The end of the academic career? A qualitative study on the status passage to professorial retirement
Final Report Abstract
University careers are of equal scientific and public interest. In the context of social science research, the majority of studies over the past few decades have focused on questions of access to and staying in academia. In this research, important insights were generated that relate, for example, to the unequal career opportunities of women or members of disadvantaged social groups. Many studies also reveal problematic side effects of the employment structures, such as precariousness or the drop-out of scientists, in German academia. However, studying university careers is not only relevant with a focus on inequality. In the narrower sense, contributions from the sociology of sciences deal with the conditions for the development of a research program in the context of university careers, address the construction of a researcher habitus or take a look at the process of recruiting professors. Irrespective of this, however, it can be observed that the social sciences' concern with university careers primarily focuses on early career phases and status passages and neglects developments within university careers after reaching an permanent position in German academia. Against this background, in our project we are addressing a phase of scientific careers that has so far been neglected empirically: the age-related retirement from research and teaching. This status passage and its consequences have not yet been examined. In fact, not much is known about how the status passage is organized and what the effects of age-related retirement for people who consider research their calling. This gap is surprising, since the transition of professors into retirement is both commonplace and inevitable given the age structure and legal age limits. Using the concept of the status passage, we examine the transition to retirement using the example of university professors in Germany. In doing so, we focus on the interaction between organization and person, but also address the role of non-university actors and programs for retired professors. The focus of our analysis is on the changes in the horizon of possibilities for academic work after leaving active service, changing relationships and strategies of expectation management by professors. In summary our data reveal a tension between a less institutionalised farewell culture at universities and strong professional identification on the part of professors, in which very different formats of passing through and coping with the status passage exist. Professorial retirement thus reveals itself to be a risky status passage and underline the importance of cooling-out processes.
Publications
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Wissenschaft im (Un)Ruhestand. Wie UniversitätsprofessorInnen das altersbedingte Ausscheiden aus der Universität meistern. Die Hochschule, Heft 1/2: 101-111
Reuter, Julia & Berli, Oliver
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Wenn die Zeit an der Universität zu Ende geht. Forschung & Lehre(3).
Reuter, Julia
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Entlassungsurkunden, Festschriften, Emeritizimmer – Ein Streifzug durch die Welt der professoralen Ruheständler*innen. Die Freunde der italienischen Oper, 151-171. Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden.
Reuter, Julia
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Übergänge in den professoralen Ruhestand. Themen und Herausforderungen einer lebensphasensensiblen Personalentwicklung. Personal in Hochschule und Wissenschaft entwickeln 5/2021: 77-91
Reuter, Julia & Berli, Oliver
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„Sind nett zu mir (.) bin nett zu ihnen.“ Beruf und Berufung am Beispiel von Professor*innen im Ruhestand, S. 99-114 in: Mieg, Harald/Schnell, Christiane (Hg.): Jahrbuch 2020 der Gesellschaft für Wissenschaftsforschung. Berlin
Berli, Oliver; Reuter, Julia & Ihlo, Anna
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Schlüsselübergabe an Universitäten. Österreichische Zeitschrift für Soziologie, 48(4), 533-543.
Berli, Oliver & Reuter, Julia
