Universities have become toxic sites characterised by anxiety, depression and humiliation. Following new managerialism, leadership and management in universities have been driven by the mandate of achieving efficiency, which has led to the implementation of stringent performance management systems, increasing accountability and authoritarianism. While performance management is justified as an accountability tool that drives efficiency and effectiveness, its demand for absolute transparency has created “panopticons” and “glass cages”. These have produced a stifling atmosphere in academic spaces, often characterised by competing demands for high research outputs and quality teaching, thus placing academics in subjected positions where their agency is threatened. In view of academics silently constructing uncontrolled and uncontrollable spaces to avoid increasing surveillance, I argue that academics are resisting universities’ demand for the invading transparency of performance management. Through a critical social constructionist case study of academics and heads of departments, this article explores the paradoxical position of performing academics—those functioning within the “performative culture” while undermining neoliberal performative inscriptions. Framed by the notion of power and resistance and drawing on critical geography and workplace resistance literature, the study reveals that academics’ acts are going against the controlled daily grind of systematised practices that are often meaningless in relation to quality education. They are reimagining and reconstructing lecture halls, stairs, offices and conference spaces as “invisible” free spaces outside direct managerial control.

中文翻译：

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“躲在玻璃笼子里”：绩效管理作为监视-以学术空间为抵抗空间的案例

大学已成为以焦虑，抑郁和屈辱为特征的有毒场所。继新的管理主义之后，大学的领导和管理受到提高效率的使命的驱动，这导致实施严格的绩效管理体系，增加问责制和专制主义。尽管绩效管理被认为是提高效率和有效性的问责工具，但其对绝对透明性的需求却创造了“全景主义者”和“玻璃笼子”。这些在学术空间中产生了令人窒息的气氛，通常以对高研究成果和高质量教学的竞争需求为特征，从而使学者处于其代理机构受到威胁的受命地位。考虑到学者们默默地建造不受控制和无法控制的空间以避免增加监视，我认为学者们正在抵制大学对绩效管理日益透明的需求。通过对学者和部门负责人进行批判性的社会建构主义案例研究，本文探讨了表演学者的悖论立场，即那些在“表演文化”中起作用而破坏新自由主义表演题词的人。该研究以权力和抵抗的概念为框架，并借鉴了重要的地理和工作场所的抵抗文学，该研究表明，学者的行为与有组织的日常控制行为相违背，而这种日常行为通常与素质教育无关。他们正在重新构想和重建演讲厅，楼梯，