The Contract Researcher in the University SystemAuthor(s): Peter WellsSource: Area, Vol. 24, No. 2 (Jun., 1992), pp. 165-168Published by: The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers)Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20003082 .Accessed: 16/06/2014 07:11

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Comments 165

In summary, between 1987 and 1990 a significant new cohort of geographers were appointed to British universities, but in large part they represented a strengthening of the existing hierarchy of British geography rather than the emergence of new horizons in skill development and research excellence. 'Plus ,a change.... '

References Edwards R (1991) ' UK geography departments ' Area 23, 197-208

Johnston R (1991) Geography and geographers (Arnold: London) (4th edition) Johnston R and Brack E (1983) ' Appointment and promotion in the academic labour markets ' Transactions

Institute of British Geographers 8, 100-11

The contract researcher in the University system

Peter Wells, Cardiff Business School, Aberconway Building, Colum Drive, Cardiff CF1 3EU

There is an increasing concern among geographers to measure and compare depart mental performance and other aspects of the academic system (Wrigley and Mathews 1986; Edwards 1991; Bodman 1991), but this concern seems to ignore completely changing conditions within which we work (see Curry 1991 for a discussion of the ethical dimensions of these changes).

The obsession with UFC rankings and income gives rise to, at an individual level, workers within the university system being judged on two criteria-the amount of money they have brought in, and their publications (which tend to be greater where substantial research is undertaken). Yet, a massive anomaly exists in the system

whereby those who actually carry out research are second class citizens with no clear career structure and no long term opportunities. Edwards (1991) completely fails to account for the diversity of employment possible within a geography department, yet there are good grounds for considering they are crucial.

Career paths and contract research

There is perhaps an idealised, and largely fictional, model of the career path in geography and other university disciplines, which is implicit in the Edwards analysis. This career path is simple, linear and progressive-one moves up the career ladder into higher levels of pay and responsibility. It is summarised in Table 1, where particular attention is paid to the research and teaching content of each stage.

In the process of following the path, the academic is able to establish an in-depth expertise in the chosen field of interest thus increasing the opportunities for consul tancy, winning further research and, crucially, building a network of contacts. As project leaders publications flow more easily, the bulk of the actual work is left to contract researchers. In reality however the career choices for those interested in full time research are less simple, and less linear. These are summarised in Figure 1.

That is to say, for those interested in, and with capabilities for, full time research rather than teaching, the contract research route enables a degree of progression (ie from research assistant to research associate to research fellow) in an increasingly narrow number of jobs, but at the end, or at any point along the way, in order to get the full time security of long term employment it is necessary to accept a fall in income by rejoining the system at the base of the junior lecturer scale. In simple terms, the contract research ladder leads to nowhere, because the university system makes no provisions for tenured researchers.

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166 Comments

Table 1 The idealised career path

Stage Teaching Research

Under-graduate Nil Dissertation PhD Up to 8 hours per week 'Full time'

Tutorials etc. Post-doctoral As above Slight, writing up PhD work Junior Lecturer 1-3 courses over 3 years Slight

Administration work Member of a team Senior Lecturer 3-5 courses Higher

High adminstration load Leader of a team Professor Variable to low Project leader

High administration load Fund raiser Some actual research

Undergraduate

MSc

PhD

Tutorial assistant Research assistant _ Exit

Post-doctoral Research associate

Lecturer Research fellow

Senior lecturer Exit

Professor

Figure 1 The reality of career paths for researchers.

The inefficiency of contract research It is clear that this system is desperately inefficient. In effect the contract researchers have to move jobs on average every two years, perhaps less. In the course of a two year contract, which is usually in a field at least somewhat new to the researcher, the first six

months are spent getting to know the field, while the last six are spent trying to get a job. This leaves one year actually to do the work and publish the results. My own case is illustrative. Having done a PhD on the location of military Research and

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Comments 167

Development (R&D) establishments in the UK, I moved on to global strategic alliances in telecommunications and computing, and subsequently to the European automotive components industry. Vast areas of ' expertise ' in the previous research have had to be abandoned. Numerous papers which could have been written if the time were available have been lost. More importantly, having researched a subject in some depth to the point where really interesting proposals could be put the opportunity to pursue those proposals is lost.

Geography is as prone to this problem as many other disciplines, personal evidence suggests it is not confined to social sciences or to any particular subject area. It must be inefficient where there is no way forward for those who wish to specialise in research.

What is ' research training ' about if not preparing people for further work in research? While this practice may allow contract researchers to build a diverse base of knowledge and techniques, the demands of the project often require narrow pragmatism rather than extensive capability.

