ABSTRACT
This double portrait shows that it is possible to attain tenure in Spain by combining the fulfilment of individual academic requirements with a dedication to the common good. We have not focussed on research, but have developed a career integrating sequentially teaching, research, university administration and society outreach. Our critical engagement with a socially responsive university is based on parrhesía (to tell the truth to the power) as an ethical and political behaviour. First, we searched for a university career based on cooperation to develop the collective academic idea. This cooperation was key in our efforts towards tenure. Afterwards, we were university administrators as critical management scholars. Nowadays, the next step drives us to a future as intellectuals engaged with benefiting society as a whole. Far from an exemplary intention for young scholars, we just show that they can succeed by following not the mainstream, but a personal path composed of vocation, ethics, public service, adaptation to circumstances and cooperation. Like ducks (capable of swimming, walking and flying without being a specialist in any of the three activities), we have developed all the main professors’ functions and have survived in the neoliberal meritocracy.
