Some reflections on the Dissident Academy Text of a Talk given to the Social Sciences faculty of Melbourne University November 2018 INTRODUCTION : WHERE WE ARE NOW AND HOW WE GOT HERE The recent decision by the Federal minister for education to block a number of major grants for research in the arts and humanities has been greeted with howls of outrage from what … [Read more...] about SKIN IN THE GAME
The Cultural Politics of Knowledge
After 1968 :Left legacies and the politics of remembrance
There is an old saw about the so-called swinging sixties: if you can remember it you weren’t there. This has the rather interesting corollary that if you were’nt there, if you have to consult the archive or rely on second hand accounts rather than your own experience, then you are more likely to grasp the events in more detail, depth and accuracy than someone whose … [Read more...] about After 1968 :Left legacies and the politics of remembrance
Archive that,Comrade
Legacy politics and the ruses of remembrance Foreword Not so long ago I had the experience of mentoring a young German student who was intensely curious about British culture and society and what had shaped it in the second half of the 20th century. He plied me with questions like ‘What was it like before Mrs Thatcher?’. ‘How does the situation of gay people … [Read more...] about Archive that,Comrade
THE CENTRE WILL NOT HOLD : On changing principles of political hope
Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity W.B.Yeats The Second … [Read more...] about THE CENTRE WILL NOT HOLD : On changing principles of political hope
The Idea of the University and the Intellectual in the Age of the Knowledge Economy
The Idea of the University in the Age of the Knowledge Economy / The Idea of the Intellectual in the Age of the Knowledge Economy. The advent of a globalised knowledge economy has transformed the conditions of intellectual work over the past twenty five years. These two texts examine different aspects of the situation. The first looks at the impact on the university and … [Read more...] about The Idea of the University and the Intellectual in the Age of the Knowledge Economy