How (much) is academic labour divided?

Simon Paye (1, 2)

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

The proliferation of monovalent jobs ("research-only" and "teaching-only" posts) in British universities is perceived to account for increasing division of academic labour. This paper adopts a longitudinal approach of the labour market based on flows instead of stocks. Biographical interviews and sequence analysis applied to a set of 122 careers suggest that the division of academic labour is not fully explained by the allocation of monovalent jobs. It also results from a process of functional differentiation that occurs within the permanent workforce. After securing the first permanent position, professional profiles tend to diverge through a sequence of career transitions, until reaching monovalent positions. What is therefore put forward is an explanation of the division of academic labour in terms of career differentiation, which complements existing studies based on synchronic job market analyses.

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. How (much) is academic labour divided?: Explaining the decoupling of the "teaching-research nexus" in British universities. 2012. ⟨halshs-00707529v1⟩