Displaced Professional Authority
Expertise and Legitimacy in Higher Education
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7577/pp.6541Emneord (Nøkkelord):
Professionalism, Institutional logics, Managerialism, Accountability, Governance, Hybrid rolesSammendrag
Authority over teaching and learning in higher education can be shaped by organisational position and procedural responsibility as well as by educational expertise. This article conceptualises the potential misalignment between these bases of authority as displaced professional authority: not deprofessionalisation, but a reconfiguration of how expertise is recognised and authorised. Drawing on sociological theories of professions and higher-education governance, the article examines how performance indicators, audit practices and governance structures can mediate academic judgement by prioritising demonstrability and alignment. The argument is not that expertise is diminished, but that its authority can be conditioned by competing bases of legitimacy. The article therefore offers a conceptual lens for examining how expertise, authority and legitimacy are negotiated across political, institutional and everyday contexts, and identifies a need for empirical research into how these dynamics shape academic work and the conditions under which academic freedom is exercised.
Nedlastinger
Referanser
Amaral, A., Fulton, O., & Larsen, I. M. (2003). A Managerial Revolution? In A. Amaral, V. L. Meek, & I. M. Larsen (Eds.), The Higher Education Managerial Revolution? (Vol. 3, pp. 275–296). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-0072-7_13
Archer, M. S. (2000). Being Human: The Problem of Agency (1 ed.). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511488733
Cronin, C. E., Schuller, K. A., & Bolon, D. S. (2018). Hospital Administration as a Profession. Professions and Professionalism, 8(2), e2112. https://doi.org/10.7577/pp.2112
Croucher, G., & Lacy, W. B. (2022). The emergence of academic capitalism and university neoliberalism: perspectives of Australian higher education leadership. Higher Education, 83(2), 279–295. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-020-00655-7
Deem, R. (1998). 'New managerialism' and higher education: The management of performances and cultures in universities in the United Kingdom. International Studies in Sociology of Education, 8(1), 47–70. https://doi.org/10.1080/0962021980020014
Deem, R., & Brehony, K. J. (2005). Management as ideology: the case of 'new managerialism' in higher education. Oxford Review of Education, 31(2), 217–235. https://doi.org/10.1080/03054980500117827
Ekman, M., Lindgren, M., & Packendorff, J. (2018). Universities need leadership, academics need management: discursive tensions and voids in the deregulation of Swedish higher education legislation. Higher Education, 75(2), 299–321. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-017-0140-2
Elken, M., Frølich, N., Maassen, P., & Stensaker, B. (2020). Quality Systems in Higher Education Institutions: Enabling and Constraining Quality Work. In M. Elken, P. Maassen, M. Nerland, T. S. Prøitz, B. Stensaker, & A. Vabø (Eds.), Quality Work in Higher Education: Organisational and Pedagogical Dimensions (Vol. 54, pp. 19–41). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-41757-4_2
Field, L. (2015). Appraising academic appraisal in the new public management university. Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, 37(2), 172–189. https://doi.org/10.1080/1360080X.2014.991534
Freidson, E. (2001). Professionalism: The Third Logic. Polity Press.
Gornitzka, Å., & Maassen, P. (2000). Hybrid steering approaches with respect to European higher education. Higher Education Policy, 13(3), 267–285. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0952-8733(00)00012-X
Gornitzka, Å., & Marheim Larsen, I. (2004). Towards professionalisation? Restructuring of administrative work force in universities. Higher Education, 47(4), 455–471. https://doi.org/10.1023/B:HIGH.0000020870.06667.f1
Gray, K. W. (Ed.). (2022). Normative Tensions: Academic Freedom in International Education (1 ed.). Bloomsbury.
