Dilemmas in Practically Engaged Scholarship: Too Much of a Risk or a Matter of Safeguards?

Beirne, M. (2017) Dilemmas in Practically Engaged Scholarship: Too Much of a Risk or a Matter of Safeguards? Human Relations 70th Anniversary Workshop, London, UK, 10 Oct 2017. (Unpublished)

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Abstract

Arguments for an applied academic activism on work are capturing serious attention. After a period of evident neglect across the academy, social scientists are rediscovering principled traditions of scholarship that connect research with practical efforts to anticipate and promote genuinely enriching and empowering ways of managing and organizing work. Rebalancing scholarship along these lines will be less than straightforward, however. Personal and professional dilemmas are attached to practical projects, and these range beyond the issues and concerns that exercised academics in the past. Anxieties previously centred on academic freedom and independence from commercial pressures. There were fears about managerializing debates and the misappropriation of critical knowledge by enthusiasts for authoritarianism and tight labour control. Generations of researchers issued warnings about the perils of dealing with practitioners who expect contributions to be congenial and useful on their terms, raising the spectre of conservatism that has long haunted the human relations tradition. The problems are now also closer to home, however. Academics are more likely to confront conservatism and challenges to value-driven scholarship within their own employing organizations. Academic work has itself been affected by rationalistic impulses and far-reaching managerialism. These have restricted the space for alternative ideas about applied knowledge and practical impact, discouraging younger researchers in particular from looking beyond approved or detached positions to grapple with practical matters of challenging managerialism and changing work arrangements, within or beyond the academy. The corollary is that many academics are passionately frustrated rather than assuredly transformative in their outlook and practice. Establishing a safe environment for emancipatory work therefore involves more than negotiating access agreements that maintain integrity. It means claiming and defending space for academic activism in appraisal processes, building collective support and resilience arrangements, and devising effective ways of increasing the congruence between expressed values and applied scholarship under difficult local conditions. So how is this to be achieved? This presentation considers restrictions and possibilities to stimulate discussion.

Item Type:Conference or Workshop Item
Keywords:Quality of working life, human relations, practically engaged scholarship.
Status:Unpublished
Refereed:Yes
Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID:Beirne, Professor Martin
Authors: Beirne, M.
Subjects:H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General)
College/School:College of Social Sciences > Adam Smith Business School > Management
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