Inequality and the system

Not only is the contract research system inefficient, it also embodies blatant inequali ties. It is ironic that many radical researchers in human geography have concerned themselves with inequality in the wider social world while ignoring the discrimination

which exists in their own departments. This inequality is particularly galling for researchers who see themselves judged by very strict competitive standards by univer sity employers who are elitist, complacent and exploitative. Perhaps full time lecturers are envious of the greater apparent freedom enjoyed by researchers, but the glamour of the occupation is largely illusory.

As a contract researcher it is necessary to meet tough performance standards over a short time period. Not only does this have implications for the quality of research (with the emphasis on quick and dirty research, on cavalier publishing attitudes, etc), it has implications for the researcher too. The contract researcher is in the unfortunate position of being judged by people in tenured posts, who rose to their positions in a very different framework. In other words, the reforms in the university system are being felt by young academics trying to move up through the system rather than those already estalished.

In addition, the contract researcher faces appalling job insecurity. In some cases PhD qualified and experienced researchers in fields as diverse as microbiology and sociology have had to exist on rolling contracts of less than one month duration for extended periods. Wages are lower than the equivalent lecturer would get, lower still if periods of unemployment are taken into account. The sequencing of contracts is vital. Unsurprisingly, a good many simply leave the system altogether. In both cases there will be an impact on the demographic structure of the department.

Conclusions Research funding is inherently ' lumpy', deriving from many sources, at different levels and at different times. Currently, contract researchers are the means by which the necessary flexibility is achieved. More thought needs to be given to smoothing out research flows; possibly creating centres of research which could pay for themselves in the long run.

In fact employment trends are moving the other way. Mainstream employment as a lecturer in a geography department is increasingly modelled on the fixed term contract.

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168 Comments

This is equality of the lowest common denominator. What is required is a commitment to a proper career path for researchers and/or the conscious development of lecture courses by researchers to enable the transfer to teaching to occur.

References Bodman A R (1991) Weavers of influence: the structure of contemporary geographic research Transactions of

the Institute of British Geographers 16, 21-37 Curry M R (1991) On the possibility of ethics in geography: writing, citing, and the construction of

intellectual property Progress in Human Geography 15, 125-48 Edwards R A (1991) UK geography departments: a perspective on UFC rankings Area 23, 197-208

Wrigley N and Mathews S (1986) Citation classics and citation levels in geography Area 18, 185-94

The Church Urban Fund and inter-parish linkage

T R Slater, School of Geography, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B 15 2TT

The essence of Pacione's recent religio-geographical perspective of the Church Urban Fund (Pacione 1991) is that the concept of inter-parish linkage referred to in the Church of England's Faith in the city report (Church of England 1985) has been only weakly developed and that a better grasp of geographical perspectives on Urban Priority Areas (UPA's) on the part of the Church would enable it to develop this idea further.

My initial reaction to the paper was that the Church of England is rather more aware of the geographical dimensions of the problems that it is seeking to address than geographers are aware of the structures and perspectives of the Church. That Pacione and the editor of Area are unaware that the plural of diocese is dioceses, and that there is no diocese of Aston (107) in the Anglican Church (indeed, there is not even a suffragan bishop at present) does not instil confidence in the conclusions of Pacione's paper. That he can conclude from his brief survey of Newcastle that it offers' clear guidance for the formation of inter-parish links' reduces confidence further since his own map shows that there are fifteen parishes categorised as having the highest levels of deprivation in

Newcastle, but only twelve with z-scores suggesting little deprivation which might link with them. What, too, of the rest of Newcastle diocese which encompasses rural Northumberland? Are parishes in this area to be excluded from the supposed benefits of inter-parish links because they lack geographical proximity to city UPA parishes? If a national ' geo-register ' of parishes were to be set up with this level of naivity it is probably something the Church could do without. Neither does his map demonstrate that' there is considerable scope for enhanced intra-diocesan resource transfers in favour of deprived parishes' (109). A map of the differential distribution of life quality says nothing about either the levels of resources available to the Christian communities in those parishes (except by implication), nor anything about the current, or prospective, transfer of resources between those communities.

