Passion and Paranoia

Emotions and the Culture of Emotion in Academia

Charlotte Bloch

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9781138250352
• eBook ISBN: 9781317083498
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Sociology
• Index: Social Sciences

Analysing emotions and emotion-management in the academic organization, Passion and Paranoia shows how focusing on emotions in organizations can offer insights into important aspects and the dynamics of organizational processes. Drawing on rich interview material, this book demonstrates the often-overlooked importance of emotions in academic life, to reveal the manner in which emotion contributes to social bonds, power-relationships and hierarchies, micro-politics and processes of inclusion and exclusion from an academic career. A significant contribution to the study of emotion and the academy, Passion and Paranoia will appeal to sociologists and anthropologists researching work and organizations, emotion, academic culture and social relationships.

Chapter 1
Introduction

We can see it on someone just passing by – those flushed cheeks – when things are going really well. Now things are happening and with real passion. There’s not much difference between the feeling you have when you’re in love and the feeling you have when your research is going really well. It’s a little bit sacred – just like when you’re in love. (woman, assistant professor)

He was angry, disappointed and upset by the assessment committee’s recommendation, but he was also extremely incensed and quite beside himself...In the end, he declared that he would not speak one more word to me ever again. Since then – and that was [some] years ago – he has looked right through me whenever we met, and we have never said hello to each other. (man, associate professor)

These excerpts are taken from my study of emotions in Academia.1 The first describes the special passion and excitement that can be involved in doing research. The second describes the strong feelings of anger, disappointment and irreconcilable hatred that can arise when colleagues evaluate, criticise and assess each other’s work.

According to their statutes, universities must produce and disseminate knowledge at the highest scientific level. For this purpose, the university has a particular organisational structure, a particular culture and a particular career path. The structure, culture and career ladder can be seen as the tools of the organisation, which serve to ensure not only outstanding research, but also the selection of the best candidates. This process of selection can be seen as funnel-shaped. At the top, PhD students come pouring in, but the funnel narrows quickly, since competition is tough at every stage of the process; it never stops, many are rejected and only a few get through to a further academic career.

The university as an organisation must generate excellent research. However, since the organisational structures at issue are peopled by mere human beings, these structures also activate a range of emotions that affect collegial relationships, research activities, the research environment and the self-esteem of individuals. As indicated by the excerpts above, research as an activity can be intoxicating, giving rise to a sense of delight and involvement, but competition also nurtures envy, mistrust and malice, just as colleagues’ assessments of each other’s work can give rise to anger, disappointment, bitterness and broken bonds. These emotions are not so much evoked by the personalities of individuals as by the character of particular social structures and social relations, as the coming chapters will show.

The university world is generally associated with rationality, methodological principles, objectivity and logical argument. From the point of view of this organisational self-understanding, emotions appear to be alien, irrelevant and disruptive. However, this does not mean that Academia does not have a culture of emotions. The perception of emotions as being alien and irrelevant is in fact the expression of a particular culture of emotions. In this case, an academic culture in which no feelings have place.

Within the area of organisational research, there has been increasing focus in recent decades on the importance of emotions in organisations (Fineman 1993, 2000, Albrow 1997, Flam 2002, Nyend and Wennes 2005). Organisations are rational structures, but also emotional structures. In the words of Albrow (1992: 326), affectivity is a key dimension of organisational performance. This awareness has not penetrated to Academia, just as emotions and the cultural norms that regulate them are not described in either older or more recent sociology of science (Barnes 1972, Bourdieu 1988, Nowotny and Taschwer 1996 and Becher and Trowler 2001).

The excerpts above illustrate the range and intensity of emotions, and university life embraces many such strong emotions. Emotions move us, but we also seek to adapt them to prevailing cultural norms. We may not talk about our feelings, try not to show them at all, but they are there, and they do have effects. Some groups are better than others at handling their emotions within the boundaries of a culture of silence; some can make strategic use of emotions in furthering their careers, while others hide their emotions by means of withdrawal. Thus, emotions and the ways in which we handle them constitute key dimensions of academic life and, for better or worse, they contribute to the character of its social relationships, and to inclusion in or exclusion from an academic career path.2

In order to throw light upon what emotions mean for academic life, and what these emotions reveal about Academia as an organisation, I have interviewed PhD fellows, assistant professors, associate professors and full professors, focussing on the particular social emotions of anger, pride, joy, shame and laughter. These academic groups articulate different aspects of the emotional life of Academia. However, I also dig beyond the narratives of these interviewees. Emotions arise within contexts, and therefore sociological theories of emotions are used to demonstrate the interplay between social structures and emotions, and between emotions and a culture of emotions. These theories are important because they help to bring us beyond the prevalent tendency in western cultures to understand emotions as intra-personal phenomena within the individual as such. Chapter 2 presents the theoretical framework that structures my analysis. This framework is based on two dimensions of analysis: a structural dimension, referring to the social organisation of Academia, and a cultural dimension, referring to the norms, values and discourses of academic life. The narratives of these academic groups are interpreted and analysed on the basis of this theoretical framework. In addition, specific theories are employed at certain points in order to penetrate further into the perspectives of these narratives. It must be said that Chapter 2 is a highly theoretical chapter, and can be omitted by more empirically inclined readers.

