Academic Tribes and Territories: the theoretical trajectory

Abstract

This paper describes and reflects upon the Academic Tribes and Territories thesis as it has developed over 25 years and set out in two separate editions and a third book. The paper evaluates each of these books, setting out the developing thesis and in so doing describing a shift away from epistemological essentialism towards a more nuanced understanding of academic disciplines and their power. This is an understanding influenced by social practice theory and one which sees individual disciplines as constructed as well as enacted, with that construction influenced by contextual factors in academic departments, universities and more broadly.