More seriously, Pacione's criticism of the lack of financial transfers between such prosperous and UPA parishes as have established a link is to fail to grasp the theology of the financial organisation of the Church of England. Despite a brief mention of the apportionment system, he fails to perceive that this is the reason for dioceses such as Gloucester and Birmingham actively discouraging financial transfers between linked parishes. The redistribution of financial resources between rich and poor parishes takes place on a structured basis in the Church of England, at the diocesan level first and foremost, but also to some extent at the national level. Thus rich dioceses (usually the older-established ones) have to supplement monies received from the Church

Commissioners for payment of clergy salaries and pensions to a greater extent than

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Article Contentsp. 165p. 166p. 167p. 168

Issue Table of ContentsArea, Vol. 24, No. 2 (Jun., 1992), pp. 105-242Front MatterBuilding a Geographical Base for Integrated Pollution Control: Some Problems [pp. 105-112]Hazard Management in Britain: Another Disastrous Decade? [pp. 113-122]New Directions in the Geography of Religion [pp. 123-129]The Distribution of Public and Private Residential Homes for Elderly Persons in England and Wales [pp. 130-144]ObservationsConference Observations: Media Manipulations? [pp. 145-146]Meeting the Media Midway [pp. 146-150]The IBG Conference Experience: Swansea 1992 [pp. 150-155]The Regional Distribution of Foreign Direct Investment in the UK: A Note [pp. 155-157]Geography Misconstrued as Social Science [pp. 158-160]

CommentsReports of Our Death Are Greatly Exaggerated: A Reply to Edwards [pp. 161-162]The New Cohort of British Geographers: An Assessment of 'Degrees of Influence' [pp. 162-165]The Contract Researcher in the University System [pp. 165-168]The Church Urban Fund and Inter-Parish Linkage [pp. 168-169]The Church Urban Fund: A Religio-Geographical Perspective [pp. 169-171]The Church Urban Fund and Inter-Parish Linkages: A Rejoinder [pp. 171-173]Unseating Furniture Geography [pp. 173-174]Reality, Representation and Simulation: A Comment on Theory and Politics in Boyle and Hughes (1991) [pp. 174-176]Tu Cherches Une Belle-Mre! Our Reply to Clarke [pp. 176-179]

Book ReviewsReview: untitled [p. 181-181]Review: untitled [p. 182-182]Review: untitled [pp. 182-183]Review: untitled [pp. 183-184]Review: untitled [pp. 184-185]Review: untitled [pp. 185-186]Review: untitled [pp. 186-187]Review: untitled [pp. 187-188]Review: untitled [p. 188-188]Review: untitled [p. 189-189]Review: untitled [pp. 189-190]Review: untitled [pp. 190-191]Review: untitled [pp. 191-192]Review: untitled [p. 192-192]Review: untitled [p. 193-193]Review: untitled [pp. 193-194]Review: untitled [pp. 194-195]Review: untitled [pp. 195-196]Review: untitled [pp. 196-197]Review: untitled [pp. 197-198]

Annual Conference, Global Environmental Change Europe into the Next CenturyConference ReportsIBG Swansea 1992: Reflections from the Local Organisers [pp. 199-202]An Editor's View [pp. 202-203]Environmental Remote Sensing from Regional to Global Scales [pp. 203-204]Young Research Workers/Rural Geography Study Group [pp. 204-205]Quality of Restored Land [pp. 205-206]Health and Environment in Europe [pp. 206-207]European Population: Towards the Year 2000 [pp. 207-208]Teaching Large Classes/Teaching at Higher SSRs: A Workshop [pp. 208-209]A New Heritage for a New Europe? [pp. 209-210]Gender and European Agriculture [pp. 211-212]Transport and Economic Development in the New Central and Eastern Europe [pp. 212-213]Development and Marginal Environments [pp. 213-214]Geography and Law: The Way Ahead [pp. 215-216]EC Panel [p. 216-216]Japan in the Global Economy [pp. 217-218]The Impact of Economic Change (Submitted Papers) [pp. 218-219]History, Identity and Celtic Nationalism [pp. 219-220]Retail Change and Planning Implications [pp. 220-222]Joint Young Researchers Session [p. 222-222]Global Warming and Its Potential Regional Implications [pp. 223-226]Changing Schools, Changing Higher Education [pp. 226-227]Current Themes in Postgraduate Research [pp. 227-228]Gender Issues in Rural Society [pp. 228-229]Gender Issues and Undergraduate Teaching [pp. 229-230]GIS and Urban and Rural Planning [pp. 230-231]Readjustment in Europe and America [pp. 231-232]The Effects of Environmental Change on Geomorphic Processes and Biota in Arid and Semi-Arid Regions [pp. 232-233]The Contemporary Human Geography of Canada [pp. 233-234]Communities of Resistance: Geography and a New Politics of Identity [pp. 234-235]Global Environmental Change: Europe into the Next Century [pp. 235-236]Ethics and Public Responsibility in Geography [pp. 236-237]

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