Precarity Reading List

Articles
Berg, L.D., Huijbens, E.H. and Larsen, H.G., (2016)
"Producing anxiety in the neoliberal university"
The Canadian Geographer/le géographe canadien, 60(2), pp.168-180.
Burton S, Bowman B (2022)
"The academic precariat: understanding life and labour in the neoliberal academy"
British Journal of Sociology of Education 43(4) pp.497-512
Cinnamon, J. (2020)
"Power in numbers/Power and numbers: Gentle data activism as strategic collaboration"
Area 00 pp.1-16
Evans, B., Allam, A, Bê, A., Hale, C., Rose, M., and Ruddock, A. (2024)
"Being left behind beyond recovery: ‘crip time’ and chronic illness in neoliberal academia"
Social & Cultural Geography https://doi.org/10.1080/14649365.2024.2410262
Gilmore, S., & Harding, N. (2022)
"Organizational socialization as kin-work: A psychoanalytic model of settling into a new job"
Human Relations, 75(3), 583-605.
Guasco, A. (2022)
"On an ethic of not going there"
The Geographical Journal 188 pp.468–475
Hall, R. & Bowles, K. (2016)
"Re-engineering Higher Education: The Subsumption of Academic Labour and the Exploitation of Anxiety"
Workplace 28 pp.30-47.
Hawkins, H. (2019)
"Creating care-full academic spaces? The dilemmas of caring in the ‘anxiety machine’"
ACME: An International Journal for Critical Geographies 18(4) pp.816-834.
Horton, J. (2020)
Hughes, S. M. (2021)
“Wait for a permanent contract”: The temporal politics of (in) fertility as an early career researcher.
Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space, 39(8), 1725-1736.
Iglesias, C. and Freeman, E. (2024)
"As women in academia, having children can feel impossible. Talking about it makes us feel less alone”
Science [Available from: As women in academia, having children can feel impossible. Talking about it makes us feel less alone | Science | AAAS Date Accessed: 2nd November 2024]
Ivancheva, M., Lynch, K., & Keating, K. (2019)
"Precarity, gender and care in the neoliberal academy"
Gender, Work & Organization, 26(4), 448-462
Jones, C. H., & Whittle, R. (2021)
"Researcher selfâcare and caring in the research community"
Area, 53(2), 381-388.
Joanes, J., & Joyce, M. A. (2022)
"At Breaking Point: An Intervention On Resilience Within The UK Academy"
SENTIO, 111
Loveday, V. (2018)
"The neurotic academic: Anxiety, casualisation, and governance in the neoliberalising university."
Journal of Cultural Economy, 11(2), pp.154-166.
Mason, O., & Megoran, N. (2021)
"Precarity and dehumanisation in higher education"
Learning and Teaching, 14(1), 35-59.
Menard, C. B., & Shinton, S. (2022)
"The career paths of researchers in long-term employment on short-term contracts: Case study from a UK university"
Plos one, 17(9), e0274486. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0274486
Myers, M. (2022)
"Racism, zero-hours contracts and complicity in higher education"
British Journal of Sociology of Education 43(4): 584–602.
Nordling, L. (2023)
"Falling Behind: Postdocs in their thirties tire of putting life on hold"
Nature Falling behind: postdocs in their thirties tire of putting life on hold
O’Keefe, T. and A. Courtois (2019)
"‘Not one of the family’: Gender and precarious work in the neoliberal university."
Gender, Work and Organization 26(4): 463–479.
Oliver, C. (2022)
"“Significant nothingness” in geographical fieldwork."
Geoforum, 134, pp.82-85.
Peters, K. (2021)
"For the place of terrain and materialist ‘re’-returns: Experience, life, force, and the importance of the socio-cultural"
Dialogues in Human Geography, 11(2), 195-199
Pascoe, S., Sanders, A., Rawluk, A., Satizábal, P., & Toumbourou, T. (2020)
Intervention—“Holding Space for Alternative Futures in Academia and Beyond”.
Antipode Online. Intervention – “Holding Space for Alternative Futures in Academia and Beyond” - Antipode Online
Pickerill, J. (2024)
"Challenging neoliberal time: Creating space for radical praxis in geography"
Area, e12981
Todd, J. D. (2020)
"Experiencing and embodying anxiety in spaces of academia and social research"
Gender, Place & Culture, 28(4), 475–496. https://doi.org/10.1080/0966369X.2020.1727862
Zielke, J., Thompson, M., & Hepburn, P. (2022)
"On the (im) possibilities of being a good enough researcher at a neoliberal university"
Area.

Books
Bonello, M., and Wånggren, L. (2023)
Working Conditions in a Marketised University System: Generation Precarity.
Palgrave Macmillan.
Murgia, A. and Poggio, B. (2018)
"Gender and precarious research careers"
London: Routledge

Reports
Universities and Colleges Union (UCU) (2022)
"Workload survey 2021 Data report"
UCU https://www.ucu.org.uk/media/12905/UCU-workload-survey-2021-data-report/pdf/WorkloadReportJune22.pdf
Universities and Colleges Union (UCU) (2023)
"Workload survey 2021/22 Higher Education"
Universities and Colleges Union (UCU) (2024)
"Precarious work in higher education: Insecure contracts and how they have changed over time"
Squire, R., Esson J., Bruun, J., Colls, R., Forman, P., Jackman, A., Joanes, J. (2025)
“States of Precarity in UK HE Geography”

Websites
Counter Cartographies Collective
Universities and Colleges Union (UCU)
Universities and Colleges Union (UCU) - Edinburgh

Blog Posts
Brax, D. (2024)
"Living on Hope? Reflections on 'Hope Labour' in Academia"
Lex Academic - Guest Blog Living on Hope? Reflections on ‘Hope Labour’ in Academia | Lex Academic Guest Blog - Lex Academic
Shahid, S. (2021)
"Understanding Academic Precarity with Iris Marion Young: Who’s Responsible?"
Blog of the APA https://blog.apaonline.org/2021/12/31/understanding-academic-precarity-with-iris-marion-young-whos-responsible/
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