The Neoliberal University and Racism Research

Focussing principally on UK research, this paper argues that neoliberalism poses a number of major threats to our work, and that this is especially true for those of us committed to pursuing a forthright public sociology geared to promoting progressive social change. National evaluations of our research primarily valorise those elements that are geared to intellectual ‘outputs’ where the readership is essentially confined to a narrow coterie of fellow colleagues and not routinely open/accessible to those whose social agency contributes to change. The paper provides examples of important research that is under threat from the bureaucratic regimes that infect the contemporary university.