Academic tribes and territories : intellectual enquiry and the culture of disciplines / Tony Becher and Paul R. Trowler.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Acclaim for the first edition of Academic Tribes and Territories:

'...Becher's insistence upon in-depth analysis of the extant literature while reporting his own sustained research doubled the thickness of the material to be covered...Academic Tribes and Territories is a superb addition to the literature on higher education...There is here an education to be had.'
(Burton R. Clark, Higher Education)

'...Becher's landmark work. The higher education community - both practitioners and educational researchers - need to assimilate and to heed the message of this important and insightful book.'
(Alan E. Bayer, Journal of Higher Education)

'a bold approach to a theory of academic relations...The result is a debt to him {{Becher}} for all students of higher education.'
(The Times Educational Supplement)

'a classic in its field...The book is readily accessible to any member of the academic profession, but it also adds significantly to a specialist understanding of the internal life of higher education institutions in Britain and North America. I confidently predict that it will appear prominently on citation indices for many years.'
(Gareth Williams, Studies in Higher Education)

How do academics perceive themselves and colleagues in their own disciplines, and how do they rate those in other subjects? How closely related are their intellectual tasks and their ways of organizing their professional lives? What are the interconnections between academic cultures and the nature of disciplines? Academic Tribes and Territories maps academic knowledge and explores the diverse characteristics of those who inhabit and cultivate it.

This second edition provides a thorough update to Tony Becher's classic text, first published in 1989, and incorporates research findings and new theoretical perspectives. Fundamental changes in the nature of higher education and in the academic's role are reviewed and their significance for academic cultures is assessed. This edition moves beyond the first edition's focus on elite universities and the research role to examine academic cultures in lower status institutions internationally and to place a new emphasis on issues of gender and ethnicity. This second edition successfully renews a classic in the field of higher education.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Preface to the First Edition (p. ix)
• Preface to the Second Edition (p. xiii)
• Abbreviations (p. xvi)
• 1 Landscapes, Tribal Territories and Academic Cultures (p. 1)
• HE in the post-industrial environment (p. 1)
• The globalized landscape (p. 2)
• The phenomenon of massification (p. 4)
• The regulatory state (p. 6)
• The triple helix (p. 7)
• Marketizing knowledge (p. 8)
• Economy, efficiency and effectiveness (p. 10)
• Patterns of growth and fragmentation (p. 14)
• Changing landscapes, shifting territories (p. 15)
• Levels of analysis (p. 19)
• Note (p. 22)
• 2 Points of Departure (p. 23)
• Relating tribes and territories (p. 23)
• The source material (p. 25)
• Academic cultures and structural location (p. 27)
• Some landmarks in the argument (p. 28)
• The pieces of the patchwork (p. 29)
• Restrictions and paradigms (p. 31)
• Knowledge as portrayed by the knower (p. 33)
• Characteristics of subject matter (p. 35)
• Notes (p. 40)
• 3 Academic Disciplines (p. 41)
• The nature of a discipline (p. 41)
• Disciplines and organizational structures (p. 41)
• Global disciplines: unity and diversity (p. 43)
• Tribalism and tradition (p. 44)
• Disciplinary socialization (p. 47)
• Some relevant writings (p. 51)
• Some complicating factors (p. 54)
• Notes (p. 57)
• 4 Overlaps, Boundaries and Specialisms (p. 58)
• Adjoining territories (p. 58)
• Areas of common ground (p. 60)
• The cause of unification (p. 62)
• Disciplines under the microscope (p. 64)
• The notion of a specialism (p. 65)
• Some social considerations (p. 68)
• Some cognitive considerations (p. 70)
• Types of specialization (p. 71)
• Frames of reference (p. 72)
• Notes (p. 73)
• 5 Aspects of Community Life (p. 75)
• The quest for recognition (p. 75)
• The way to get on (p. 78)
• Pecking orders, elites and the Matthew effect (p. 81)
• Leading academics, gatekeepers and the exercise of power (p. 84)
• Peer review and the process of validation (p. 86)
• Networks and social circles (p. 90)
• The influence of fashion (p. 95)
• Reactions to innovative ideas (p. 97)
• The revolutionary and the normal (p. 100)
• Notes (p. 101)
• 6 Patterns of Communication (p. 104)
• The life-blood of academia (p. 104)
• Population density (p. 105)
• Urban and rural scenarios (p. 106)
• Informal communication channels (p. 108)
• Formal modes of interchange (p. 110)
• Speed, frequency and length of publication (p. 112)
• Citation practices and their implications (p. 114)
• Questions of style and accessibility (p. 116)
• Competition (p. 118)
• Collaboration (p. 122)
• Controversy (p. 126)
• Some significant distinctions (p. 128)
• Notes (p. 129)
• 7 Academic Careers (p. 131)
• Personality and environment (p. 131)
• Recruitment and the choice of specialisms (p. 134)
• The achievement of independence (p. 136)
• The mid-life crisis (p. 140)
• The end-point of active research (p. 144)
• Personal matters (p. 147)
• Women's academic careers (p. 149)
• Race, ethnicity and academic careers (p. 153)
• Notes (p. 156)
• 8 The Wider Context (p. 159)
• The academy in the marketplace (p. 159)
• Academics as social animals (p. 161)
• Outside influences on specialist groups (p. 165)
• Disciplinary status and power (p. 170)
• Knowledge domains and social relevance (p. 176)
• Notes (p. 179)
• 9 Implications for Theory and Practice (p. 181)
• Tidying up the categories (p. 181)
• The basic dimensions (p. 183)
• Applying the taxonomy (p. 186)
• Connections between categories (p. 189)
• A further note on status (p. 191)
• Diversity and its consequences (p. 194)
• Managerialist intervention and academic autonomy (p. 200)
• Mutual understandings and common causes (p. 204)
• Notes (p. 206)
• Appendix Data for the Initial Study (p. 208)
• Subject coverage (p. 208)
• Methods of data collection (p. 208)
• Variables in the research design (p. 211)
• Bibliography (p. 213)
• Index (p. 236)
• The Society for Research into Higher Education (p. 239)

Author notes provided by Syndetics