Following the fall of the Berlin Wall, one incredible revelation was the expansive role of the secret police, vast network of informers, and level of personal surveillance. This was underscored to me in movies such as The Lives of Others, novels such as The Day of the Lie, and a seminar I attended about human rights abuses in Syria.
The survival of totalitarian regimes is facilitated by the regime creating a culture of fear at every level of society and institutions, from factories to families. You do not dare to question or criticise the regime. Even making a joke at work may send you to the gulag.
Over the last decade, I have noticed a cultural shift in universities where there seems to be a culture of fear in many different aspects. A few examples are below.
I should be clear that I am not suggesting that universities today are anything like Syria, China, or the former Soviet Union.
Nevertheless, it is worth reflecting on whether there is a culture of fear and what its implications are for productivity, job satisfaction, and the integrity of the institution.
Some of this fear is created by the hyper-competitive environment. Some results from the lust for power and control of managers.
I won't criticise the new policy just announced by my department chair because I don't want to tick them off before my promotion decision (or request for more lab space, sabbatical request, ...)
I won't ask my supervisor that question because she might think I am dumb.
I won't write that in the paper because Professor X, who may be a referee, won't like it. I need to get this paper in a ``high impact'' journal.
I won't write that on my blog because it may offend potential grant reviewers.
I won't publically criticise the latest crazy scheme of senior management because they may make it difficult for me to get promoted.
If I don't work on the latest fad topic I won't get lots of citations. Then I won't get funding/tenure/job...
If I don't publish in luxury journals I won't get funding/tenure/job...
In my paper, I won't talk about the limitations of my results or techniques because then the paper may not get published.
If I don't engage in hype I won't get funding.
I will do anything my boss wants. If I don't I may not get the superlative letter of reference I need to get my next job.
What do you think?
Is there a culture of fear?
If so, can you think of other examples.
Addendum. I should have made some constructive suggestions. I think that senior faculty have a responsibility to make their research groups safe spaces and environments and to not give way to the climate of fear.
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"I should be clear that I am not suggesting that universities today are not anything like Syria, China, or the former Soviet Union."
ReplyDeleteIs the double negative intentional?
Sorry. My mistake. I have removed the second not. Thanks.
DeleteThe vibrant and healthy competition which existed before 1997 has vanished. Centralization of administration saves money, but it creates a surveillance type society in Universities. The lust for power as you have mentioned is a natural side effect of centralization with fat pay packet luring even good faculties to admin posts.
ReplyDeleteThere is a constant surveillance on faculty funds with metrics of each faculty discussed like " Screen !! Screen, on the computer who has the highest H index and citations even after knowing that metrics is stupid stats. Vanity is in full bloom in Universities with some web sites claiming as to which faculty has crossed h index of 100.
You cannot ask questions in seminars for fear of being marked by the echelons of power in a faculty. This fear is a new phenomena in Universities.
A moment of pseudo humility " I don't care to publish in high impact factor journals turns into fully blown hubris within months when the same faculty publishes in luxury journals.
Before 1997 , there was no pretending by faculties. It was all natural and they were like true faculties. Now as Jacques Derrida puts in his quote it is all " To pretend actually I do the thing , I have therefore only pretended to pretend". Faculties would put Sean Connery, Richard Burton, Peter O'Toole to shame.
Teaching is not given due importance as true faculty activity. Here is a strange advice given by a Caltech faculty Prof
How to get a tenure at a major university.
https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/blog/2011/03/30/how-to-get-tenure-at-a-major-research-university/
"Everyone agreed my case was very close, and my teaching was among the best in the department; it didn’t help. The point is simple: this stuff is not research"
There is something more one has heard. Some faculty passionate about teaching first year physics undergrad student went an extra mile booking rooms for clearing doubts was told " This is not high school. Go and teach in schools"
There are two bks which deal with these aspects.
The fall of the faculty by B Ginsberg a social scientist Prof from John Hopkins Uni
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2011/07/14/fall-faculty
and
The Rise of the Bureaucratic scientist
by Ex Professor JLP Velaquez of physiology and Biophysics from University of Toronto
https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783030123253
Why is 1997 significant? What happened then?
