Challenging Approaches to Academic Career-Making

Drawing on empirical research this book develops the concept of career scripts to show how contemporary academic faculty in the UK and other English-speaking countries approach their roles and careers. The career paths of individuals may be informed by personal strengths interests and commitments by activity associated with professional practice (represented by <i>Practice scripts</i>) and by formal career structures (represented by <i>Institutional scripts</i>). <i>Internal</i> and <i>Practice scripts</i> have in turn led to new forms of activity within both <i>formal</i> and <i>informal</i> <i>institutional</i><i> economies</i>. Whereas the <i>formal economy</i> is represented by for example promotion criteria and career pathways with visible quantifiable markers the <i>informal economy</i> is represented by personal interests and initiatives together with professional relationships and networks that may be unique to the individual. <br/><br/>This book shows how by drawing on <i>I</i><i>nternal</i> and <i>Practice scripts </i> individuals develop concertina-like careers stretching the spaces and timescales available to them. At the same time they are able to address misalignments and disjunctures that they encounter<i> </i>including those associated with disciplinary and departmental affiliations job profiles progression criteria and work allocation models. As a result the authors identify a shift towards more open-ended approaches to roles and careers.