Hysteresis in the neoliberal academy: inside- and outside-track academic lives under authoritarian neoliberalism

Abstract

Hysteresis in the neoliberal academy emerges as inherited academic dispositions collide with performance-driven governance under authoritarian neoliberalism, producing inside- and outside-track academic lives. We examine how neoliberal reforms in higher education in Turkey have restructured academic performance, generating uneven experiences for academics positioned within (inside-track) and against (outside-track) the dominant political orthodoxy. Drawing on Bourdieu’s concept of hysteresis, we show how the rapid transformation of institutional logics has produced temporal disjunctures between academic habitus and field conditions. Our qualitative analysis of responses from 2,023 Turkish academics reveals how inside-track academics tend to justify and benefit from the performative turn, while outside-track academics resist or are marginalised by it. This study makes an original contribution by revealing the embodied dynamics of field misalignment and offering a novel conceptualisation of insider/outsider positioning in academic careers under neoliberalism. We show how performance regimes govern voice as well as productivity, reproducing patterned orientations of orthodoxy and heterodoxy with implications for governance, leadership, and evaluation design in higher education.