Neoliberal performativity in higher education: ethical dilemmas encountered when reporting on the lived experience of women living in drought-affected regions

Abstract

As researchers working within a neoliberalist academic regime propagated by discourses of responsibilisation, risk and prudentialism, we experienced a dilemma about whether to publicly present views expressed by research participants that critiqued the policy position of the government department that funded the research. Our dilemma was exacerbated because research funding is relatively difficult to attain for women academics. However, in recognising that rural women’s voices are often marginalised in rural policy formation, and to maintain our ethical responsibility to these participants, in this article we share these potentially contentious research findings and in doing so problematise neoliberal strictures that can erode individual researcher autonomy and that of universities as independent agents.