Is There a 'Cancel Culture', and if so, for Whom? Rank-Based Differences in Restrictions on Academic Freedom

This article investigates the relationship between academic career ranks and restrictions on academic freedom. Drawing on a representative survey of 9083 full-time academics at German higher education institutions, we examine how academics across different career ranks assess their freedom in teaching and research. Although precarious employment conditions and professional hierarchies may suggest otherwise, our findings show that doctoral candidates and postdocs on fixed-term contracts do not report experiencing restrictions on their academic freedom significantly more often compared to tenured professors. However, distinguishing between experienced restrictions, on the one hand, and expectations of restrictions as well as broader perceptions of academic freedom on the other, we find that non-tenured academics report more often to expect or perceive their academic freedom to be restricted compared to professors. We explain these rank-based differences with a chilling effect generated by a polemical and polarized discourse on 'cancel culture.' Academics on fixed-term contracts are more likely to be receptive to often polemical debates on 'cancel culture' and for the concerns that come with it. This suggests that structural employment insecurity plays a key role in shaping how academics assess their academic freedom. Our results challenge simplified accounts of 'cancel culture' by showing that discourse and institutional hierarchies intersect to produce differentiated vulnerabilities within academia. Although based in Germany, the findings speak to broader international concerns about restrictions on academic freedom and precarious academic labour. Our research implies, first, that research on academic freedom should attend not only to visible incidents but also to the affective dimensions of anticipated restrictions. Second, it is crucial to take into consideration current employment conditions and budget cuts in higher education when reflecting on the repercussions of illiberal threats to academia.