Greenwood, E. (1957). Attributes of a Profession. Social Work, 2(3), 45–55. https://doi.org/10.1093/sw/2.3.45
Haga, W. J. (1976). Managerial Professionalism and the Use of Organization Resources. The American Journal of Economics and Sociology, 35(4), 337–348. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3485737
Harrits, G. S. (2016). Being Professional and Being Human. Professional’s Sensemaking in the Context of Close and Frequent Interactions with Citizens. Professions and Professionalism, 6(2), e1522. https://doi.org/10.7577/pp.1522
Hazelkorn, E., & Gibson, A. (2019). Public goods and public policy: what is public good, and who and what decides? Higher Education, 78(2), 257–271. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-018-0341-3
Henkel, M. (2005). Academic Identity and Autonomy in a Changing Policy Environment. Higher Education, 49(1/2), 155–176. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-004-2919-1
Houston, D., Meyer, L. H., & Paewai, S. (2006). Academic Staff Workloads and Job Satisfaction: Expectations and values in academe. Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, 28(1), 17–30. https://doi.org/10.1080/13600800500283734
Jones, G. A., Leišytė, L., & Marquina, M. (2025). Governance, Management and the Academic Profession: Themes and Concluding Observations. In L. Leišytė, M. Marquina, & G. A. Jones (Eds.), University Governance, Management and the Academic Profession: Transformations and Challenges (pp. 223–234). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-86889-4_12
Kehm, B. M. (2015). The Influence of New Higher Education Professionals on Academic Work. In U. Teichler & W. K. Cummings (Eds.), Forming, Recruiting and Managing the Academic Profession (Vol. 14, pp. 101–111). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16080-1_6
Kinzelbach, K., Lindberg, S. I., Lott, L., & Panaro, A. V. (2026). Academic Freedom Index—2026 Update. https://doi.org/10.25593/open-fau-2865
Lorenz, C. (2012). If You're So Smart, Why Are You under Surveillance? Universities, Neoliberalism, and New Public Management. Critical Inquiry, 38(3), 599–629. https://doi.org/10.1086/664553
Maassen, P. (2003). Shifts in Governance Arrangements. In A. Amaral, V. L. Meek, & I. M. Larsen (Eds.), The Higher Education Managerial Revolution? (Vol. 3, pp. 31–53). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-0072-7_2
Maassen, P., & Stensaker, B. (2011). The knowledge triangle, European higher education policy logics and policy implications. Higher Education, 61(6), 757–769. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-010-9360-4
Magna Charta Observatory. (2020). Magna Charta Universitatum. https://www.magna-charta.org/magna-charta-universitatum/mcu2020
Morley, L. (2003). Quality and Power in Higher Education. Open University Press. https://hdl.handle.net/10779/uos.23340050
Musselin, C. (2013). Redefinition of the relationships between academics and their university. Higher Education, 65(1), 25–37. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-012-9579-3
O’Reilly, D., & Reed, M. (2011). The Grit in the Oyster: Professionalism, Managerialism and Leaderism as Discourses of UK Public Services Modernization. Organization Studies, 32(8), 1079–1101. https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840611416742
Olssen, M., & Peters, M. A. (2005). Neoliberalism, higher education and the knowledge economy. from the free market to knowledge capitalism. Journal of Education Policy, 20(3), 313–345. https://doi.org/10.1080/02680930500108718
Power, M. (1997). The Audit Society: Rituals of Verification. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198296034.001.0001
Rowlands, J. (2013). Academic boards: less intellectual and more academic capital in higher education governance? Studies in Higher Education, 38(9), 1274–1289. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2011.619655
Ryder, J. (2022). Academic Freedom and the Social Context of Universities. In K. W. Gray (Ed.), Normative Tensions: Academic Freedom in International Education (1 ed., pp. 180–196). Bloomsbury Publishing USA.
