Problematizing enterprise culture in global academic publishing: Linguistic entrepreneurship through the lens of two Chinese visiting scholars in a U.S. university

Abstract

Abstract The global spread of English has made it the dominant language in academic publishing (Hyland, Ken. 2015. Academic Publishing: Issues and Challenges in the Construction of Knowledge. Oxford: Oxford University Press). Influenced by enterprise culture, scholars from peripheral non-Western countries face mounting pressure to publish in English (Curry, Marry Jane & Theresa Lillis (eds.). 2017. Global academic publishing: Policies, perspectives and pedagogies. Bristol, UK: Multilingual matters). The English academic publishing industry has also ballooned in China (Tian, Mei, Yan Su & Xin Ru. 2016. Perish or publish in China: Pressures on young Chinese scholars to publish in internationally indexed journals. Publications 4(2). 9.). In response to the Chinese government’s commitment to developing world-class universities and disciplines to enhance the internationalization of its higher education system, local Chinese scholars are increasingly encouraged to produce research that has international impact, as well as to engage in international academic exchange and cooperation arrangements (Li, Yongyan & Guangwei Hu. 2018. Collaborating with management academics in a new economy: Benefits and challenges. Publications 6. 1–17). In seeking academic collaboration, a growing number of Chinese academics have participated in visiting scholar programs offered by western-based universities. In light of this emergent phenomenon, this study explores how Chinese visiting scholars, driven by an ethical imperative to enhance human capital at “neoliberal universities” (Holborow, Marnie. 2013. Applied linguistics in the neoliberal university: Ideological keywords and social agency. Applied Linguistics Review 4(2). 229–257), exploited language-related resources available to them to succeed in English academic publishing. Data, which include in-depth interviews, social media posts, journals, resumes and manuscripts that were in press at academic journals, were collected from two Chinese professors who took part in a one-year visiting scholar program in the U.S. university. Our findings revealed that under the mounting expectations to publish in English-dominated SSCI journals, our focal participants enacted linguistic entrepreneurial practices.