ABSTRACT
Academic work is increasingly located within the complex interplay between global, national and local contexts, pushing and pulling in different directions. Universities, whose "core business" is knowledge production, have become more important for nations in today's global economy, where knowledge is often treated as a commodity that moves quickly around the world. This chapter discusses the changing nature of academic work, which has seen universities and academics altering their mission statements and strategic plans to integrate themselves into the global knowledge economy. It focuses on empirical studies, including our own, that highlight the impact of corporate managerialism and new accountability mechanisms on academic work. The chapter provides a follow-up based on the preliminary results of academics surveyed in two of the 20 countries during 2007—the United Kingdom and Australia—about the consequences of funding constraints, expansion of higher education, greater competition and pressures to be more business-like and become more international.
