Nice work if you can get it? The changing character of academic labour in Sweden and England

This paper considers recent attempts to introduce managerial reform in higher education. In exploring the issues the paper draws on an interviewing programme conducted with female and male academics in Sweden and England responsible for delivering change: heads of department, heads of division and principal lecturers. The aim is to examine the implications for the day-to-day work of academics arising from the reforms and to consider the gender implications. The paper conceptualises the areas of academic responsibility along the following dimensions identified by the academics themselves: dog work, tough work, care work, real work and nice work. In bringing into sharper focus the harsher realities of academe, and exploring the overlap and connectivity between gender and academic labour, it is argued that intellectual labour is hard work indeed, particularly for women.

La voix du castrat ou le sexe de l’ange

Ce texte a été écrit en hommage à l’Italie, un pays si nourri d’art en général, si amoureux des belles voix en particulier, qu’il a toléré pendant au moins deux siècles, en particulier au 17ème et 18ème siècles, l’âge baroque, la mutilation d’environ 3000 à 4000 jeunes garçons chaque année, afin de créer les plus étranges de toutes les voix de chanteurs, les voix de castrats.