Giochi di verità, cultura manageriale e soggettività. Per una microfisica delle resistenze in ambito accademico

The managerial transformation of Higher Education rules the university according to criteria of business efficiency and accountability (e. g. competitive diversification between academic structures, use of performance indicators, administrative and standardized evaluation of research, reward systems). In this paper we aim to investigate the university’s managerialization implications on the researcher’s self-understanding, the pressures it puts on her/his ethos and professional ethics, and the reactions it elicits. In particular, we explore the focal points of experience, practices of self, counter-conducts and points of resistance expressed in appeals, editorial initiatives and movements which have briefly gained national prominence. By using a qualitative methodology through twelve in-depth interviews, we have identified three discursive focuses: the critique of the centralized device of evaluation and academic management, the resistance through the form of movement and processes of subjectivation and, finally, the salience of a gender point of view transversal to these dimensions.