Professional Alienation of Academics: Qualitative Analysis

In recent decades, neoliberal ideology has increasingly shaped the systems of science and higher education in many countries worldwide and is often the cause of professional alienation of academics (e.g., Gachago et al., 2023). Deriving from Seeman’s theory (1959; 1976) according to which social conditions create one or more dimensions of alienation and related behaviours, this paper examines whether and in what ways academics in Croatia may be alienated from their profession. Therefore, group interviews were conducted in five focus groups with a total of twenty-one academics (employers at 5 scientific/ higher education institutions that participated in this research). Participants in the study have various associate, scientific, teaching, and scientific-teaching titles in the social, humanistic, and interdisciplinary fields of science. Research findings indicate the presence of different dimensions of professional alienation of Croatian academics (powerlessness, meaninglessness, normlessness, and self-estrangement) but it also provides insights into the positive aspects of working in the field of science and higher education. Participants often emphasized the link between the features of academic capitalism and dimensions of professional alienation of academics in the field of social sciences and humanities. The possible long-term consequences of these trends are discussed herein.