Restratification in Academia: The Struggle for Professional Identity
Abstract
The academic workplace is a space of tension as work and professional goals clash with organizational logic. Neo-liberal managerial philosophy of casualization, efficiency, and work intensification amplifies the inequalities in the division of labour created by two-tiered hiring practices within the academic profession. This article adds to the growing body of literature that examines the effects of precarity within a profession. It explores professional restratification of academia through in-depth interviews in which professors, employed at two Ontario universities, discuss perceptions of their own roles and professional identity within the academic workplace. Findings suggest everyday experiences in academia reflect agentic perspectives and behaviours of both contract and tenured professors as they endeavour to sustain their professional identities.
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Published
2026-06-19
Keywords
restratification, precarity, contract faculty, new public management, institutional logics, professional identity
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Copyright (c) 2026 Anne-Marie Bresee, Tracey Adams
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