Missing middle
The July-August issue of AAUP's magazine Academe features an article by Anna Dronzek on "The Academic Generation Gap." The gap in question, says Dronzek, is "the chasm that can yawn between full professors and assistant professors," although she immediately goes on to admit that "[t]his formulation essentially ignores associate professors...." [1]. Nevertheless, while Dronzek spends the rest of the article on such issues as institutional loyalty (42-43), investment in the "local campus community" (43), and early professionalization (44), the academic gap remains unpopulated by associate professors. An associate professor's random thoughts, then:
1) Tenure does alter one's relationship to the local academic community. Anecdotal evidence (and, in my field, the MLA job lists) suggest that it's much easier to relocate as an assistant or full professor; associate professors tend to fall between stools. By default, I suspect, many associate professors presume that tenure brings something vaguely resembling permanence, and adjust their psychological orientation accordingly. More pragmatically, tenure often brings additional or higher-level committee work (academic senate, chairing committees, tenure committees, etc.).
2) Associate anxieties. "Associate Professor" is supposed to be a transitional rank, a stopping-place on the road to higher things (like a full professorship). There's still a real stigma, however, about so-called terminal associates; this is probably more of an issue at an R1, where a second--or third--book is usually necessary for another promotion, than it is at a school like mine, but academics can stop at associate anywhere. Associate professors may no longer identify with the assistant professors, especially because they may well be serving on their tenure committees, but they may also feel a sense of inferiority vis-a-vis the folks at the top. If there are any folks at the top--which, as Dronzek points out, is no longer always the case.
3) I'm free! At schools where untenured faculty feel squashed, associate professors may feel a sudden urge to...assert themselves. (In assistant-heavy departments, though, the untenured faculty may find strength in numbers--especially when there aren't any senior people around, or at least not enough of them.)
4) Then again, similar job-hunting experiences and career trajectories. The most recent crop of associates--let's say those of us who started as assistants in the late 90s--faced the same issues and probably took the same career paths as those on the market now. Moreover, those associates are also out there doing the same kinds of electronic projects and the same specialized research; they're also likely to have started down the route to professionalization fairly early.
5) Personal lives. Younger associate professors may have worked out the kinks in their two-career families. But they are likely to have had the same problems: relative immobility of one partner; if academics, one spouse winding up as an adjunct or otherwise "trailing" partner; child care issues; etc.
[1] Anna Dronzek, "The Academic Generation Gap," Academe 94.4 (July-August 2008): 42.