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Article published In:
Manufacturing Knowledge
Edited by Alfonso Del Percio and Cécile B. Vigouroux
[Language, Culture and Society 5:2] 2023
► pp. 167–181

(Im)possible change

Criticality and constraints in the infrastructures of the academic knowledge economy

| Stockholm University
| Dublin City University
| Prince of Songkla University

This article examines three sets of infrastructures that give shape to the academic knowledge economy, namely: institutional infrastructures (universities and conferences); gate-keeping infrastructures (journals and publishers); and validation infrastructures (competitive assessments of individuals and institutions). We analyse the tensed interplay between critical perspectives in applied linguistics and the influence of academic neoliberalism. We develop our argument in three parts: (1) Academic critique and its emancipatory epistemologies are intertwined with established systems and coexist with mechanisms that perpetuate inequalities. (2) Inequalities in knowledge production reverberate in knowledge dissemination, where the hegemonic role of English as the language of academic publishing reinforces the unequal position of different actors in their academic fields. (3) These inequalities (that originate in institutional and gate-keeping infrastructures) extend to the validation of knowledge, which is entrenched in the audit culture that pervades academia and further reinforces neoliberal competitive dynamics. We conclude by reflecting on the possibilities for change at these three levels.

Keywords: Academic knowledge economy, criticality, inequality, infrastructures, neoliberalism
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Institutional infrastructures of knowledge production and academic critique
  • 3.Gate-keeping infrastructures in knowledge production and dissemination
  • 4.Validation infrastructures, precarity and morality in neoliberal academia
  • 5.Concluding remarks
  • References
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at [email protected].

Published online: 22 January 2024
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/lcs.00040.sol
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