Bret Devereaux

I see we are doing academic productivity discourse again, but I suppose my question is why we are all accepting as right and proper the idea that the sort of once-common-in-the-mid-century kind of scholar who produced only a few (but significant) works is an unacceptable model?

The entire 'productivity' focus and the grind it creates strikes me as bad for the field. Some scholars churn out book after book. But look back and some scholars lumbered only slowly from one important work to another. Why a profession of all hares and no tortoises?

We all know the answer of course - the endless productivity grind is created by too many academics competing for too few jobs (and for status competition amongst the tenured). Fine, that is the cause. But do we need to accept that as good? As our model?