The model for the creation of knowledge in Science, Technology, Engineering and
Mathematics (STEM) involves the near total career dependence by probationary citizens
on senior academics. In this article such probationary citizens include those at the early
career stage, mainly but not exclusively post-doctoral researchers (postdocs).
Traditionally, the implicit assumption was that senior academics would facilitate their
access to a permanent position in return for a time limited period of exploitation as
part of an organisational patriarchal bargain. This article is concerned with exploring
how these probationary citizens came to access temporary positions, their experience
of them and their perception of their future. Drawing on qualitative data from 13 probationary
citizens, men and women, on two to five-year contracts in an Irish case study
university, it shows that regardless of how they accessed probationary citizenship, their
future was uncertain with no guarantee of a permanent academic position. The article
raises questions about the valorisation of the highly dependent relationships between
probationary citizens and permanent STEM academics as the main model for the creation of knowledge in STEM.