Patronage, distorted meritocracy and “kiss-ass” culture in academia: recruitment and scholarly reproduction in Indonesian communication scholarship

Purpose This article examines how patronage, distorted meritocracy and “kiss-ass” culture shape recruitment and scholarly reproduction in Indonesian communication academia. It argues that the long-standing weakness of Indonesian communication scholarship cannot be cannot be adequately explained by intellectual history, authoritarian legacies, or neoliberal restructuring alone, as emphasised in previous studies, but must also be understood through the social organisation of academic reproduction itself. Design/methodology/approach The study uses institutional ethnographic analysis to examine recruitment and scholarly reproduction in a faculty of communication that has long occupied an influential position in Indonesia's disciplinary landscape. In this case, institutional ethnography is adapted to the specific character of patronage, which is difficult to capture through written policy documents or formal regulations alone. For that reason, the analysis does not rely primarily on documentary texts, as many institutional ethnographic studies do. Instead, it is grounded in long-term observation and in-depth interviews. Findings The findings show that patronage functions as an infrastructure of regeneration in Indonesian academia. In the cases examined in this study, access to academic careers is often shaped by proximity to senior academics, familial ties, insider status and the capacity to endure unpaid or underpaid apprenticeship. These micro-level arrangements are significant because they determine who can afford to wait, who becomes institutionally visible and whose competence is eventually recognized as “fit.” Social reproduction, therefore, begins before scholarship is even produced. The study also shows that “kiss-ass” culture is something cultivated by patronage itself. Deference, flattery, availability and silence become practical strategies for securing protection and possible future appointment. These everyday practices are inseparable from broader structures of power, linking academic recruitment to the persistent shallowness and political caution of Indonesian communication scholarship. Originality/value This article offers a rare institutional ethnographic account of patronage and academic labor in Indonesian higher education, with a specific focus on communication academia. It foregrounds the micro-social processes through which power is organized and reproduced through academic labor relations and everyday institutional practices.