I'm an academic with tenure, and I think what you say is exactly spot on. I have some thoughts to build on it:
1.) I believe the dynamic you describe is not limited to sociology and fields that intersect with culture war issues. It is much more widespread than that.
2.) In some fields now, it takes many years to get tenure, es…
I'm an academic with tenure, and I think what you say is exactly spot on. I have some thoughts to build on it:
1.) I believe the dynamic you describe is not limited to sociology and fields that intersect with culture war issues. It is much more widespread than that.
2.) In some fields now, it takes many years to get tenure, especially if you count time spent postocing or in other temporary positions. And the fight to get there is brutal. That means many academics have spent their entire adult lives working toward a tenured position, and they are often well into middle age by the time they are up for tenure. Being denied tenure then is not just career-ending, but completely devastating. The result is that tenure becomes less about liberating those academics who have it, and more about tyrannizing those who don't quite have it yet. Those who do finally get tenure have usually acquired a huge amount of cognitive momentum along the way. Therefore, the threat of being denied tenure might ultimately play a larger role in how academics think than does tenure itself. The scrappy 30-year-old upstart with truly out-of-the-box ideas is not the type of academic who is likely enjoying the protections of tenure. The ones with tenure are much more likely to have ossified points of view. I suspect that this dynamic is not clear to outsiders since it conflicts so much with the ostensible goal of the tenure system.
Dear Sarah,
I'm an academic with tenure, and I think what you say is exactly spot on. I have some thoughts to build on it:
1.) I believe the dynamic you describe is not limited to sociology and fields that intersect with culture war issues. It is much more widespread than that.
2.) In some fields now, it takes many years to get tenure, especially if you count time spent postocing or in other temporary positions. And the fight to get there is brutal. That means many academics have spent their entire adult lives working toward a tenured position, and they are often well into middle age by the time they are up for tenure. Being denied tenure then is not just career-ending, but completely devastating. The result is that tenure becomes less about liberating those academics who have it, and more about tyrannizing those who don't quite have it yet. Those who do finally get tenure have usually acquired a huge amount of cognitive momentum along the way. Therefore, the threat of being denied tenure might ultimately play a larger role in how academics think than does tenure itself. The scrappy 30-year-old upstart with truly out-of-the-box ideas is not the type of academic who is likely enjoying the protections of tenure. The ones with tenure are much more likely to have ossified points of view. I suspect that this dynamic is not clear to outsiders since it conflicts so much with the ostensible goal of the tenure system.