Academic Work Cultures: Somatic Crisis in the Enterprise University

Research carried out in Australia, the UK, USA, and Europe over the last decade or so has clearly shown that large numbers of academics are stressed, anxious, depressed, overloaded, and demoralised (Barcan 2013; Burrows 2012; Court Ditton 2009; Gill 2010; Hil 2012; Lynch 2010; Sparkes 2007; Tytherleigh et al. 2007; Watson 2010). Many are suffering from insomnia, feelings of guilt, insecurity, anger, loss, failure and disorientation, have been diagnosed with mental health conditions such as anxiety and depression, and have experienced physical illnesses related to workplace stress. In a 2002 survey of 8,732 Australian university staff, Winefield, Gillsespie, Stough, Dua and Hapuarachchi found that approximately 50% of those interviewed were at risk of psychological illness, compared to 19% of the Australian population overall (2002a: 8). There is little doubt that in the decade since this study was published, the situation has worsened. A recent (2014) Guardian survey of academics with mentalhealth problems (from Vice Chancellors to PhD candidates) from the UK, Europe, Asia, North and South America, and Australasia, found that 80% of the more than 2,500 respondents suffer from anxiety and 75% from depression, and that 77% have been prescribed medication. Moreover, almost half (49%) of the respondents claim that they had not experienced mental health problems prior to working in academia. That we are now surrounded by what British sociologist Professor Roger Burrows describes as a ‘deep affective somatic crisis’ which threatens to engulf us (2012: 356), a crisis which may