| Reviews / Comptes Rendus | Labour/Le Travail, 53

Reviews / Comptes Rendus

Indhu Rajagopal, Hidden Academics: Contract Faculty in Canadian Universities (Toronto: University of Toronto Press 2002).

FRUSTRATED PART-TIME Canadian university faculty, as Indhu Rajagopal painstakingly discovered, often see themselves as marginalized in "a job that they love, [where] they face obstacles in their day-to-day work that threatens to weaken their spirit and proficiency. They are exasperated that the university denies their continuing presence. They feel that it ignores their perspectives — their reasons for teaching part time, their aspirations, their attitude towards their work, their role in the universities, and their place in the collegium." (88)

Rajagopal, Associate Professor of Social Science at York University, set out to learn more about these frustrations and the perspectives of these part-time professors, whom she labels "hidden academics." She is clearly sympathetic — she was a part-timer for many years. (xiii) Her goal was to examine the impact of a changing university teaching environment on the rising number of "part-time profs," whom she identifies as an exploited class. The result, as presented in some 330 pages generously sprinkled with more than 50 tables and figures (plus academic paraphernalia), is at once enlightening and frustrating, opinionated and derivative, pertinent yet somehow dated.

Perhaps a mixed result was inevitable — Rajagopal found that data on part-time academics was remarkably sparse given their growing importance since the 1970s. As a result, she laboured long to develop a major statistical record intended to support her study. The data is impressive; however, because the process took so long to come to fruition, many of her observations have the ring of the 1980s and early 1990s — something of a disappointment in a book published in October 2002.To be sure, the citations, data, and the "multiple regression analysis" of the statistics for the early 1990s are impressive. Recent material, in contrast, is less tightly focussed and more reliant upon anecdotal and secondary sources. The book seems to teeter along with something of a "split personality," sometimes broadly opinionated and wide-ranging; sometimes very much an academic's tome, replete with statistical commentaries and supportive citations.

Still, the evidence here is wide-ranging, the data analysis statistically sophisticated and informative, the findings impressive and convincing. Rajagopal reveals the gulf that divides full- and part-time academics; no surprise there, but the analysis digs deep. Her conclusion that part-time issues need to be looked at within the contexts of the political economy — as a "class struggle against the managerial powers" is based on a strong understanding of the issues and careful assessment of data of unprecedented depth. She shows an academic world where full- timers live in a socially constructed, ideologically driven setting where matters like collegiality and equality are a "powerful fiction." That "fiction,"that "construct" sees the full-time professoriate simultaneously expressing concern for the fate of part-time "colleagues" while serving as "managers responsible for hiring, firing, and administering" them. (236, 242)

Even more interesting, and less common, is Rajagopal's assessment of divisions within the part-time professoriate. She recognizes that part-timers are a very diverse population in terms of gender, experience, degree achieved, discipline, and university "type," among other factors. Among her most effective ideas is that of "Classic" versus "Contemporary" part-timers. "Classic" part-time teaching — often at professional schools — is a sound (if still often exploitative) use of "real world" personnel to provide specific "training." "Contemporaries," on the other hand, more often still dream of full-time positions and live a hand-to-mouth existence by teaching many courses, whether across disciplines, or at various schools, a group accurately labelled by Rajagopal as "freeway fliers"(74) (The writer of this review has several hundred thousand kilometres of such teaching experience). One might note, too, that the work assumes that part-time pay is low — it is low compared to full-time academics, but one might ask low-wage labourers for their opinion. We all live in socially constructed environments.

Quibbles aside, recognizing that part-timers are not a monolith is a valuable feature of Rajagopal's book; so too are the revelations (based on her survey) of the "mutually contrasting perceptions" (177) of part- and full-timers. She reveals complex interactions born of a political economy that exploits part-timers for economic and ideological reasons. Governments reduce funding; so part-timers become necessary. Part-timers teach frequently, thus suffering "degradation" not only of work circumstances but a "deskilling" reminiscent of the impact of industrialization on crafts workers.(237) Surely, the full-time academic ideology concludes, "real professors" would research and publish too !! Yet when part-timers research and publish (as is often the case) Rajagopal concludes that full-time academics are either unaware (social links are weak) or indifferent (that is not what they were hired to do). The circle is thus closed. Part-time status, for most, becomes self-reinforcing, either because it is what "Classics" do, or because "Contemporaries" have to "make a living." To add further complexity, many part-timers report that they love their "calling" and would make the same "career" decisions again if given the chance. (169) Rajagopal's dealing with these complex issues through statistically sophisticated analysis based on sound theory deserves applause.

Rajagopal is at her most forceful in emphasizing the especially dire situations faced by female part-time academics. An entire chapter on "Invisible Women" is supplemented by discussion of "feminization" throughout the book. The clear "voice" on women's issues is welcome, but Rajagopal tends too often to quote other scholars in making her case. For instance, she quotes American researcher Shelley Park's view that the academic "proletariat" is "disproportionately female." Yet Rajagopal's statistics for Canada show otherwise. (65, 68, 246) Obviously, international works should be consulted, but the border remains a real factor. Similar is useful but not identical. Overall, the book is replete with quotations; indeed, she closes the book with a rather unremarkable quote. (258)

Several other issues give one pause. Presentation is a particular concern. Rajagopal's book is well organized; both the introduction and each chapter make her intentions quite clear. But her writing often shows the worst features of statistically-driven analysis. Was it really necessary to provide data within the text (in brackets) when the same material was presented in tables ? Page 50, for instance, offers over two dozen bits of information in brackets, when the same data follow in tabular form! (51–53)

Secondly, at times it seems that the hard-won evidence just "must" be heard. The same testimony is heard severally (take the Quebec "freeway flier" quote repeated on page 145). And there is a sense of "déja vu" as one works through the chapters — perhaps inevitably, one begins to anticipate the sections on "Classic" part timers, on "Contemporaries," on the full-timer perspective and so on. All in all, one might wish that Rajagopal had paid slightly greater heed to the maxim that evidence matters, but so does readability.

These issues of presentation should not diminish Rajagopal's work. She has made the "hidden academics" of Canada more visible; here, the anecdotal observations of part-timers gain academic confirmation. Will it matter? Rajagopal's work on the human costs of "better managed" academic institutions deserves wide readership among those interested in Canadian universities. Ironically, her book provides compelling clues that change is not likely in our academic "ivory towers." In the main, part-timers will stay well "hidden." But at least Rajagopal provides fascinating and abundant evidence that change should come.


Peter Krats University of Western Ontario

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