Marija Brajdić Vuković and Ivan Tranfić gave a presentation titled “Responsibility Without Support: Academic Work and the Moral Economy of Science”

Marija Brajdić Vuković and Ivan Tranfić gave a presentation at the international conference “Life and Work in Precarious Times”, held at the Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Research in Zagreb on 8 October 2026.

Their presentation, titled “Responsibility Without Support: Academic Work and the Moral Economy of Science”, is based on the premise that the contemporary academic system increasingly generates forms of “responsibility without support”—situations in which scientists are expected to demonstrate high levels of productivity, transparency, and social relevance, while the institutional, collegial, and infrastructural conditions necessary to sustain such responsibility are at the same time diminished. Within the context of broader discussions on precarious labor, the paper examines academic work as a specific form of affectively and morally intense labour, characterised by insecurity, bureaucratisation, quantification, and individualisation of responsibility.

The empirical analysis draws on the results of a quantitative study involving 780 scientists from all academic disciplines in Croatia, as well as a phenomenological interpretation of 48 in-depth interviews with researchers from the natural, technical, social, and biomedical sciences in Croatia. The analysis reveals a threefold tension: between the internal ethics of scientific work and external evaluation requirements; between the need for trust and the logic of oversight; and between intrinsic scientific values and extrinsic productivity metrics. 
In conclusion, the paper discusses the need to redefine evaluation regimes by adopting models that incorporate the institutionalisation of support, pluralisation of assessment criteria, and restoration of collegial relations as prerequisites for sustainable scientific responsibility.

The presentation is based on research conducted as part of the Croatian Science Foundation (CSF) project “Social Responsibility and Professional Ethics of Croatian Scientists - RESETH”.

More about the conference: https://www.ief.hr/novosti/znanstveni-skup-s-medunarodnim-sudjelovanjem-zivot-i-rad-u-prekarnim-vremenima/.