Temporal Regimes and Scholarly Life: Between Audit and Autonomy

Keynotes to be determined

Science and knowledge production are undergoing profound transformations, shaped by increasingly intrusive imperatives tied to broader socio-economic, political, and technological shifts. Audit cultures have proliferated, characterized by the relentless digitization, metrification, and quantification of scholarly activity (Shore & Wright; Power). Business-driven governance and managerialist logic now permeate the university, turning the academic into a measurable, surveilled subject. Meanwhile, the intensification of scholarly production, communication, and institutional change reflects a broader experience of social acceleration (Rosa), where the traditional dictum “publish or perish” is increasingly supplemented—and in some disciplines replaced—by “patent and prosper” (Schachman).

These transformations have not only reshaped how knowledge is produced and valued, but have redrawn what it means to be an academic. Metrics now operate not merely as tools for navigation, but as epistemic forces—producing new regimes of visibility, hierarchy, and accountability. As scholars internalize the logics of audit, they often become both the subjects and agents of the very systems that constrain them. The question of complicity is therefore central to understanding the power dynamics of contemporary academic life.

This conference invites critical inquiry into the interlinked dynamics of metrification, acceleration, and power. But it also seeks to explore what forms of resistance, subversion, or counter-temporality might be possible or already emerging. Of particular interest is the question of temporal autonomy—the capacity to determine the rhythms, durations, and tempos of one’s scholarly activity independently of externally imposed pressures (Odysseos; Vostal).

We especially welcome explorations of durée—Henri Bergson’s concept of lived, continuous, and qualitative time that resists fragmentation and measurement—as a framework for rethinking time in the academy. Might the revalorization of waiting—as a deliberate, attentive, and generative act—offer more than just a romantic counterpoint to acceleration? Could the art of waiting become a site of epistemic possibility, where practices of reflection, care, and renewal take root in the interstices of audit-driven regimes?

We invite contributions that address, among others, the following themes:

• The origins and politics of metrification in higher education
• Metrification and acceleration as systems of social control and subjectivation
• Temporal autonomy and scholarly agency within or against audit culture
• The affective economies of speed: stress, productivity, burnout, gamification
• Waiting as method: hesitation, lingering, and pause as epistemic gestures
• Bergsonian durée and its relevance for academic temporality
• Strategic responses to metrification: refusal, sabotage, slowness
• Temporal regimes of the university and the broader social crisis they reflect

We welcome empirical, conceptual, and experimental engagements from across disciplines, and invite scholars at all career stages to join us in reimagining academic life beyond its current temporal constraints and possibilities.

Please sent 300 abstract by 31 December 2025 (the authors will be notified by 15 January 2025) to

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