Living on the edge? Professional anxieties at work in academia and veterinary practice

Knights, David and Clarke, Caroline (2018). Living on the edge? Professional anxieties at work in academia and veterinary practice. Culture and Organization, 24(2) pp. 134–153.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14759551.2017.1386190

Abstract

Through empirical research on academics and veterinary surgeons, this article focuses on identity and how it is reflected in, and reproduced by, anxiety and insecurity at work. Three analytical themes – perfection, performativity and commodified service – each of which generates anxiety indicates a loss of autonomy as academics and vets are subjected to competitive market forces as well as an intensification of masculine managerial controls of assessment, audit and accountability. We see these pressures and their effects as reflecting a commodification of service provision where the consumer (student or client) begins to redefine the relationship between those offering some expertise and those who are its recipients, partly achieved through the performative gaze of constant and visible rating mechanisms. Our empirical research also identifies sources of anxiety concerns in their attempts to achieve perfection against this background of uncertain knowledge and precarious contexts of the performative nature of professional expertise.

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