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Graduate Employees’ Work And Organizing In Today’S University: A New Social Movement Theory Approach To Internal And External Struggles, Michael Carl Ide

Theses and Dissertations--Sociology

This is a mixed-methods comparative study of union and non-union graduate employees’ work experiences, following Wicken’s (2008) call for additional research into the graduate union movement. I used focus group interviews, finding that nonunionized participants had significantly more negative views of their work and faculty members than unionized participants. Non-unionized participants were also more likely to display greater internalization of neoliberal views and neoliberal subjectivity, and were more likely to see their problems in fatalistic terms. I found increased activity with the union to be associated with both decreased fear and anxiety as well as an increased sense of personal …