Addendum: obsolescence

Posted on | May 2, 2009 | 7 Comments

Is it possible to describe the “Cultural studies and obsolescence” thread as heartening and heartbreaking? Well, I just wanted to thank those of you who shared your experiences for breaking the silence and politesse that surrounds these issues (and Michael, that’s why no one talks about the quality of conferences. It goes against good manners, and the economy of gratitude that has to exist to recognise people make big sacrifices to put a conference on in the first place).

It strikes me that there has been a tipping point, really, in the way that some of us are able to overlook the contradictions affecting cultural studies in its current academic formations. Dogpossum’s comment captures this in the most wrenching way. I acknowledge that there has always been navel gazing in this discipline, but there haven’t necessarily been quite so many ex-students wondering what they did with the past few years of their life. As a recession confronts us, there are serious questions at stake here. Obviously it’s my hope that the State of the Industry conference can provide a way forward, by highlighting the ideas, the passion, and the disappointments of recent graduates looking for academic careers. It is one effort to address and work to improve this complex situation.

In the meantime, I’ve been wondering whether anyone else is grateful for the conversation that took place last week, and whether there might be other ways of developing it. For instance, I have been asked to consider submitting a version of the thread in article form for the forthcoming issue of M/C on “obsolescence”. Some of you may remember something similar happened a few years ago, when Cultural Studies Review published an edited piece based on an feisty exchange on the CSAA-forum.

I am hesitant about this, because although I half wanted to motivate myself to write something for that issue by posting here, I didn’t have any sense that this thread would take off quite the way that it did. It is actually your energy that has made me think that it could be worthwhile making more of this. But, I am also conscious that publishing in a journal may go against the very politics being expressed in a number of the contributions–I would like to talk more about this if possible. I can appreciate that this idea might be completely inappropriate, because what I also treasured most about the thread was that it showed me this was a space you considered to be “safer” than others in sharing what you have. So, I will be contacting some of you directly about your thoughts and your willingness to be cited, but of course let me know what you think here, too. We need to decide in the next week.

But also, thanks for making me feel like I could open something up again on this blog, at a time when I’m spinning quite a lot between the things that usually motivate me, and the causes I’m usually invested in. Moving state and starting a new job has had some delayed impacts, I think. So it’s especially nice to know that a lot of you are still with me wherever I am.

Category: Web(log) Stuff

The State of the Industry: Initial program launch

Posted on | April 27, 2009 | 2 Comments

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 cultural research in the university, while marking the conclusion of a highly successful period of Australian Research Council funding for the Cultural Research Network. The event will showcase a range of innovative research collaborations and projects that the Cultural Research Network has generated, linking different disciplines, institutions and community groups working in the area of culture over the past 5 years. It will also discuss a number of issues fundamental to the practice of research, including:

- teaching conditions in the university
- peer to peer models for learning and mentoring
- collaborations between rural, regional and city campuses, and
- new models for professional development and training

Led by the next generation of researchers entering the academy, the conference will be a chance for the university and wider public to hear the ideas and needs of those seeking to work in the industry over the long term. All are welcome to attend and participate in a much needed discussion of the future direction of higher education in this country.

Registration for the conference is free, and members of the university sector, the media, and the general public are welcome.

Initial program

Day One – The next generation of university teachers and students

Plenary address: Professor Simon Marginson (University of Melbourne)

Sessions include:

* trends in academic employment
* teaching with social difference
* teaching beyond the capital city
* sessional teaching – pros and cons
* tenure – pros and cons
* supervision
* the status of teaching vs. research grant culture
* pastoral care
* curriculum design

Participants include: Catherine Driscoll (University of Sydney), John Frow (University of Melbourne), Chris Gibson (University of Wollongong), Melissa Gregg (University of Sydney), Chris Healy (University of Melbourne), Jason Jacobs (University of Queensland), Tammi Jonas (University of Melbourne), Meredith Jones (UTS), Olivia Khoo (Curtin), Susan Luckman (UniSA), Kane Race (University of Sydney), Cate Thill (Notre Dame), Graeme Turner (University of Queensland), Gordon Waitt (University of Wollongong), plus more to be announced.


Day Two – Research cultures and the practice of cultural research

Sessions include:

* trends in international research funding/strategy
* individual research, partnerships and teams
* research outside the university
* research cultures: gender and work/life balance
* a brief history of PhD outcomes
* who do you serve – what is required of cultural research?
* negotiating best practice in cooperative cultural research
* new technologies and literacies in cooperative cultural research
* showcase of CRN projects

Participants include: Kate Bowles (University of Wollongong), Jean Burgess (QUT), Kate Crawford (UNSW), Maryanne Dever (Monash), Tanja Dreher (UTS), Clifton Evers (UNSW), Gerard Goggin (UNSW), Alan Lawson (UQ), Miriam Lyons (Centre for Policy Development), Emily Potter (Deakin), Lisa Slater (RMIT), Jason Wilson (University of Wollongong), Amanda Wise (Macquarie), plus more to be announced.

