Academic women with migrant background in the global knowledge economy: Bodies, hierarchies and resistance

SynopsisAcross the globe, academic work is changing in order to meet the demands of the global knowledge economy. This process of change is characterised by the dominant discourses of competition, accountability and excellence, which produce an imaginary of a seemingly disembodied researcher. Departing from a Swedish higher education and research policy landscape, the aim of this article is to explore how, in comparison with their Swedish colleagues, women academics with a migrant background make representations of the good researcher in their work practices. This involves exploring how processes of racialisation – including processes of whiteness – are at work when different layers of migration are read through a white Swedish normality. The results indicate that whiteness is an attributed quality and contributes to constructing success, and that racialised researchers stand out as being particularly invisible representations within a Research Excellence framework. In this article I suggest that this visibility/invisibility paradox (Mirza 2009) can be interpreted not only as a reflection of the number of racialised researchers in Swedish higher education, but also as a general discourse of colour-blindness and Swedish white privilege.

► This article explores representations of the good researcher.
► Representations of racialised researchers are particularly invisible in a research excellence framework.
► Colour-blindness and White privilege are at the core when bodies are represented.