The impetus for this event is the set of changes currently sweeping across UK higher education, which include cuts in direct public funding, new financing arrangements that are calculated to bring private equity into the sector and foster competition between providers, the likely emergence of new corporate structures for HEI’s which will open the sector to commercial providers, the separation of elite from mass higher education and the globalization of ‘trade’ in HE services; but also (and relatedly) the continuing development of instruments for rendering student-teacher interactions visible and comparable, and for calculating and governing the impact, influence and value of academic research.
The impetus for this event is the set of changes currently sweeping across UK higher education, which include cuts in direct public funding, new financing arrangements that are calculated to bring private equity into the sector and foster competition between providers, the likely emergence of new corporate structures for HEI’s which will open the sector to commercial providers, the separation of elite from mass higher education and the globalization of ‘trade’ in HE services; but also (and relatedly) the continuing development of instruments for rendering student-teacher interactions visible and comparable, and for calculating and governing the impact, influence and value of academic research.
The impetus for this event is the set of changes currently sweeping across UK higher education, which include cuts in direct public funding, new financing arrangements that are calculated to bring private equity into the sector and foster competition between providers, the likely emergence of new corporate structures for HEI’s which will open the sector to commercial providers, the separation of elite from mass higher education and the globalization of ‘trade’ in HE services; but also (and relatedly) the continuing development of instruments for rendering student-teacher interactions visible and comparable, and for calculating and governing the impact, influence and value of academic research.
Abstract As higher education continues to undergo dramatic changes to the character of its affairs, moments of resistance, critique, and optimism have sprung up under the banner of para- academia. !he phrase carries multiple valences "#asciandaro and $o%, &'(&), from activities against universities "*aldrop and *ithers, forthcoming) to the absorption of radical thin+ing into the purvie, of neoliberal universities "-ousselle, &'(.), to a description of the unbundling and de-s+illing of professors into +no,ledge ,or+ers "#acfarlane, &'((). !his is a practitioners/ panel discussion of para-academic practices, motivations, thorn% problems, and affordances possible. Panelists include Paul Boshears "Ph0 candidate at the 1uropean 2raduate 3chool, continent.), -obert $ac+son "Ph0 candidate at 4ancaster Universit%, Speculations), and 5intan 6e%lan of the 0ublin Unit for 3peculative !hought "0.U.3.!.) 7itations Bruce #acfarlane "&'(() !he #orphing of Academic Practice: Unbundling and the -ise of the Para-academic Higher Education Quarterly 89.(: 9:;<. 6icola #asciandaro and 1ileen $o% "&'(&) Panel 0iscussion on Para-Academic Publishing = Boo+ Part% !he Public 3chool 6e, >or+ http:??thepublicschool.org?node?&@:8( 0uane -ousselle "&'(.) Para-Academia: 5rom 7onceptual Point to Antuitionistic 7oncept 0A62PB4A!AC http:??dingpoliti+.,ordpress.com?&'(.?'<?&D?para-academia-from-conceptual- point-to-intuitionistic-concept? AleE *ardrop and 0eborah *ithers "forthcoming, &'(D) The Para-Academic Handbook: A Toolkit for making-learning-creating-acting, FammerBn Press. http:??,,,.hammeronpress.net?page&(.htm Panelist Abstracts Paul Boshears Ph0 candidate, the 1uropean 2raduate 3chool 7o-founder, continent. 9&9 2len Aris 0rive 61 Unit &8(@ Atlanta, 2eorgia .'.'@ U3A G(.D'D.9&'.D998 paul.boshearsHegs.edu -udderless Piloting, Un,avering Pivoting, 2overning ,ithout 7oercion 1ducation is fraught ,ith treacher%. !he student in search of a teacher is tas+ed ,ith finding the right teacher, but b% definition cannot be trusted to +no, ,hat the right teacher ,ould be. Universities continue to manifest their transformation into factories ,ell-stoc+ed ,ith +no,ledge ,or+ers bundled together ,ithin disciplines mar+eted b% the degree of open access to social, political, and financial capital the% ,ill provide their clients. Against "alongside, perhaps because of) this manifest transformation, sites of learning and ,a%s of sharing +no,ledge ,ithout concern for economic gain are blossoming again, some under the banner of para-academic practices. 