Precarity and relational equality in Irish academia

This study applies a relational lens to precarity and inequality. Through examining interpersonal relations between colleagues, the study explores the emotional aspects of power relations within academia and demonstrates how that feeds into, maintains and magnifies already existing structural inequalities. It moves beyond the body of existing literature that examines precarity and inequality as objective conditions with concrete material consequences, and asks whether and how interactions with colleagues in academia amplify or reduce inequality outcomes for precarious academics. The participants were non-tenured teaching academics drawn from an almost nationwide selection of universities and technological universities across Ireland and interviewed using a semi structured interview approach. The theoretical underpinnings of this study are derived from egalitarian theory. It also draws on phenomenology, critical phenomenology, and feminist research theory. The study recognises the body of literature that already exists describing the subjective experience of precarious academics and how those experiences make them feel, but this study adds to that body of literature in two ways: • It combines a fresh way of examining academic precarity as something that is felt with an equality framework (equality of condition) that doesn’t confine itself to traditional distinctions of race, gender etc but rather tries to capture the multifaceted and intersectional ways that inequality is experienced in the micro-spaces of everyday interactions and behaviours. Equality of condition is a conceptual framework that centres on five key factors that affect people’s well-being or quality of life: respect and recognition; resources; love, care, and solidarity; power; and working and learning. • It uses interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) to tease out meaning in the described experiences. This meant that rather than simply using descriptions at face value, the co-construction of meaning allowed for a more comprehensive and relational analysis of what was being described- to look beyond the surface and find a richer understanding of what was felt and how it was rationalised. The integrated model of analysis from interview (participant description and interpretation) to interpretation (Interpretative phenomenological analysis) to equality mapping (using the equality of condition framework) has revealed the potential to understand more comprehensively the true depth and breadth of the inequality experienced in Irish universities by precarious academics. This study generates new insights about the working conditions of precarious academics and advances new means of conceptualising the factors that advance and impede the realization of equality within academia. In doing so, it provides a clearer picture of the extent of the problem, and a starting point for dialogue between all stakeholders in higher education with a view to finding a better way to work together, in everyone’s interest.