Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy Volume 2 Renewal and Reinvestment in Higher Article 1 Education December 2010 On Graduate Unions and Corporatization Deeb-Paul Kitchen II University of Florida,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://thekeep.eiu.edu/jcba Recommended Citation Kitchen II, Deeb-Paul (2010) "On Graduate Unions and Corporatization," Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy: Vol. 2 , Article 1. Available at: http://thekeep.eiu.edu/jcba/vol2/iss1/1 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by The Keep. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy by an authorized editor of The Keep. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Kitchen II: On Graduate Unions and Corporatization On Graduate Unions and Corporatization Deeb-Paul Kitchen II, University of Florida1 The existence of graduate labor unions is seen as evidence of the changed and changing nature of academic economies over the past two decades. To be exact they are seen as a result of academic capitalism and broad trends towards corporatization (Bousquet, 2008; Lafer, 2003; Rhoads & Rhoades, 2005; Slaughter & Rhoades, 2004) whereby institutions of higher education increasingly engage in market-like behaviors and display “the culture, practices, policies, and workforce strategies more appropriate to corporations” (Steck, 2003, p. 66). This involves adopting “corporate models, cutting costs and seeking profit-making opportunities” resulting in heavy reliance on private funding for research and expanded commercial influence over academic pursuits (Clay, 2008, p. 11) Within the context of changing academic economies and corporate universities scholars see graduate employee unions as a potential source of resistance and progressive change (Bousquet, 2008; Lafer, 2003; Rhoads & Rhoades, 2005).