Saks, M., & Adams, T. L. (2019). Neo-Weberianism, Professional Formation and the State: Inside the Black Box. Professions and Professionalism, 9(2), e3190. https://doi.org/10.7577/pp.3190
Santiago, R., Carvalho, T., & Cardoso, S. (2015). Portuguese academics' perceptions of higher education institutions' governance and management: a generational perspective. Studies in Higher Education, 40(8), 1471–1484. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2015.1060709
Santiago, R. A., & Carvalho, T. (2012). Managerialism rhetorics in Portuguese higher education. Minerva, 50(4), 511–532. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11024-012-9211-9
Scott, J. W. (2019). Knowledge, Power, and Academic Freedom (1 ed.). Columbia University Press. https://doi.org/10.7312/scot19046
Shepherd, S. (2018). Managerialism: an ideal type. Studies in Higher Education, 43(9), 1668–1678. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2017.1281239
Shin, J. C. (2015). The Academic Profession and its Changing Environments. In U. Teichler & W. K. Cummings (Eds.), Forming, Recruiting and Managing the Academic Profession (Vol. 14, pp. 11–21). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16080-1_2
Shore, C., & Wright, S. (2000). Coercive accountability: The rise of audit culture in higher education. In M. Strathern (Ed.), Audit Cultures: Anthropological Studies in Accountability, Ethics and the Academy (pp. 69–101). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203449721
Slaughter, S., & Rhoades, G. (2004). Academic Capitalism and the New Economy: Markets, State, and Higher Education. Johns Hopkins University Press.
Smith, C., Holden, M., Yu, E., & Hanlon, P. (2021). ‘So what do you do?’: Third space professionals navigating a Canadian university context. Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, 43(5), 505–519. https://doi.org/10.1080/1360080X.2021.1884513
Szekeres, J. (2004). The invisible workers. Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, 26(1), 7–22. https://doi.org/10.1080/1360080042000182500
Szekeres, J. (2011). Professional staff carve out a new space. Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, 33(6), 679–691. https://doi.org/10.1080/1360080X.2011.621193
Taberner, A. M. (2018). The marketisation of the English higher education sector and its impact on academic staff and the nature of their work. International Journal of Organizational Analysis, 26(1), 129–152. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJOA-07-2017-1198
Tandilashvili, N., & Tandilashvili, A. (2022). Academics’ perception of identity (re)construction: a value conflict created by performance orientation. Journal of Management and Governance, 26(2), 389–416. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10997-022-09627-8
Tapper, T., & Salter, B. (2004). Governance of higher education in Britain: The significance of the research assessment exercises for the funding council model. Higher Education Quarterly, 58(1), 4–30. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2273.2004.00257.x
Trowler, P. (2008). Cultures and change in higher education: Theories and practices. Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-230-36511-7
UNESCO. (1997). Recommendation concerning the Status of Higher-Education Teaching Personnel. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. https://www.unesco.org/en/legal-affairs/recommendation-concerning-status-higher-education-teaching-personnel
Veles, N., & Carter, M.-A. (2016). Imagining a future: changing the landscape for third space professionals in Australian higher education institutions. Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, 38(5), 519–533. https://doi.org/10.1080/1360080X.2016.1196938
Watts, R. (2017). Public Universities, Managerialism and the Value of Higher Education (1 ed.). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-53599-3
Weber, M. (2019). Economy and Society (K. Tribe, Trans.). Harvard University Press. (Original work published 1921)
Whitchurch, C. (2008). Shifting Identities and Blurring Boundaries: the Emergence of Third Space Professionals in UK Higher Education. Higher Education Quarterly, 62(4), 377–396. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2273.2008.00387.x
Whitchurch, C. (2009). The rise of the blended professional in higher education: A comparison between the United Kingdom, Australia and the United States. Higher Education, 58(3), 407–418. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-009-9202-4
Želvys, R., Leišytė, L., Pekşen, S., Bružienė, R., & Rose, A.-L. (2021). From Collegiality to Managerialism in Lithuanian Higher Education. Acta Paedagogica Vilnensia, 46(46), 27–42. https://doi.org/10.15388/ActPaed.2021.46.2
Nedlastinger
Publisert
Hvordan referere
Utgave
Seksjon
Lisens
Opphavsrett 2026 Andrew Mark Brownridge
Dette verket er lisensiert under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
Cited by
