More work is required to make academic “timescapes” worth inhabiting and to open up space for creative work

Is the problem with contemporary academia really one of constant acceleration? Ulrike Felt argues that focusing too much on acceleration overlooks a more complex phenomenon at work. What is needed is careful investigation of “time generators”, the key sites in academia that create binding temporal requirements and regulations. Many of academia’s recent reforms – to funding structures, assessment exercises, accountability procedures, curricula or career paths – have all involved important temporal reordering work. This work has inevitable effects on core academic work and may have consequences for who remains in academia and who leaves. More attention thus needs to be devoted to the ways different academic times come together to form a “timescape”.