Audit Culture, the Enterprise University and Public Engagement

In the age of impact and public engagement, demonstrating that we are engaged in activities outside of, or alongside, research has become an increasingly important metric of academic performance and value. Badged under the auspices of enterprise, knowledge transfer and/or impact, engagement with external stakeholders and the creation of outputs which are of economic, social and political value is now a part of the job description of the academic in the neo-liberal entrepreneurial university. However, the problems faced by sociologists in their role as public intellectuals is nothing new, and instead is part of a continuing series of dilemmas that social scientists have had to face throughout modern history.