The academic groups under consideration here hold different positions in the academic hierarchy, just as they articulate different aspects of emotional life in Academia. Chapter 3 gives voice to PhD fellows. They are the newcomers and they must learn how to relate to the emotions of Academia. They describe the emotions of research as activity, but also the feelings related to their position at the bottom of the hierarchical power structure. PhD fellows describe socialisation to Academia as constituting ‘a huge emotional challenge’. The chapter also describes the different types of emotion work undertaken by PhD fellows.

In Chapter 4 we take a step further into Academia, listening to the voices of assistant professors. The plot of this chapter concerns the interplay between emotions, academic norms regarding emotions, and the struggle for the ‘right’ kind of visibility in the fight for recognition and for one’s career. The games played in this endeavour are captured by such concepts as ‘the politics of friendliness’, ‘the deceiving game’ and ‘ventriloquism’. The deceiving game refers to the facade behind which the fear of critical assessment of one’s research on the part of colleagues is kept hidden, while ‘ventriloquism’ describes the special ways in which the yearning for recognition and the prohibition against displaying pride in Academia, are tackled.

In Chapter 5, we approach the emotions related to what Pierre Bourdieu considers the central nerve of academic practice, the ‘peer review’. In this chapter, we hear the voices of associate professors and professors for the most part. Based on their accounts, the concept of ‘assessor anger’ is introduced. In addition, the negative emotions that arise when peer reviews are perceived as being offensive are described, as well as the emotions generated by the university’s meritocratic structure: mistrust, envy and schadenfreude. These are familiar, but prohibited, emotions within the academic culture of emotions, and for this reason attempts are made to keep them hidden from the eyes of colleagues.

Academia is a setting for all kinds of emotions, including joy, fun, humour and laughter. Chapter 6 shows how irritation with unreasonable supervisors, the frustrations of research and the burden of competitive relationships are redeemed by laughter and humour. On these points, we hear stories from the bottom and the top of the academic hierarchy. At the PhD level, a ‘ground floor’ humour is described – collective poking fun at authorities and objects of authority. At the assistant and associate professor levels, ‘joking relationships’ are described as playful, teasing or competitive ways of relating to others.

Social processes that connect or divide are found in Academia, and both of these processes are encountered in the academic lunchroom. Based on Simmel’s theory of the meal as a social form, it is shown how the lunch setting generates fellowship and solidarity. However, the manner in which formal and informal hierarchies penetrate conversation in the lunchroom is also shown, exemplified by a professor’s right to decide upon the topic of conversation. Chapter 7 illustrates ways in which different academic groups contribute to connecting and dividing processes in the lunchroom. This chapter also illustrates ways in which these processes can become entangled by humour, ventriloquism and forms of gift-exchange.

The following two chapters constitute meta-analyses of the kinds of feelings and relationships that have been presented in the preceding chapters. Here the work of the American sociologist, Thomas Scheff, regarding the theory of non-conscious emotional dynamics and social bonds is employed. Chapter 8 pursues these emotional dynamics, and their significance for the character of social relationships and communication among researchers are discussed. It is argued that the structures of Academia give rise to damaged social bonds, which have lasting consequences for the character and quality of communication. Assistant, associate and full professors’ own assessments of social relationships in Academia are also described.

Chapter 9 introduces the theory of the American sociologist, Candace Clark, regarding emotional micropolitics. Clark focuses on the relationship between self-feelings and social standing, and on the ways in which we practise emotional micropolitics in our handling of our own emotions and those of others. A distinction is drawn between politics directed at gaining a better position in the microhierarchy, and politics directed at creating equal social standing within cooperative relationships. It is argued that the academic culture of emotions legitimises emotional micropolitics that generate hierarchical relations. This theory is employed to highlight the different ways in which men and women handle the emotions of academic life, and it is shown how gendered emotional norms give men access to these hierarchical emotional micropolitics, while women are referred to micropolitics that contribute to their relative invisibility in social and academic terms.

In the final chapter, I briefly summarise the results of this study and discuss its further implications. What do emotions tell us about academic life? The structures of Academia give rise to particular emotions, but how do these affect the quality of research? How do dominant political trends regarding education and research affect emotional life in Academia and the emotions of research?

