The making of professors: Assessment and recognition in academic recruitment

Publikation: Beitrag in FachzeitschriftArtikelForschungPeer-Review

Autoren

  • Julian Hamann
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Details

OriginalspracheEnglisch
Seiten (von - bis)919-941
Seitenumfang23
FachzeitschriftSocial studies of science
Jahrgang49
Ausgabenummer6
Frühes Online-Datum27 Sept. 2019
PublikationsstatusVeröffentlicht - Dez. 2019

Abstract

How do academics become professors? This paper considers the making of ‘professor’ as a subject position through which academics are acknowledged in both organizational contexts and disciplinary fields. The paper examines social processes of recognition in 145 appointment procedures for professorships in the discipline of history at sixteen German universities between 1950 and 1985. Based on an analysis of over 1500 documents from archived appointment records, I investigate how academics are acknowledged as professorial in appointment procedures. The procedures invoked both (1) processes of judgement, in which worth and qualities are attributed to candidates, and (2) processes of legitimation, in which said judgements are stabilized and made acceptable. Using insights from the sociology of valuation and evaluation, this paper sheds light on the fundamental processes of recognition and valorization in academia. The findings contribute to the sociology of scientific knowledge and science and technology studies, which have concentrated on academic recognition in the realm of research, but paid less attention to such recognition in organizational contexts. Complementing this literature, the paper allows for a more general understanding of ‘professor’ as a focal academic subject position.

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The making of professors: Assessment and recognition in academic recruitment. / Hamann, Julian.
in: Social studies of science, Jahrgang 49, Nr. 6, 12.2019, S. 919-941.

Publikation: Beitrag in FachzeitschriftArtikelForschungPeer-Review

Hamann J. The making of professors: Assessment and recognition in academic recruitment. Social studies of science. 2019 Dez;49(6):919-941. Epub 2019 Sep 27. doi: 10.1177/0306312719880017, 10.15488/9304
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abstract = "How do academics become professors? This paper considers the making of {\textquoteleft}professor{\textquoteright} as a subject position through which academics are acknowledged in both organizational contexts and disciplinary fields. The paper examines social processes of recognition in 145 appointment procedures for professorships in the discipline of history at sixteen German universities between 1950 and 1985. Based on an analysis of over 1500 documents from archived appointment records, I investigate how academics are acknowledged as professorial in appointment procedures. The procedures invoked both (1) processes of judgement, in which worth and qualities are attributed to candidates, and (2) processes of legitimation, in which said judgements are stabilized and made acceptable. Using insights from the sociology of valuation and evaluation, this paper sheds light on the fundamental processes of recognition and valorization in academia. The findings contribute to the sociology of scientific knowledge and science and technology studies, which have concentrated on academic recognition in the realm of research, but paid less attention to such recognition in organizational contexts. Complementing this literature, the paper allows for a more general understanding of {\textquoteleft}professor{\textquoteright} as a focal academic subject position.",
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