Academic Conferences As Neoliberal Commodities

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This book empirically examines academic conferences in the social sciences, and explores the purpose and value of people interested in the social sciences attending and presenting at national and international academic conferences. Using a highly original structure and style, the book considers the damaging impact of neoliberalism on conferences, and academia more widely, and explores the numerous barriers to conference attendance. It will be of interest to students and researchers who attend conferences in fields spanning the social sciences, as well as those interested in the effects of neoliberalism on academia.


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Academic Conferences as Neoliberal Commodities Donald J Nicolson Academic Conferences as Neoliberal Commodities Donald J Nicolson Freelance writer Dundee, Scotland ISBN 978-3-319-49189-9 DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-49190-5 ISBN 978-3-319-49190-5 (eBook) Library of Congress Control Number: 2016957750 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. Cover illustration: Mono Circles © John Rawsterne/patternhead.com Printed on acid-free paper This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature The registered company is Springer International Publishing AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland I now know (from my boots up) why writers thank those who live with and endure them. So to my darling wife Donatella and mia suocera Liliana, I am eternally grateful for your support, patience and encouragement during this project. I hope this is the start of something new and exciting . . . CONFERENCE REGISTRATION Rather than using traditional headings, the book adopts the names of events at conferences for each section. The Welcome does two things. Firstly, it is analogous to a preface and represents a personal outline of how I developed an interest in academic conferences. Secondly, it provides a historical impression of academic conferences, and an overview of the concept of conference. For the person who wants to suggest a quick introduction to the world of the academic conference, this can be a onestop shop. The Opening Keynote introduces the conceptual framework, which drives the work in the book, sets out its aims and explains the methods used in the research reported. The two parallel sessions report the empirical examples in this book. Room numbers are used to subdivide these sessions, which represents how conference presentations take place across different rooms in hotels or universities. The first plenary reports five conference case studies, while the second covers the different themes explored across the interviews. The idea of non-sequentially numbering I t