This article emphasizes the complexity of the term flexibility and discusses its meanings and political dimensions, along with its expressions or realizations within the field of higher education. It proposes a new principle of flexibility that overcomes an understanding of flexibility within higher education as the mere ability or versatility to adapt itself to the demands of a life regulated by the technological, organizational and economic contingencies of the labor market. Instead, the author suggests a new way of conceptualizing and organizing academic work. This implies redefining the rigid limits within and between teaching and research and between these two practices and their social contexts. (Contains 14 notes and 2 figures.)