05-15
Keyword(s)
  • Labor
  • Academics
  • Identity
Abstract
This project asks the following questions: To what extent do different kinds of intellectual workers in a university see themselves as workers? How do professors and graduate students grapple with intellectual worker as an identity (or identities) and make meaning from it and for it? How are the lines between worker, intellectual and intellectual worker defined and negotiated by academics in their everyday lived lives? What makes different people frame and live the university differently? Do current job positions (as graduate student or professor), past experiences, childhood class position or something else shape the way people see themselves as workers and intellectuals? On the basis of internet research, interviews, and mapping exercises, this study finds that the ‘official’ or dominant narrative produced by many universities relies on the assumption that the university is a bastion of intellectual endeavors and fails to acknowledge its reliance upon the labor of teachers to produce the product it is selling (i.e. education). Despite this dominant narrative, several informants talk with great awareness of the university as a workplace, but simultaneously see themselves as intellectuals who are part of an intellectual community. The project includes a proposal for continued research.
Type of Resource
text
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http://hdl.handle.net/2142/2310

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