The New Spirit of Managerialism

Abstract

This chapter ‘The New Spirit of Managerialism’ focuses on the effects of European governance technologies on the academic profession. These technologies, whether they concern knowledge production, quality standards or evidence, support the development of a new spirit of academic capitalism which penetrates the academic world through New Public Management. This new managerial regime shifts the trials instituted by the academic tradition by drawing the figures of a new professionalism and promoting two ideal types: the expert and the entrepreneur. These new academic work conventions, elaborated from the criticism addressed to the profession, give rise to trends which undermine the collegial and corporatist model considered as unadjusted to a global world.