Academic Tribes and Territories: Intellectual Enquiry and the Cultures of Disciplines [Hardcover]

Tony Becher (Author), Paul Trowler (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 033520628X | ISBN-13: 978-0335206285 | Publication Date: December 28, 2001 | Edition: 2

Acclaim for the first edition of Academic Tribes and Territories: '...Becher's insistence upon in-depth analysis of the extant literature while reporting his own sustained research doubled the thickness of the material to be covered...Academic Tribes and Territories is a superb addition to the literature on higher education...There is here an education to be had.' (Burton R. Clark, Higher Education) '...Becher's landmark work. The higher education community - both practitioners and educational researchers - need to assimilate and to heed the message of this important and insightful book.' (Alan E. Bayer, Journal of Higher Education) 'a bold approach to a theory of academic relations...The result is a debt to him {Becher} for all students of higher education.' (The Times Educational Supplement) 'a classic in its field...The book is readily accessible to any member of the academic profession, but it also adds significantly to a specialist understanding of the internal life of higher education institutions in Britain and North America. I confidently predict that it will appear prominently on citation indices for many years.' (Gareth Williams, Studies in Higher Education) How do academics perceive themselves and colleagues in their own disciplines, and how do they rate those in other subjects? How closely related are their intellectual tasks and their ways of organizing their professional lives? What are the interconnections between academic cultures and the nature of disciplines? Academic Tribes and Territories maps academic knowledge and explores the diverse characteristics of those who inhabit and cultivate it. This second edition provides a thorough update to Tony Becher's classic text, first published in 1989, and incorporates research findings and new theoretical perspectives. Fundamental changes in the nature of higher education and in the academic's role are reviewed and their significance for academic cultures is assessed. This edition moves beyond the first edition's focus on elite universities and the research role to examine academic cultures in lower status institutions internationally and to place a new emphasis on issues of gender and ethnicity. This second edition successfully renews a classic in the field of higher education.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Becher's insistence upon in-depth analysis of the extant literature while reporting his own sustained research doubled the thickness of the material to be covered...Academic Tribes and Territories is a superb addition to the literature on higher education...There is here an education to be had." - Higher Education "Becher's landmark work. The higher education community - both practitioners and educational researchers - need to assimilate and to heed the message of this important and insightful book." - Journal of Higher Education "...a bold approach to a theory of academic relations...The result is a debt to him [Becher] for all students of higher education." - The Times Educational Supplement "....a classic in its field...The book is readily accessible to any member of the academic profession, but it also adds significantly to a specialist understanding of the internal life of higher education Institutions in Britain and North America. I confidently predict that it will appear prominently on citation indices for many years." - Studies in Higher Education

About the Author

Tony Becher was Professor of Education at the University of Sussex. Paul Trowler is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Educational Research at Lancaster University.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 238 pages
• Publisher: Open University Press; 2 edition (December 28, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 033520628X
• ISBN-13: 978-0335206285
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,395,133 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Disciplinary content determines intellectual perspective!, April 17, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Academic Tribes & Territories (Society for Research into Higher Education) (Paperback)

In this creatively conceived and well documented study, Tony Becher explores the notion that the content of an academic discipline determines the kinds of perspectives which emerge from the study of the discipline. He found that this influence can be so pervasive as to shape social structures within disciplines and political and social relationships between disciplines. His work predates Teirney & Bensimone's observations regarding differential faculty socialization processes among disciplines, and directly support's David Kolb's findings regarding the relationship between learning style and academic content, and Anthony Biglan's findings (1973) regarding qualitative differences in the nature of academic work. After reading Academic Tribes and Territories I found it very difficult to ignore its implications for the study of student subcultures, the delivery of student services, and the assessment of educational outcomes. I strongly recommend this book to anybody considering the study of faculty or student subcultures in higher education. If Tinto's (1975) assertion that socialization is essential to persistance is valid, further research should reveal qualitiative differences in how students successfully socialize into the various academic disciplines. Academic Tribes and Territories provides refreshing insights into the subtle dynamics which underlie this process. It is a scholarly book, which takes the topic far beyond the insightful if ungrounded musings of Hazard Adams' entertaining work, The Academic Tribes (1976). Tony Becher has produced a gem. Read it!

1 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Review, March 16, 2004

By 

A researcher of psychology (Finland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Academic Tribes & Territories (Society for Research into Higher Education) (Paperback)

My main impression of this work by Becher is that it is far from to the point. The author strives towards assisting the reader in making their own decision, which as such is not a bad idea, but it results in the book missing an adequate structure. Time and time again the author gets lost in details, quotes, and footnotes, while the reader has no idea of the the bigger picture since that is not presented until much later. The practical application of the theme of the book (classification of academic disciplines - only twelve of them, by the way) does not come until the very end.
If I'd recommend this book it would be for the lack of something better. For those enjoying a good, clear, to-the-point and enjoyable-to-read textbook this one would not be the right choice.