Writing papers under the academic management regimen: Body, affects and strategies

Abstract

Chile is a landmark case in opening up higher education to the free market and in the reformulation of the logics that regulate scientific production in universities. This translates into a management system for academic staff oriented by productivity bonuses associated with high-impact publications, by the distribution of research funds conditional on the productivity of researchers and by the rank of academic tasks. In this article, we present the results of a study that sought to explore and understand how highly productive social science academics describe scientific writing from everyday labor practice framed in new regulations of scientific production. Through the analysis of 20 interviews, we propose 3 categories: affectivity, fragility and strategy. These give an account of everyday aspects, as well as tensions and conflicts present in the process of scientific writing.