“Fear Factor(y)”: Academia. Subtle Mechanisms of Symbolic Domination in the Academic Field

Abstract

The structure of and recent transformations in science affect the structure of the academic field, and ultimately the actors themselves: Today, academics often experience pressure, stress, and emotional discomfort. In this contribution, we show how emotions such as fear and concern may arise in reaction to the contemporary conditions of academic life, and how these emotions can operate as elements of the hierarchies between human actors (scientists) and institutional actors (universities). Using qualitative interview data with scholars from the United States, we illustrate how fear structures the actors' social practices—and how fear is thereby translated into the positional structure of the academic field. We discuss two sets of relations—intra- and inter-institutional—that entail structuring mechanisms. We thus attest how fear as an individual trait and social characteristic becomes part of the (re-)production of the fields' hierarchy.