Page 162 - Through the gate of the neoliberal academy • Herschberg

160 CHAPTER 6
This doctoral dissertation aims to achieve a better understanding on how inequalities come to the fore in the recruitment and selection of early-career researchers (ECRs) and in particular how hiring committee members construct inequalities in the recruitment process, in the formulation and application of selection criteria and in collective decision-making processes. Adopting a social constructionist perspective, I show how inequalities are (re)produced by hiring committee members (hereafter: committee members) in multiple ways. In the following section, I will elaborate on these various ways in which inequalities are (re)produced, providing an answer to the main research question of this dissertation. Second, I will discuss the contributions of this dissertation to the literature. Third, I will discuss the practical contributions, and finally the methodological reflections and suggestions for further research.
6.1 Answer to the research question
In this dissertation I aim to answer the following main research question: how are inequalities (re)produced in the recruitment and selection of early-career researchers? I studied postdoc positions1 and tenure-track assistant professorships because these are the first positions after completing a PhD and before obtaining a more stable, permanent position in academia. I argue that these positions require attention, as applicants for these positions can be the future researchers that shape the direction of research and they experience more competition for stable positions than ever (Hakala, 2009). To answer the research question, I use a social constructionist perspective, which looks at the social world as constructed by individuals through their discourses and social practices (Cohen, Duberley, & Mallon, 2004; Dick & Nadin, 2006). Studying practices focuses on dynamic processes and the sayings and doings of people (Martin, 2003). I use a qualitative comparative multiple-case study design in my dissertation, in order to acquire an in-depth understanding of the (re)production of inequalities in the recruitment and selection of early-career researchers2. In my dissertation I intend to discover how committee members (re)produce inequalities by analysing data from interviews and focus groups with committee members, and observation
1 Although there are a variety of postdoc positions, in this dissertation I focus on the postdoc positions originating from external research grants acquired by principal investigators in public funded higher education institutions.
2 This doctoral dissertation has been conducted against the backdrop of the EU FP7 project GARCIA, which entailed cooperation between seven different European research institutes in Italy, Belgium, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Iceland, Austria, and Slovenia.