ABSTRACT
Research into the production of knowledge within universities and specific disciplines
has yielded numerous interesting accounts.1 Scholars addressing the management,
reform and future of universities have, however, noted a relative lack of interview-
based, reflexive and ethnographic data about the complex workings inside the ‘black
box’ of the university itself. In this chapter, I summarize research results that constitute
a partial glimpse of these internal workings as regards disciplinary distinctions
expressed through language and communicated to undergraduate students. The data
also suggest interesting metaphor shifts in contemporary knowledge production.