Delete1997, The start of centralization of Universities. The trickle effect of this is the unwanted suicide of Stefan Grimm in UK , 2014
Deletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stefan_Grimm
and in the land of the free, here is what a Governor did.
Scott Walker Takes $250 Million From U. Wisconsin, Gives $250M To Billionaire Sports Team Owners
https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevensalzberg/2015/08/14/scott-walker-takes-250-million-from-u-wisconsin-gives-250m-to-billionaire-sports-team-owners/#6589391c674e
Both the Unis in UK and US are flagship Unis. In S Grimm's case , a personal meeting ( oral discussion or to say logos ) would have solved the problem. However, a centralized mind sends a nasty email to S Grimm and rest is history.
In the second case Walker recently lost the election. However, the centralized mind of Walker when in power cut funds of U of Wisconsin.
Centralization creates an artificial Berlin Wall in which Orwell's Big brother seeps in.
First it was an email , and then straight into the office of SG to inform him about his sacking in front of a student ,,,,, the whole affair is in SG's email inn the web site below.
DeleteThis is culture of fear.
http://www.dcscience.net/2014/12/01/publish-and-perish-at-imperial-college-london-the-death-of-stefan-grimm/
https://forbetterscience.com/2019/12/04/catherine-verfaillie-the-zombie-scientist-of-ku-leuven/
ReplyDeleteThe Catholic University Leuven in Belgium is a haunted place....... says the above article. Fear plus Fear.
The name of Elizabeth Bik is mentioned in the article, who has this web site
https://scienceintegritydigest.com/
where she has taken a new Sherlock Holmes-Watson type activity to expose the neo academic enterprise of faking, photoshopping etc . She is not country specific.
Relevant to your article
ReplyDeleteWhy We Should Fear University, Inc.
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/13/magazine/why-we-should-fear-university-inc.html
What happened to University ?
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLuPTTmE72I
https://www.amazon.com/Whats-Happened-University-Frank-Furedi/dp/1138212938#customerReviews
This is another type of Fear
ReplyDeleteThis is from the web site below.
"But an acknowledgement in a paper published on November 15 in the journal Global Change Biology is very different and is of great concern to the scientific community. Jos Barlow, a conservation scientist from Lancaster University in the U.K. and the Federal University of Lavras in Brazil, who led the team, wrote in the acknowledgement: “Some contributors declined authorship to maintain anonymity. We regret this was necessary and thank them for their important contribution.”
Brazilian scientists researching the widespread Amazon wildfire months ago have been scared they might lose their job if their identity is revealed and so preferred to remain anonymous in the paper"
https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/science/in-a-first-brazilian-researchers-remain-anonymous-on-research-paper/article30231085.ece
Thanks. Did you write a followup comment to this?
DeleteWhile deleting some spam I mistakenly deleted the comment. Very sorry. Feel free to repost.
This is paper with anonymous authors.
Deletehttps://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/gcb.14872
The acknowledgement in the paper.
"Some contributors declined authorship to maintain anonym‐ity. We regret this was neccesary and thank them for their im‐portant contribution"
It could be relevant to Australia
Please read as " their work could be relevant to Australia". The paper is free access.
DeleteThe paper posted on Amazon fires is relevant globally right from USA to Sweden
ReplyDeletehttps://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jul/30/the-swedish-town-on-the-frontline-of-the-arctic-wildfires
Could you give us your point of view on the case of Gerd Schroeder-Turk at Murdoch University?
ReplyDeletehttps://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/oct/22/fifty-top-professors-condemn-pursuit-murdoch-university-whistleblower-schroeder-turk
DeleteI think Murdoch University has acted in a shameful way. They will certainly be enhancing the culture of fear.
The survival of totalitarian regimes is facilitated by the regime creating a culture of fear at every level of society and institutions, from factories to families.
ReplyDeleteBuy Etilaam