Reacting to the Impact Agenda: Performativity and a ‘New Collegiality’

Abstract

This chapter considers the response to the impact agenda of academic researchers working in the marginal fields of tourism and related subjects. Drawing on interview data garnered from a selection of well-established researchers, including REF panel members, it finds extensive evidence of individualistic career-related performativity and widespread participation in what others have called a `new collegiality' (a system of control that emphasises competition with academics external to their workplace). Notwithstanding research orientations that often emphasise the economically liberating role of tourism, or its contribution to intercultural understanding and social improvement, there was little evidence of progressive or critical performativity. An important casualty of the growing focus on impact among those interviewed appears to be the reduced emphasis given to the teaching of students. This is argued to be damaging because it undermines a potentially more fruitful alternative activity, namely research to inform teaching.