Precarity Reading List

Help us create a resource for others by suggesting additions to this 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 self‐care 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)

Universities and Colleges Union (UCU) (2023)

Universities and Colleges Union (UCU) (2024)

"Precarious work in higher education: Insecure contracts and how they have changed over time"

UCU  https://www.ucu.org.uk/media/10899/Precarious-work-in-higher-education-May-20/pdf/ucu_he-precarity-report_may20.pdf 

Websites

Universities and Colleges Union (UCU)

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/

Create Your Own Website With Webador