Tribal regimes in academia: a comparative analysis of market structure across disciplines

Abstract A systematic comparative analysis of the market structure in various academic disciplines—in terms of the pattern of “buying” and “selling” of new Ph.D.’s—is presented. Based on the parameters estimated to delineate the macro-structural features along the dimensions of differentiation and integration, I show that embeddedness permeates unevenly across different domains, and locate the disciplinary regimes in a map along with their expected operational outcomes. The emerging pictures show a common organizing principle—“the prestige principle”—across the disciplines in their broad outlines, yet they differ significantly from one another in that the regimes that are characterized by clear hierarchy and tight solidarity are the ones in which the workings of the prestige principle are the most efficacious.

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