Zwischen Autonomie und Ausgrenzung? - IG LektorInnen

EU-Project on External University Lecturers and Freelance Scientists
University Lecturers without a permanent position at the university and who are working as freelance
scientists play a crucial role in the european system of higher education. Recent studies show, that
they not only have a big share in the transmission ofscientific knowledge, but they also contribute to
the progress and renewal of academic knowledge and scientific research to a dimension, which is
widely underestimated. This holds for the methodology of scientific research and academic teaching as
well as for the contents and results. This lies in contrast to their precarious professional scientific and
social status, which seems to us in need for explanation and change.
1. Outline of our current research project
In our current research project “Between Autonomy and Exclusion? On the significance of External
Lecturers and Freelance Scientists at Austrian Universities” we elaborate on the profile of this highly
heterogenious segment of scholars from several perspectives: We consider the socio-economic
situation in relation to the previous andactually changing labor legislation at the university as well as
outside of it, especially freelance work legislation. A second major focus is their professional identity,
which is characterized by the tension between a very heterogenious and discontinious socio-economic
status and a more homogenious image of the profession of a scientist. To approach this problems we
use a theory of (collective) identity which is based upon ruptures, multiplicity and migration as
important elements. The perspective of“class” predominates in relation to the socio-economic status,
which is categorized by the impossibility of being defined in standard economic categories. On the
other hand, the corporatist perspective of “rank” predominates in regard of the profession as a
scientist. The institutional fields between which professional migration takes place are first, the
university, second, research institutes outside the university, and third, the external (non-scientific)
labor market. The fourth institutional field we include in our inquiry is the public research financing.
Additionally, we investigate in media representations as they contribute to the profile of the group in
question.
The empirical methods we use are quantitative as well as qualitative. Gender, but also generation are
central categories of the investigation: The statistical survey concerns three major university towns in
Austria. The sample includes the faculties of cultural, human, and natural sciences in Graz, Innsbruck
and Vienna as well as the university of the arts and the university of economics in Vienna. The
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