Description: This paper uses work-in-progresss to reflect on current conditions of research, notably the systems of evaluation of research activity, and the all-pervasive audit culture. It explores the orientations and identifications of Greek academic researchers working in Education. We aim: (a) To take account of the complex history of the development of the field in Greece, where the recent substantial increase in the research production in Education prompts questions about what is being produced. (b) To theorise an empirical research programme. We draw on: Work conceptualising policies as 'disciplinary tactics' (Ball, 2001); studies analysing explicit and tacit terms of policy agendas (Yates, 2005); and empirical accounts of effects of evaluation systems on academics' senses of professional identity (Middleton, 2004). We also note pertinent controversies; the re-ordering of theoretical traditions in Education; and concerns about the ability of researchers to situate themselves theoretically and methodologically in this context (Lather, 2006). We re-examine two of our previous studies. Tsakiris (2005) provided information to the Greek Ministry of Education concerning the directions of funded research projects, and PhD research in education. Lerman, Hu & Tsatsaroni (2002) systematically examined the research productions of the international Mathematics Education community. Drawing on Basil Bernstein's (1999) work, this study suggested trends concerning the field's standing, the positions of the actors in the field and their positionings vis-a-vis other knowledge fields, official discourses, and school practices. Both projects concentrated on research productions, the basis for our theoretical approach. Education research is constituted through its textual productions, including practitioners' narrative stories. We focus on the text, where social practice is (re)articulated and where the subject Education and the subjectivities of the educational researchers are formed. Methodology: The second study mentioned above produced empirical data by developing a research tool for multi-dimesnional classification of a representative sample of published papers in the field. Here we use these analytical tools to re-analyse the first study. Conclusions: We are producing a rough picture of the Greek education research field, in terms of topics and methodologies used, including a rough measure of government and EU educational research priorities. We assess the usefulness of the analytical tool beyond its original use, concerning research practice in education. We finally aim to addresss the question: to what extent are the two projects contributing to the advancement of knowledge in the field, rather than to a strengthening of an already dominant culture of auditing? Or to put it differently, what are the conditions of emergence of research activity as an object of study?