Peak Performance In Academic Science

Peak Performance In Academic Science

HERMANOWICZ JOSEPH C.

The University of Georgia

КЛЮЧЕВЫЕ СЛОВА: CAREERS, STRATIFICATION, PRODUCTIVITY, STATUS

АННОТАЦИЯ:
Do careers in science have peaks? It is often thought that they do, and that they are especially likely among the young. Using a sample of academic physicists, this study examines performance in science by determining whether peaks mark scientific careers, how common they may be, and how they might vary organizationally. Two different types of career peaks are examined and compared with each other: those established subjectively by scientists’ perceptions and those established objectively by scientists’ performance. The article uses career peaks as a means to examine the construction and maintenance of status orders. Subjective and objective status orders operate as differing means by which legitimation is established in stratified fields of activity, as emblematic in science and scholarship.