Category: Academia, Events, State of the Industry 2009, Work
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Work cultures

Posted on | April 24, 2009 | 3 Comments

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?

The other point to note is the bulimic nature of academic workloads for those who succeed in securing some kind of ongoing appointment at the junior level. Universities share tendencies with other cultural and creative sectors in that they operate on a “winner takes all” paradigm which renders the workloads of its highest performers close to overwhelming. As Boltanski and Chiapello describe it, this is the result of a wider economic system that operates on rewarding those who can demonstrate the quality of “employability” above and against the job criteria actually specified.

So the present context involves at least two tiers of structural oppression: a workrate so high that it punishes those who are the apparent “winners” in the new academic labour market; and a much larger group who can’t get entry in the first place. As long as those who do occupy the few continuing jobs available perpetuate the standards currently dictated by professional benchmarks of success, the majority looks set to stay working in contract positions, if they stay in the industry at all.

For more on this, I’ll be speaking at a seminar next Friday in honour of Labour Day, as part of the Department of Gender and Cultural Studies seminar series. Many of you will already know that this comes the day after the NTEU have called for a 24 hour strike at Sydney University. So, if you’re interested in work issues, it’s a topical event. Details below.

In the May Day Manifesto (1968), British cultural studies pioneer Raymond Williams was among a number of New Left activists to write:

“We believe that in work, centrally, the quality of our society is decided and will go on being decided.”

On May Day this year, the Department of Gender and Cultural Studies at the University of Sydney hosts a seminar dedicated to discussing working conditions in contemporary Australia. It showcases new research and policy directions responsive to today’s precarious workplace landscape. Three speakers will offer findings from current studies and campaigns that highlight the benefits that gender and cultural studies can bring to existing approaches to the study of work and the landscape of labor activism.

Melissa Gregg, “Function creep: Anticipatory affect in the information workplace”

Brigid Van Wanroy, “Couple strategies: Men and women’s approach to working hours over the life course”

Sarah Squire, “Work and family in Australia - a policy overview”

Friday, May 1, 2-4pm
Western Tower Boardroom
J4.03, Main Quad

About the speakers:

Melissa Gregg is an Australian Postdoctoral Discovery Fellow in the Department of Gender and Cultural Studies at the University of Sydney. Her previous books are Cultural Studies’ Affective Voices (Palgrave, 2006), and the co-edited collection, The Affect Theory Reader (forthcoming Duke UP). With over 20 peer-reviewed publications, Melissa has been at the forefront of research into technology’s impact on professional and personal life. In November 2009, she is organising a major national conference on academic labour, “The State of the Industry”, with colleagues in the ARC Cultural Research Network.

Bigid Van Wanroy is a Leading Research Analyst at the Workplace Research Centre at The University of Sydney. She currently holds an ARC Postdoctoral Fellowship and is the lead researcher for the “Australia at Work” study. This project is tracking 8,000 workers over five years to examine changes in working life. Brigid obtained her doctorate from the Australian National University, researching Australian working time preferences. She has contributed to various public and policy debates on long working hours in Australia. Brigid has been employed as a social researcher in the private sector and by the Federal Government.

Sarah Squire works at the NSW Office for Women’s Policy in the Department of Premier and Cabinet, where she is currently Acting Manager of the Women’s Policy Development Unit. Prior to this, Sarah worked for four years in a senior policy and research role in the Sex and Age Discrimination Unit at the Australian Human Rights Commission. While at the Commission, Sarah undertook extensive work in the area of paid maternity leave, and work and family policy, and she was the principal author of the Commission’s 2007 paper It’s About Time: Women, men, work and family. Previous roles include work as a Policy Adviser at the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet in Canberra. Sarah holds a PhD in Women’s Studies from La Trobe University.

Category: Work

Cultural studies and obsolescence

Posted on | April 22, 2009 | 36 Comments

Last night, along with a few other cultural studies scholars in Sydney, I was invited to meet the new CSAA President, Amanda Third. The idea was to “think out loud about the fact no-one has come forward to hold this year’s CSAA conference” and to see what people are thinking about “the CSAA version of CS at the minute”.

