Academic Tribes and Territories: Intellectual Enquiry and the Culture of DisciplinesAcclaim for the first edition of Academic Tribes and Territories: '...Becher's insistence upon in-depth analysis of the extant literature while reporting his own sustained research doubled the thickness of the material to be covered...Academic Tribes and Territories is a superb addition to the literature on higher education...There is here an education to be had.' (Burton R. Clark, Higher Education) '...Becher's landmark work. The higher education community - both practitioners and educational researchers - need to assimilate and to heed the message of this important and insightful book.' (Alan E. Bayer, Journal of Higher Education) 'a bold approach to a theory of academic relations...The result is a debt to him {Becher} for all students of higher education.' (The Times Educational Supplement) 'a classic in its field...The book is readily accessible to any member of the academic profession, but it also adds significantly to a specialist understanding of the internal life of higher education institutions in Britain and North America. I confidently predict that it will appear prominently on citation indices for many years.' (Gareth Williams, Studies in Higher Education) How do academics perceive themselves and colleagues in their own disciplines, and how do they rate those in other subjects? How closely related are their intellectual tasks and their ways of organizing their professional lives? What are the interconnections between academic cultures and the nature of disciplines? Academic Tribes and Territories maps academic knowledge and explores the diverse characteristics of those who inhabit and cultivate it. This second edition provides a thorough update to Tony Becher's classic text, first published in 1989, and incorporates research findings and new theoretical perspectives. Fundamental changes in the nature of higher education and in the academic's role are reviewed and their significance for academic cultures is assessed. This edition moves beyond the first edition's focus on elite universities and the research role to examine academic cultures in lower status institutions internationally and to place a new emphasis on issues of gender and ethnicity. This second edition successfully renews a classic in the field of higher education. |
Contents
Points of Departure | 23 |
Academic Disciplines | 41 |
Overlaps Boundaries and Specialisms | 58 |
Copyright | |
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academic profession activity American argued aspects big science biology career Carnegie Foundation cent Cetina Chapter characteristics chemistry chemists Clark cognitive competition concerned considerations context convergent Dalarö demic departments disciplinary communities disciplinary differences disciplines distinction diversity economic elite Elzinga enquiry epistemological example external externalist faculty fields funding gender groups hard applied hard pure HEFCE Henkel HESA Higher Education identified important individual influence initial institutions intellectual interests internal interviews involved issues Journal knowledge domains Kogan learning less London managerialism mathematics mechanical engineering ment Mulkay nature networks noted particular patterns perspective physicists physics political practice problems profes professional relatively relevant Research Assessment Exercise respondents rural scientific scientists significant social sciences sociologists sociology Sociology of Science soft pure specialisms specialist Staffordshire University status structure teaching tend theoretical theory tion topic Trowler urban women