Exploitation ofa academics (was reparations)

[Dennis Breslin]

Kelley Walker wrote:
>
> i finally asked a mentor about this.  why on earth are we pullingin more
> grads than we can every really pump out?  we had a long talk about social
> control/labor discipline.  i'm gonna get all functionalist on ya, but
> forces competition in the workplace.  make everyone believe that the only
> thing they can do or should want to do is be an academic and you have
> scared adjuncts willing to very nearly pay a uni for the privilege of
> having a job.
> 

The resort to functionalism is a tad premature.  While there are
programs
out there actively recruiting wannabees, my experience at UConn and
the rumor/whine mill over the years has the opposite operating.  Since
the low point in the early 80s, faculty in sociology have been
realistic,
to put it mildly, about the career prospects of their students.  The
programs keep admitting wannabees in part because no one seriously
wants to eliminate graduate programs or because graduate work is
valued in terms other than economic reward - that medieval 
apppreciation for scholarship that is oblivious to the spectre
of starvation.  I don't think the labor discipline thing is at
work.  That would require some real world expertise and finesse
that I find lacking among academics.