Since establishing itself in 1990, the CSAA has run an annual conference in various cities around the country, as well as Christchurch, New Zealand, since the official name change to incorporate “Australasia”. From my understanding, this makes the CSAA the longest running cultural studies association worldwide, so it’s a shame that the current scenario has emerged, although it does point to questions a number of prominent scholars are raising about the ongoing utility of the term.

Various justifications and explanations were given for the lack of volunteers for holding the conference this year, including

- administrative changes to institutional groupings at various universities (cultural studies departments, divisions and courses are on the decline almost everywhere except where I work)

- arguments about cultural studies and its connotations, particularly due to media coverage during the “culture wars”

- what cultural studies means in contrast to “cultural research” - and the impact of the ARC Cultural Research Network on conference attendance in recent years

There were also wider issues, such as how the economic climate affects university funding prospects, and a general lack of time and incentive for potential organisers.

Nothing was said that explicitly addressed whether the quality of the conference is an issue in whether people want to come, or what exactly the association stands for beyond the conference itself.

The Professors who attended agreed that it was a shame that the CSAA wouldn’t be held “because of what it offers postgrads” and junior scholars.

This made me wonder, has anyone actually asked postgrads and early career researchers whether they value this annual conference? What do postgraduates and recent PhD graduates of cultural studies think about the fate of the CSAA?

From talking to some of my peers in recent weeks–those who, even when they have graduated with cultural studies PhDs, face limited prospects of ongoing employment in their field of qualification–it seems little wonder that there is a lack of interest in the association, since it has done very little to prepare graduates for this reality.

But, since there wasn’t much opportunity to say this last night, and since the invitation was only extended to a small group of people, I’m interested to hear others’ thoughts on whether there are factors contributing to the CSAA’s current situation. If this blog is read by anyone, I figure it is people who have some opinions on cultural studies :-)

So, do you think Australian cultural studies is obsolete as a movement? What should happen to the annual conference? And if you are an early career researcher, what should the CSAA do to make itself useful for you? Are there other conferences and disciplines that matter more?

Category: Academia, Politics
Tags:

Rural melancholy and the metronormative

Posted on | April 20, 2009 | 3 Comments

Since getting back from my travels I’ve been working on a few things, including plans for Crossroads 2010 and invites for the CRN State of the Industry conference in November. I’ve been really excited about the plenary speakers for Crossroads for weeks, so it’s great to have the news official now. Meanwhile, we will probably go live with the SOI lineup this week, so stay tuned to the CRN website for that.

Over Easter I had some time off with my family and on obligatory post-travel/holiday cold. But since then I’ve managed to finish a draft of “Available in selected metros only” - a paper I’ve been developing since the Wollongong broadband workshop in February. It’s quite a personal paper in some ways. It wrestles with some of the feelings I had growing up as a kid in Tasmania, combined with some experiences from my current dis-located home as a South Coast commuter. In this way it might seem strange to people who think of me as a “city-based academic”.

It’s also potentially odd because it brings together a range of things that aren’t often thought about in tandem: affect and broadband, queer theory and telco policy. William joked that I have come up with a new concept - the metronormative! Anyway, I would really value more feedback while it’s under peer review. A large size version of the paper is here (it’s big because it contains pictures of Combis). If you need a smaller file, just let me know.

Category: Publications, State of the Industry 2009

e-waste

Posted on | April 20, 2009 | 1 Comment

Nadia says:

“Just found this room at my work with a sign saying ‘Not Working’. Could only capture one corner.”

Category: Viewing
Tags: >

The day in between

Posted on | March 28, 2009 | 2 Comments

I left the house twice today. The first time to get some groceries. It started raining when I stepped out of the building. It stopped while I was in the store, then it started again as I was walking back with full arms. Each time my glasses were covered with drops. I needed mini-windscreen wipers.

The second time I tried to go for a run as a little reward for finishing my book proposal. A bunch of blokes yelled at me for what seemed an insane amount of time as I tried to run past them on the bridge nearby. No matter how long I ran, my hands still felt numb with cold. So I came back.

Some days I just don’t know how things become so small and significant. But it’s especially the case for me when I travel alone. This is the day in between having somewhere to be and something to do.

Without writing like this, it would have seemed much worse. Instead, it feels like another reminder to pay attention to “the stretching”. Very soon I hope Greg and I will be able to share our introduction to The Affect Reader which explains what this means. It must be happening: my advance cheque is in the mail. For now, let’s just say that if Kracauer’s essay on boredom was written about Sundays, for me it’s what being away from home feels like too.

I always thought that one day I would get better at managing it.

I don’t think that anymore.

