Ruling Relations in Academia: Exploring Gender, Power and Exclusion in Higher Education

IAS Residential Fellow Professor Helen Peterson delivers a seminar on their research -

The seminar will present work-in-progress on ‘ruling relations’ in academia, a concept developed by Dorothy Smith. The seminar will discuss how the concept can be used in sociological research and be combined with organizational theory and specifically how it can be used to explore power relations in academia and processes of inclusion and exclusion. Investigating “ruling relations” involves researching the complex of bureaucratic, administrative, and professional discourses and practices that organize and govern social life. In more concrete terms such investigation draws attention to globalized systems for institutional coordination such as rankings, research audits, excellence initiatives, hiring criteria, bibliometrics, workload allocation, and funding structures. Ruling relations are further characterized by being translocal and is particularly useful for comparative, cross-country studies, between for example higher education in Sweden and the UK. The seminar will invite the participants to explore their own experiences of academic ruling relations and make taken-for-granted everyday practices visible.

Arrivals from 11:45 am for a 12:00 noon start. For those joining in-person, lunch will be served after the seminar from 1:00pm.

This event is hybrid format, please use the required booking button at the bottom of the page to choose either in-person or online attendance.
(Please note that in-person spaces are limited and booking is required, so we can manage numbers for catering and also the space in the seminar room)

By booking a place at this event, attendees agree to behave in a respectful manner such that everyone feels comfortable contributing as they wish. The IAS reserves the right to eject anyone who does not abide by this policy.

IAS seminars are typically recorded, minus any Q&A sessions at the end, again to encourage contributions. The recordings are then uploaded to our website on a Fellows bio page and/or Programme page, along with our IAS YouTube Channel. If you are not able to attend a seminar live, please do still register for the Teams webinar, as we will email everyone who registered to let them know once the recordings are made available.