Drawing on affect theory and research on academic capitalism, this book examines the contemporary crisis of universities. Moving through 11 international and comparative case studies, it explores diverse features of contemporary academic life, from the coloniality of academic capitalism to performance management and the experience of being performance-managed.Affect has emerged as a major analytical lens of social research. However, it is rarely applied to universities and their marketisation. Offering a unique exploration of the contemporary role of affect in academic labour and the organisation of scholarship, this book considers modes of subjectivation, professional and personal relationships and organisational structures and their affective charges.Chapter 9 is available Open Access via OAPEN under CC-BY-NC-ND licence.

1. Introduction: Academic capitalism and the affective organisation of academic labour - Kristiina Brunila and Daniel NehringPart I: Structures2. The Labour Pains of Academic Capitalism in Crisis - Lew Zipin and Marie Brennan3. Deepened Coloniality, Heightened structuralism: Implications for Intellectual thought and praxis in the Caribbean - Talia Esnard4. Academic patriarchal (post)liberal capitalism - Demetra TzanakiPart II: Relationships5. The storytelling and storyselling of neoliberal academic work - Kenneth Mølbjerg Jørgensen and Paola Valero6. Exploring the Academic and Affective Leadership in Academia - Kristiina Brunila7. Friendship in academia: the moral economy of academic work - Erika Andersson Cederholm, Carina Sjöholm and Dianne Dredge8. What doesn't kill you makes you weaker: An uncanny story of contemporary academic life - Mark VicarsPart III: Performance9. Academy in my flesh: Affective athleticism and performative writing - Silvia Gherardi, Michela Cozza and Magnus Hoppe10. Getting Texts Done: Affective Rhythms of Reading in Quantified Academia - Juhana Venäläinen11. Performance Management: Western Universities, Chinese Entrepreneurs, and Students on Stage - Amir Hampel12. What's the point? A few thoughts instead of a conclusion - Daniel Nehring and Kristiina Brunila