Abstract

This paper argues that the South African postdoctoral fellow system is de-professionalising academic work by constituting postdocs as students who receive training from the university rather than employees who work for it. Ironically, it obscures this de-professionalisation with a discourse of postdoctoral fellowships as ‘professional development’ opportunities. This case is made through a critical discourse analysis which contrasts the way universities construct postdoctoral fellowships on their websites with a structural analysis of the functions postdoctoral fellows fulfil within a commodifying higher education system. Postdocs produce research outputs for universities more cheaply than employees, and in a way which makes universities score better on various metrics that only count permanently-employed academics. Considering Fairclough’s ideas about the relationship between semiotic and other elements of institutions, the discourse of ‘professional development’ serves as a delaying and distracting tactic which keeps us from asking whether academic scholars should be supported by stable employment.

摘要

本文认为，南非博士后研究员制度通过将博士后构成为接受大学培训的学生而不是为其工作的员工，正在使学术工作去专业化。具有讽刺意味的是，它用博士后奖学金作为“专业发展”机会的话语掩盖了这种去专业化。这个案例是通过批判性话语分析得出的，该分析将大学在其网站上构建博士后奖学金的方式与对博士后研究员在商品化高等教育系统中履行的职能的结构分析进行了对比。博士后为大学提供的研究成果比雇员更便宜，并且以某种方式使大学在仅计算永久就业学者的各种指标上得分更高。