ABSTRACT
This chapter seeks to propose ways of thinking about academic labor in the 21st century. In many ways, some of the crises seek to create work that is like that being sought by grant providers, donors, and corporate interests. In other words, the neoliberal university may seek to more and more limit what labor counts as legitimate and likable by the market and consumers while academics may eschew such demands to instead simply do what they like. Like is a "thing" people say and do, but it has not yet been significantly explored to see what it offers in being said and done beyond marketing research. It is, in that sense, an affect and action that is devoid of an historical and theoretical tradition. Marketers have done some great work transforming the society into one that, primarily, consumes things. Critique, writing, and research are things people do and in doing them they invent, create, and become things themselves.
