How the University Works : : Higher Education and the Low-Wage Nation / / Cary Nelson, Marc Bousquet.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter New York University Press Backlist eBook-Package 2000-2013
• VerfasserIn: Bousquet, Marc,; Nelson, Cary,
• MitwirkendeR: Nelson, Cary,
• Place / Publishing House: New York, NY : : New York University Press, , [2008]; ©2008
• Year of Publication: 2008
• Language: English
• Series: Cultural Front ; 3
• Physical Description: 1 online resource :; 4 black and white illustrations

Uncovers the labor exploitation occurring in universities across the countryAs much as we think we know about the modern university, very little has been said about what it's like to work there. Instead of the high-wage, high-profit world of knowledge work, most campus employees—including the vast majority of faculty—really work in the low-wage, low-profit sphere of the service economy. Tenure-track positions are at an all-time low, with adjuncts and graduate students teaching the majority of courses. This super-exploited corps of disposable workers commonly earn fewer than $16,000 annually, without benefits, teaching as many as eight classes per year. Even undergraduates are being exploited as a low-cost, disposable workforce. Marc Bousquet, a major figure in the academic labor movement, exposes the seamy underbelly of higher education—a world where faculty, graduate students, and undergraduates work long hours for fast-food wages. Assessing the costs of higher education's corporatization on faculty and students at every level, How the University Works is urgent reading for anyone interested in the fate of the university.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Foreword -- 1. Introduction -- 2. The Informal Economy of the “Information University” -- 3. The Faculty Organize, But Management Enjoys Solidarity -- 4. Students Are Already Workers -- 5. Composition as Management Science -- 6. The Rhetoric of “Job Market” and the Reality of the Academic Labor System -- Appendix A -- Appendix B -- Notes -- Works Cited -- Index -- About the Authors