Privacy and work

Today’s class was about intimacy and privacy, and it drew on the work of Michael Warner and Michel Foucault to talk about publics, discourse, power and confession. We read Emily Nussbaum’s article, “Kids, the Internet and the end of Privacy” which argues that the generation gap between those who up with the internet and those [...]

Overload

Think your job is bad? Read this. Overload reports on “the role of work-volume escalation and micro-management of academic work patterns in loss of morale and collegiality at UWS.” Apart from highlighting the inadequacies of workload formulae across every level of academic life, it’s also one of the best reports I’ve read showing the impact [...]

Getting Desperate: Twitter on primetime

Last night’s episode of Desperate Housewives showed how far things have come: it included a scene that hinged on Tom’s lack of knowledge about Twitter, and hence his failure at a job interview. This shameful experience led to an extended subplot about whether or not Tom should get plastic surgery to disguise his age and [...]

Professional precarity, 1

This is a note to self, and to anyone who didn’t catch Mark Bousquet’s recent post on professionalism and academia. It really highlights how the sacrificial labour of academics helped to make voluntary labour commonplace beyond the campus, in turn contributing to a broader deterioration of professional status that can no longer be rewarded financially [...]

The State of the Industry: Initial program launch

Thanks to John, Angela, Graeme, Emily, Clif and Alison, it’s time to formally announce: The State of the Industry: The future for cultural research in the university 26th and 27th November 2009 The University of New South Wales, Kensington The State of the Industry is a two day conference that will discuss the future for [...]

Work cultures

C’s comment in the previous post illustrates much more effectively than I did the significance of addressing graduate futures. Surely the whole model of conference organisation that annual association conferences depend upon assumes an ongoing relationship with a department/university. How is it possible to nominate to organise a conference when you have no job security? [...]

Some binaries I still believe in

Now I’m in Leeds where there are slightly more clouds in the sky but fewer people in the streets and that’s probably a combination I prefer. Yesterday I tested out my new HK running shoes and added another introduction to the book chapter I’m working on, precipitated by a range of conversations I’ve been having [...]

Mobile work case study

Now I’m in London I’m trying to get back to writing. I’ve recently put a book proposal together for the Working From Home project and set myself a fairly strict writing regime to try to get it done with or without a publisher. Hotel rooms in expensive cities are good for these kinds of crazy [...]

Downturns

Don’t believe Dopplr, I’m actually in Brisbane this week. It’s a nice change to be back in the humidity and the neighbourhood without the obligation of going in to the office I feel able to relax a bit and enjoy looking at things with a slightly less local lens. This is the final year of [...]

Cultural work and creative biographies symposium

Wednesday April 1st 2009 The Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes MK7 6AA Michael Young Rooms: 1, 2, 3 & 4 Organisers Rosalind Gill, Centre for Citizenship Identities and Governance (CCIG), The Open University Mark Banks, Department of Sociology/CRESC, The Open University Stephanie Taylor, Department of Psychology/CCIG, The Open University The last decade has seen [...]

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