Abstract
The authors examines how precarity is produced in German academia and explores how labour activists are trying to combat it. The focus is on mid-level faculty. In the first part, the mechanics of precarisation are explained; in the second part, the institutional supports of the status quo blocking change in favour of labour are identified, and in the third part, the demands and strategies of two organisations are analyzed that have made headlines in recent years by exposing the proliferation of precarity in German academia: the Education and Science Workers’ Union (GEW) and the Network for Decent Work in Academia (NGAWiss).
Recommended Citation
Gallas, Alexander
(2018)
"Precarious Academic Labor in Germany: Termed Contracts and New Berufsverbot,"
Academic Labor: Research and Artistry: Vol. 2, Article 8.
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.humboldt.edu/alra/vol2/iss1/8
Publication-Ready Author Bio
Alexander Gallas belongs to the mid-level faculty at the Department of Political Science, University of Kassel, Germany, and has a termed contract. He is active in an initiative that facilitates the self-organisation of precarious academic workers. Furthermore, he is a rank-and-file member of the Education and Science Workers’ Union (GEW). He serves on the editorial board of the Global Labour Journal and has authored a monograph called The Thatcherite Offensive: A Neo-Poulantzasian Analysis (Haymarket, 2017). [Email: alexandergallas@uni-kassel.de]