It should be noted that this book about the socio-emotional world of academic life is based upon data drawn from universities and other research-based institutions of higher education in Denmark. University systems in the Western world differ in regard to their national and historical roots. But they also share a number of common characteristics arising from their shared cultural history, including the legacy of the Enlightenment, and which are expressed in concepts regarding the autonomy of the university as an institution, the freedom of research and the peer review as the measure of the quality of published research. These values cut across national boundaries and differences. Accordingly, these are the values that have been defended when new educational policies and new initiatives regarding research policy have been on the agenda in different parts of the Western world in recent decades. This book takes its point of departure in the structures and cultural conceptions of modern research-based universities, which are internationally recognised and which transcend national boundaries. Its focus, however, is not upon systems and structures as such, but rather upon the socio-emotional processes to which they give rise, and which in turn these processes serve to sustain.

1 The term Academia is used to describe research-based institutions of higher education, i.e. universities, university centres and university colleges.

2 In general, the term ‘feelings’ connotes fewer or milder physical sensations than does the term ‘emotions’. Feeling in this sense is a milder form of emotion. For the purpose of this book these two terms are used interchangeably. (cf. Hochschild 1983: 244)

Chapter 2
Theory and Empirical Basis

This chapter presents the scientific basis for my analysis. I speak about emotions, but what exactly are emotions, and how are they embedded in the organisation and culture of Academia? How have I studied this field, and what is the empirical basis for my discussion of emotions? I present some theoretical approaches to emotions first, followed by my analytical model and the empirical basis for my study. I close the chapter with a general description of the research environments.

Theoretical Framework

Three approaches to research regarding emotions can be distinguished: biological, interactional and discursive-constructivist approaches. The biological approach understands emotions as being universal biological impulses, each of which is released by particular stimuli, and has a specific type of expression as well as a behavioural dimension.1 The discursive-constructivist approach understands emotions as being discursive cultural constructions. They may have a biological basis, but are first and foremost seen as being founded on cultural and moral interpretations.2 Between these two extremes lies the interactional approach, which recognises a biological basis for emotions, but focuses primarily on the formative influence of culture upon emotions, which is exerted by means of norms.3

Sociological theories of emotions draw on biological and interactional approaches. Some theories concern the relation between social/structural conditions and emotions. These theories understand emotions as dispositions to act and draw on the biological approach. Other theories focus on the cultural regulation of emotions by means of feeling rules and the emotion work undertaken by individuals. They take their point of departure in the interactional approach to emotions and emphasise the significance of emotions as information to the self.

Organisations have both structures and cultures, and I therefore draw on both structural and cultural theories of emotions in order to elucidate the interplay between emotions, structures and culture in Academia. My approach to emotions in Academia is accordingly based on two dimensions of analysis: a structural dimension focussing on the interplay between structures, social relations and emotions; and a cultural dimension focussing on the interplay between emotions, emotional culture and individuals’ handling of emotions.

The Structural Dimension

Organisations have social structures, which serve as the basis of power and status distinctions in social relations. Sociological theories of emotions have examined the relationship between power and status relations on the one hand and emotions on the other, but they have not specifically concerned the social structures of Academia. For this reason, I have drawn on the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu’s analyses of Academia and the scientific field. Although Bourdieu has not examined emotions, he does give us insight into the social structure of Academia. When combined with sociological theory of emotions, his analysis can shed light on specific relationships between the social structure of Academia and the emotions characteristic of academic life.

Bourdieu (1975) emphasises two structures as being characteristic of Academia: a specific structure and a hierarchical power structure with meritocratic traits. The specific structure is unique to Academia, compared with other social fields. It is characteristic of this structure that the clients of its producers (researchers) are primarily competing colleagues, that is to say, other researchers. Scientific recognition, which is the basis of merit in Academia, is accorded by other researchers who, in principle, are also competitors. This structure is manifested in the ‘peer review’, whereby specialists in a given field of research assess the value of each other’s work. This particular structure ensures a critical review of the work produced by colleagues (competitors). The peer review is the backbone of Academia. In principle, it is the key to achieving merit, which in turn gives access to Academia’s other structure: the hierarchical power structure. This structure is analysed as a social field of positio...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Preface
• 1 Introduction
• 2 Theory and Empirical Basis
• 3 A Huge Emotional Challenge
• 4 The Order of Visibility
• 5 The Janus Face of the Peer Review
• 6 The Politics of Laughter
• 7 The Academic Lunchroom
• 8 Social Bonds in Academia
• 9 Emotional Micropolitics and Gender
• 10 Conclusion and Perspectives
• References
• Index