A precarious presence Some realities and challenges of academic casualisation in Australian universities

Abstract

Drawing on various secondary sources and direct encounters with casual academic staff, this article examines the emergent context and lived experiences of casualisation in Australian universities, with specific reference to on-going developments in teaching arrangements across the sector. Particular attention is paid to the challenges associated with the ‘precarious’ nature of casual employment and what this means in terms of engagement with academics in more secure forms of employment and their respective institutions more generally. The article concludes by inviting continuing academics to reconsider both how they think about and engage with large scale casualisation in their midst, and what this might mean from an activist standpoint that views such employment arrangements as disempowering and iniquitous.