Why Do Faculty Members Engage With Academic Capitalist Activities?

• In Event: 25.067 - Roundtable Session 7
  In Roundtable Session: 25.067-7 - Faculty Identity and Decision Making

Abstract

In this descriptive and close-up study, I examine academic capitalist activities among a group of Chinese social sciences and humanities (SSH) faculty members and explicate how faculty members direct their reflexive capacity at macro-environments such as professional status, collective cultures in “work units” and government-industry-university triad relationships and subsequently decide upon whether to participate or to shun academic capitalist activities. Data suggest that faculty entrepreneurialism, to a large extent, is based on existing institutional configurations in Chinese academic settings. While exercising reflexive and evaluative capacity, sometimes faculty members “think” with more imprints of macro-circumstances and sometimes with more reflexivity and stronger personal volition, which subsequently has different bearings on the actions taken.

Author

• Jingning Zhang, Southeast University