Category: Travel

Story of my life

Posted on | March 24, 2009 | 3 Comments

Three hours in a Bloomsbury bookshop on the weekend and this is the result:

Category: Gender, Reading

Some binaries I still believe in

Posted on | March 24, 2009 | 2 Comments

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 over recent days. First and foremost is the relationship between last week’s newspaper headlines in England showing unemployment had reached two million and the state of anticipation academics feel about their own jobs. It’s not that tenured academics have any more reason to feel vulnerable with the economic downturn — this doesn’t seem to be the case for the people I’ve been speaking to. Rather it’s the additional pressure they feel, now that jobs are in themselves so valuable, to make excuses for conditions that have been around for some time now–which is to say, workloads that had already moved beyond any realistic capacity to manage.

The reactions I’ve been getting from the talks so far - beyond incredulity at the Bogan Gifts application on Facebook - show degrees of identification with the thoughts of workers in my study. A number of the older academics seem to recognise the participants’ acceptance of a gradual increase in work demands and the ways that technology allows work to enter into spaces and times that were previously free of its presence. In this context, in response to these comments, so what if some industries have always had blurry divisions between paid hours and off-the-clock? The point is that companies of all kinds now use this model as the basis for efficiency regimes on a massive scale because they have found a workforce that no longer feels the need to differentiate between what is paid and what is not.

Here it is precisely academics with tenure that have a case to answer, more so than the freelance journalists Mel speaks of (but who could equally do with some labour consciousness). The bulemic work practices freelancers face and the entrepreneurial effort required to generate ongoing opportunities have more in common with research-only contract jobs than the generation of long-term teaching staff who have largely been protected from the competitiveness of the portfolio career.

That said, these latter jobs have become subject to an incredible amount of self-auditing with the uptake of neoliberal management techniques that encourage autonomy and flexibility as long as ALL the work continues to be done. It is not simply coincidence that in so many cases this work consists of entering information into an array of online databases quantifying outcomes or Microsoft Office documents that are downloaded, edited, repackaged and uploaded in response to thousands of solicitous emails politely requesting urgent compliance.

These are some of the specificities worth mentioning before we dismiss the role of technology in any of these issues. It should not be necessary to point out that people simply do not have the time to negotiate intimacy rules and terms of access with 189 Facebook “friends”. What inspired my previous anecdote was a wider frustration I was feeling - perhaps even channelling, in response to discussions with others - to do with the kinds of autonomy I want to enjoy and sustain beyond the industrial demands of my job. They are questions of etiquette and politeness that pertain to any era of professional life and are about respecting people’s legitimate attempts to carve out small semblances of non-work space so that daily life is tolerable.

There may be some people who find pleasure or even glamour in blurring the boundaries between friendship and professional obligation, but I imagine we each have a limit point where we would like to be treated as human. At least in my definition, this still involves being being assumed to have a life outside of work - and wishing the same for others.

Category: Research, Web(log) Stuff, Work
Tags: > > >

Mobile work case study

Posted on | March 17, 2009 | No Comments

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 schemes, I figure. Along the way I’m using this trip to test out and refine a lot of the main ideas in a series of talks outlined below. I would welcome anyone interested in coming along.

In contrast to these academic talks I hope the book version can be picked up by a local trade publisher, because my sense is the issues raised in the interviews over the past few years are in need of further public debate (I suppose I’m also quite unfashionable in the sense that I think ARC funded research should actually make every effort to make itself relevant to the people who pay for it.) The material I’ve gathered gives insight into people’s thoughts on everything from professional ettiquette to personal relationships, including changes in leisure practices, information overload, internet addiction (in adults and kids)… as well as broader issues about job security. I’m on the look out for editors and agents who might agree with all this too, so if you are in any way placed to help, I’d appreciate any advice.

Here’s the somewhat scary schedule:

Wednesday, 18th March 12.00pm Research Institute for Media, Art & Design, University of Bedfordshire

“Long hours, high bandwith: Online culture, intimacy and the new world of work”

Thursday, 19th March 5.00pm Centre for the Study of Global Media and Democracy, Goldsmiths College Main Building RHB 309

“Social networking sites, neoliberalism and online culture”

Wednesday, 25th March 4.15pm Houldsworth seminar room, Institute of Communication Studies and the Media Industries Research Centre, University of Leeds

“Function creep: Communication technologies and anticipatory labour in the information workplace”

Tuesday, 31st March Living Cultures - Contemporary Ethnographies of Culture Conference, University of Leeds

“Questions of method in white collar ethnography”

Wednesday, 1st April Cultural work and Creative Biographies Symposium, The Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes

“Uncreative Workplaces”

Category: Research, Travel, Work
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