Holding the Faculty to Ac(count): From Audit Culture to Participatory Taylorism

Cultures of shared governance in academia may appear as a noble tradition to be upheld and defended against the steady encroachment of audit culture. However, building upon recent interest in the ‘dark side’ of collegiality, this theoretically-motivated article proposes that the collegial ideal of collective and participatory decision-making now co-exist alongside performance metrics in an uneasy alliance that softens their surface-level opposition. Invoking the paradoxical concept of ‘participatory Taylorism,’ this study demonstrates that faculty engagement is essential to audit culture’s apparent staying power. Performance metrics survive by opening themselves to the demos, inviting robust debates about their composition and legitimacy – provided these dialogues stop short of contesting audit culture itself. In this sense, permissible modes of shared governance perform a type of ‘collegiality-washing,’ substituting a simulacra of participation for the real thing. Moreover, because ‘participation’ is precisely the lever through which performance measures exert their influence, conventional oppositional strategies risk co-optation. In a university setting that demands constant engagement and actively recuperates dissent, resistance may take the form of withdrawal, silence, or even a more recent trend, ‘quiet quitting.’