Convergence and Divergence of Career Paths in the Labour Market: the Case of British Academia

Simon Paye (1, 2)

1 CSO - Centre de sociologie des organisations (Sciences Po, CNRS)
2 CMH - Centre Maurice Halbwachs

The proliferation of “research-only” and “teaching-only” posts in British universities can be interpreted as a signal that academics evolve in a segmented labour market. This view, however, is debatable. This paper proposes to go beyond static approaches of the labour market and to adopt a “career perspective” that emphasises on flow instead of stocks. The analysis of work histories gathered during in-depth interviews suggests that the labour market is not strictly segmented in terms of teaching and research, but that division of academic labour results from a process of individual differentiation. First, a convergence of early career paths leads to the crucial stage of securing a first permanent position. Subsequently, professional profiles tend to diverge through a sequence of career transitions. What is therefore put forward is an explanation of heterogeneity of the academic professions in terms of career differentiation.

Mots clés: division of labour; teaching-research nexus; academic careers; labour market; differentiation; sequence analysis

Mots clés: division du travail; lien enseignement-recherche; carrières universitaires; marché du travail; différenciation; analyse de séquences

Domaines: Sociologie

Simon Paye. Convergence and Divergence of Career Paths in the Labour Market: the Case of British Academia. 2012. ⟨halshs-00707529v2⟩