Page 209 - Through the gate of the neoliberal academy • Herschberg

such as recruitment and selection protocols. I conducted thirteen interviews, and two focus groups with academics who were responsible for the hiring of early-career researchers. Furthermore, I conducted observations of six hiring procedures (70,5 hours of meetings). For the two international comparative studies, I analysed twelve research reports, 38 interview summaries and six focus group summaries.
Precarious postdocs
In chapter 2, I study the recruitment and selection of postdoc researchers in four European countries whose position originated from external research grants acquired by principal investigators (researchers who are leading the project funded with the research grant). This chapter investigates how the recruitment and selection for project-based postdoc positions are organised and how principal investigators construct the ‘ideal’ postdoc. The results show that the decision-making power regarding recruitment primarily lies with the principal investigator (PI), which gives them substantial autonomy to decide on who enter and / or remain in the academic system and who are excluded. Recruitment mainly happens through informal networks because most universities in my study do not have formal hiring procedures for postdoc positions, because PIs have to form a project team in a limited amount of time, and because they prefer candidates whom they, or their network contacts, already know. Informal procedures exclude potential candidates that are not in the network of the PI.
During the selection process, PIs construct the ideal postdoc as someone who is available during the timescale of the project, committed and motivated to conduct the research till completion, and has both the expert knowledge and independence to execute the project. My findings show how the need for a successful completion of the project shapes selection criteria. As a result, PIs make a narrow short-term construction of the ideal postdoc, which is in sharp contrast to more senior positions that play a significant role in the long-term development of their discipline. PIs tend to focus on postdoc candidates who are value-added to a project, rather than someone who they evaluate from a broader perspective, as someone who is deemed suitable for a further career in academia. This contributes to the precarious position of postdocs. The temporary contracts create bad employment conditions and a lack of job security. At the same time postdocs are made responsible for their own career development. The increase in externally funded postdoc positions can thus lead to an erosion of the notion of academic talent, the attractiveness of postdoc positions for early-career researchers, and the quality of knowledge production.
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