Page 35 - Through the gate of the neoliberal academy • Herschberg

researchers, and for the criteria that are decisive for their hiring.
Hitherto, much of the literature on academic recruitment and selection has
focused on higher echelons in academia, neglecting how the increasing reliance on external and project-based funding affects a vulnerable group in the university: postdoctoral researchers (hereafter: postdocs). We define postdocs as contract researchers (Ackers & Oliver, 2007; Harney, Monks, Alexopoulos, Buckley, & Hogan, 2014) with a PhD or equivalent qualification who have non-tenured, research-only academic positions. Although there are a wide variety of postdoc positions, in this study we focus on the postdoc positions originating from external research grants acquired by principal investigators. Postdocs differ considerably from tenured academics who typically enjoy employment security and other benefits. Postdocs are generally employed on fixed-term, project-based contracts or fellowships and endure precarious work conditions (McAlpine, 2012; Oliver, 2012), such as lack of job security, no career prospects, and strong competition for a limited number of permanent positions (Arnold & Bongiovi, 2013; Ylijoki, 2010). Additionally, previous studies focusing on postdocs in the neoliberal university predominantly focus on postdocs’ lived experiences (e.g., Hakala, 2009; Lam & de Campos, 2015; McAlpine, 2012; Müller, 2014), which offer valuable insight into the micro-level of analysis. Yet, a more systemic, power-sensitive approach that examines how postdocs enter the academic system and how manifestations of precarity are exacerbated is currently lacking. Such an approach is important because this gives insight into the way academic structures shape academic careers. This chapter aims to fill this void by studying the recruitment and selection of postdocs in the context of the neoliberal university. We understand recruitment and selection as political, power laden processes producing patterns of dominance and subordination (Bozionelos, 2005; Parker & Jary, 1995).
In this chapter, we unravel how the recruitment for project-based postdoc positions is organised and how principal investigators advance their interests by constructing the ‘ideal’ postdoc in four universities across Europe. Recruitment and selection practices determine which aspiring early-career researchers enter the academic system and can possibly remain there on permanent contracts, for which the chances are small, as the competition is fierce. For example, in the Netherlands only 20 per cent of all postdocs lands in an appointment as assistant professor (Rathenau Instituut, 2016). Also, the current study is meaningful for both higher education institutions and the development of science, as postdocs make considerable contributions to the world’s scientific discovery and productivity (Van der Weijden, Teelken, De Boer, & Drost, 2016). Therefore, their selection can have
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