Abstract

This article discusses the intensification of research performance demands in UK universities in relation to the complex terrain of academic identity formation. It considers whether a demand for academic researchers to produce and evidence economic and societal impact – in the rewards game of the UK’s performance-based research funding system, the Research Excellence Framework (REF) – influences their self-concept as ‘engaged researchers’. While a designation of being REF impactful may be considered constitutive to a researcher’s sense of self-worth and advantageous to their professional and institutional profile, a consultation of researchers included within REF2014 impact case studies challenges these assumptions. Instead, respondents are found to complain of identity dispossession and exploitation by their universities where their public contributions are appropriated for positional gain. Their testimony confirms the prevalence of a culture of ‘competitive accountability’ across UK universities which is with a systemic insatiability for ‘scholarly distinction’, causing the privileging of appearance in rationalisations of publicly funded research. Using the theoretical insights of Guy Debord and Erving Goffman it is argued that REF impact elucidates the UK higher education sector as a ‘society of the Spectacle’ that subjugates ‘authentic’ versions of the academic Self. However, REF-impact is also seen to provide an opportunity for cultural detournément and a means to elicit and concurrently invert ‘simulations’ of research praxis’, thus enabling the assertion or ‘front-staging’ of perceived and idealised academic identities.

摘要

本文讨论了与学术身份形成的复杂领域相关的英国大学研究绩效需求的加剧。它考虑了对学术研究人员产生和证明经济和社会影响的需求 - 在英国基于绩效的研究资助系统的奖励游戏中，研究卓越框架 (REF) - 是否会影响他们作为“敬业的研究人员”的自我概念。虽然被认定为具有影响力的 REF 可能被认为是研究人员自我价值感的组成部分，并且有利于他们的专业和机构形象，但对 REF2014 影响力案例研究中的研究人员进行的咨询对这些假设提出了挑战。反而，受访者被发现抱怨他们的大学剥夺身份和剥削他们的公共贡献以谋取职位。他们的证词证实了“竞争问责”文化在英国大学中的盛行，这种文化对“学术成就”有着系统性的贪得无厌，导致在公共资助研究的合理化中出现特权。使用 Guy Debord 和 Erving Goffman 的理论见解，有人认为 REF 影响阐明了英国高等教育部门是一个“奇观社会”，它征服了学术自我的“真实”版本。然而，REF-impact 也被认为为文化迂回提供了机会，并提供了一种引发和同时反转研究实践“模拟”的手段，