Caring Universities? Entanglements and Cavities of Politics of Gender, Excellence and Care in Austrian and German Academia

Models of the academic profession are under transition due to the recent ‘economic shift’ in academia and democratization that opens up universities inter alia for women and other social groups. We argue that both processes become entangled, but also show cavities, nevertheless questions of care are placed on the agenda of universities.

In the international competition for ‘excellent’ scholars universities refer more and more on gender equality policies that stem from human resource strategies, like Diversity Management, to become attractive employers. These policies do not only aim for promoting gender equality, but also go along with the market-efficient re-organisation of universities. As one part of this also care responsibilities, for children fewer for elderly, are questioned.

Results of our qualitative research projects (documents and expert interviews) show how the entrepreneurial universities are transformed into (more or less) ‘caring’ ones, which are combining contradictory aims and concepts of gender, excellence and care politics.

In our conclusion we discuss the universities` care concepts. They follow the tradition of social policies of the company. Recently a new mixture of caring activities can be recognized which is embedded in the entrepreneurial university’s care management and administration and in the welfare regime of the two countries.