Through performance criteria tied to funding
mechanisms, the Australian federal government
exerts unprecedented degrees of control over
resource-starved universities, submitting them to
accountability demands and ‘market’ logics. A result
has been severe decline in the autonomy not only of
universities from external governance, but of
academic staff from internal university governance.
Ascending modes of managerial governance –
associated with corporatising trends in many public
sector institutions – are especially pernicious in the
Australian university sector. As senior executives
become more muscular, there is concomitant
weakening of traditional governance bodies, such
as academic boards, and even some powers of
councils to whom managers are accountable. In
consequence – as analysed in this article – academic
working lives are regulated increasingly less by
‘representative’ bodies and processes, and more
through everyday regimes of practice and relation
that induce subconscious mentalities – tacitly
internalised self-governing principles – which
Foucault accordingly calls governmentalities. This
paper explores how certain govern-mentalities
emerge from strong-handed managerialism; how they
are underpinned by institutionalised bullying; and
how they operate to weaken the autonomy and agency
of academics, channelling their practices and muting
critical-ethical resistance