1lse,here A/ve put for,ard para-academic publishing as acts of public-ma+ing, publicating socialit%. Bf course, this public good so created can be consumed and as such subIect to the coercion capital eEchanges encourage. 0uane -ousselle has recentl% raised concerns about compromising the revolutionar% potential of para-academic practices, characteriJed as ta+ing the eas% road, that ,e pic+ up a fe, dollars outside of the universit% so that ,e can remain inside the universit%. #% response, in friendship, ,ill consider the perspectives on education ,e find in the classical 7hinese teEts Zhuangi and ZhongyongKteaching the usefullness of becoming useless in the former, and the co-creative potential ,ithin a focus upon the familiar affairs of our da%s in the latter. A ,ill argue that this focusing on familiar, a translation of the title Zhongyong "), is a technique of profanation not unli+e ,hat 2iogio Agamben suggests in his essa% concerning dispositif. *ith these perspectives in mind, can ,e thin+ of para-academic practices as a +ind of becoming ungovernable? Fintan Neylan 7o-founder, 0ublin Unit for 3peculative !hought 7olbert Fouse, &@ -anelagh road, 0ublin 8, Areland G.9. "') @< :&(D(@< fintan.ne%lanHgmail.com !he 4ogic of Para-Brganisation An this paper A shall argue that ,hile para-academia in its current form must situate itself as alongside the universit%, ultimatel% its true success ,ill lie in ho, it follo,s other avenues of development that are either not contained ,ith the logic of the universit% or completel% alien to it. As para-academia ta+es up the practice and completion of intellectual "and increasingl% artistic) life and proIects, this tas+ seems all the more urgentL doubl% so given the recent decade/s attac+ on the universit%, the institution most readil% associated ,ith being the nest of intellectual endeavours. *hile initiall% para-academic entities find themselves on the outside, this ma% turn out to be their great strength in surviving. 0ue to its ambiguous status "neither pure-academic nor non- academic) it can present itself in a metamorphic manner, e.g. in corporate or civil terms, enabling it to eEploit the resources from niches ,hich are unavailable to certain official academic proIects Kcit% councils, businesses, etcM Bver the course of m% paper A shall sho, that the issue of the para-academic entit% blends the philosophical possibilit% of that ,hich can move across our current segmented realit% ,ith the far more concrete necessit% of brea+ing out of the t%rann% of stifling funding frame,or+s ,hich intellectual and artistic proIects have come to rel% upon. !hus para-academia must eEplore ,hat else it is alongside, in order to discover for intellectual proIects other possible lines of development indeed perhaps be%ond the universit% itself. Robert Jackson Ph0 7andidate 4A7A 4ancaster Universit% 4ancaster 4A( D>* United Cingdom #obile '<9(8 8(:(8D robertIac+son.:''Hgmail.com Para-academia and the 1ducation of 2ro,nups Filar% Putnam once remar+ed that 3tanle% 7avell is one of the fe, t,entieth centur% philosophers, anal%tic or other,ise, to eEplore philosoph% as education. An part, this reflects 7avell/s practice, defined b% o,n vie, of philosoph% as the education of gro,nups: a famous tag-line in 7avellian literature, %et never full% ac+no,ledged in either mainstream philosoph% or pedagog%. As an associate editor of 3peculations, a para-academic philosoph% Iournal, A might subIect 7avell/s quip ,ith contempt, as an outdated description of contemporar% academic practice: that academic philosoph% is the only subIect ,hich educates gro,nups. *ho is 7avell to state such things, as a distinguished Professor 1meritus at Farvard? #oreover, ,hat is a gro,nup an%,a%? An one pith% sense, it might resemble ever%thing academic life once upheld, %et no, onl% eEists in mar+etable chains ,hich condemns its members into a gro,nup neoliberal life. >et, the paper ,ill argue an alternative point. As an%one ,ho has half-read 7avell +no,s, the education of gro,nups isn/t a remar+ ,hich defines academic life unambiguousl% as some sort of professionalised educational theor%. 7avell, much li+e his prose, defines the education of gro,nups ,ith an impervious un-go!ernance, ,hich esche,s profession, offering little in the ,a% of formulaic results. 5urthermore, such an education might be reclaimed and rene,ed to,ards the proliferating intentions of para-academic practice: namel%, the rebirth of ones conditions for change outside of the academ%. An the face of controlled education ,hich continues to be uncontested, ,e should all be educated as unprofessional children.