ABSTRACT
Identity work is ongoing work. It is work that is constituted by history and by the conditions within which we live and work, including the conflicts and tensions within specific workplaces. In this chapter, I focus on three themes born out of the tensions evident in academic identity and academic work in this post-millennial time. Specifically, I refer to (a) a prevailing negative climate within universities as workplaces characterised by a view that former golden times have been lost; (b) a sense of personal loss on the part of individual academics; and (c) a perceived shift from a culture of science to a culture of research that demands that knowledge be ‘capitalised’ to realise its value. I want to indicate that I am neither endorsing nor dismissing these developments. Rather, I seek to explore how they arise and how they contribute to contemporary academic identity formation1 as an ongoing, troubled and conflictual domain.
