Individual Submission Summary
Share...

Direct link:

Theorizing the Role of Symbolic Boundaries in Segmented Labour Markets: Clues from Inside the Academy

Tue, August 25, 8:30 to 10:10am, TBA

Abstract

In this paper I examine the role of symbolic boundaries between two groups of workers in a single workplace - non-tenure-track faculty (NTTF) and tenure-track faculty (TTF). Drawing on 40 interviews with faculty members from the University of Toronto, I argue that non-tenure-track faculty members to contest their position in a lower socioeconomic and cultural status within the university use symbolic boundaries. Tenure-track faculty on the other hand tend to use symbolic boundaries to legitimate their current socioeconomic and cultural status within the university. I argue that when symbolic boundaries are constructed they tend to establish what is a good academic worker. When symbolic boundaries are contested; participants are contesting labor market segmentation or articulating organizational change.

Author