Academic Incentive as a Control Strategy in Academic Labor Process: A Case Study From Social Sciences in Turkey

Abstract

In the era of monopoly capitalism, all areas including services which are subject to exchange relations are being commodified. This is the case in higher education. Through neoliberal policies which form the ideological base for this commodification process, the services which were previously provided by the state are being privatized. To understand and explain the effects of this commodification process of higher education on the academic profession, qualitative research has been conducted as part of a PhD thesis. In-depth interviews have been carried out with 28 teaching members from the departments of psychology, sociology, history, philosophy, geography and art history who are working in public or foundation universities located in the cities of Istanbul and Izmir. Academic incentive mechanisms have been discussed and analyzed in the context of proletarianization of professionals. The study showed that instead of intrinsic rewards, academics are concentrating on monetary rewards such as academic incentives. This is seen as a control strategy, where academic labor is losing control over academic labor process. This can be interpreted as part of the process of proletarianization of academics.