Phipps, Alison (2020) Reckoning up: sexual harassment and violence in the neoliberal university. Gender and Education, 32 (2). pp. 227-243. ISSN 0954-0253

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Abstract

This paper situates sexual harassment and violence in the neoliberal university. Using data from a ‘composite ethnography’ representing twelve years of research, I argue that institutional inaction on these issues reflects how they are ‘reckoned up’ in the context of gender and other structures. The impact of disclosure is projected in market terms: this produces institutional airbrushing which protects both the institution and those (usually privileged men) whose welfare is bound up with its success. Staff and students are differentiated by power/value relations, which interact with gender and intersecting categories. Survivors are often left with few alternatives to speaking out in the ‘outrage economy’ of the corporate media: however, this can support institutional airbrushing and bolster punitive technologies. I propose the method of Grounded Action Inquiry, implemented with attention to Lorde’s work on anger, as a parrhesiastic practice of ‘speaking in’ to the neoliberal institution.

Item Type:	Article
Keywords:	sexual violence, sexual harassment, neoliberalism, gender, higher education, power, intersectionality
Schools and Departments:	School of Law, Politics and Sociology > Sociology
Research Centres and Groups:	Centre for Gender Studies
Subjects:	H Social Sciences H Social Sciences > HM Sociology H Social Sciences > HM Sociology > HM0826 Social institutions H Social Sciences > HQ The Family. Marriage. Women H Social Sciences > HQ The Family. Marriage. Women > HQ1101 Women. Feminism L Education L Education > L Education (General) L Education > LB Theory and practice of education > LB2300 Higher education
Depositing User:	Alison Phipps
Date Deposited:	29 May 2018 13:18
Last Modified:	12 Aug 2020 11:15
URI:	http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/76205

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