Contested Professional Identities in Commercial Contexts of Academic Science

• In Event: 540 - Section on Science, Knowledge, and Technology Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 06. Knowledge Economies and Commerce

Abstract

Drawing on interviews with 61 commercialist and traditionalist scientists at four commercially-intensive universities, this article examines how the operation of financial rewards in the traditionally “pure” profession of science has created contested professional identities. The analysis examines the identity work behind adaptation to, and rejection of, the commercial role. I present the processes by which commercialists and traditionalists maintain a coherent self-identity in response to ongoing reminders of the questionable desirability of commercialization. In observing the ways in which scientists legitimate and disidentify with the commercial role, we gain an understanding of the specific processes which enable commitment to commercialist and traditionalist career paths. For sociologists of science, these findings have implications for how we conceptualize professional identity. For sociologists of professions, the findings have implications for how we think about the relationship between professional differentiation and dirty work.

Author

• David R. Johnson, Rice University