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International Studies in Phenomenology and Philosophy

Book | Chapter

213092

Sand in the machine

encouraging academic activism with sociology he students today

Joyce E. Canaan

pp. 204-232

Abstract

How far can academic activism be taken in mainstream HE today? Can we take it so far as to act as 'sand in the machine", to paraphrase Eich, encouraging students to work with us to critically explore and potentially progressively transform the beast whose belly we work within (to switch metaphors)? Or is this aim an illusion harboured by those of us who still locate ourselves on the left? As my chapter title suggests, I believe that it ">is possible to act as sand in the machine, and that we can do so in part by working dialogically with students and colleagues to resist the alienation that the neo-liberal restructuring of HE is producing. This belief stems in part from my left activism over the past 20 years that has led me to view the ever-greater imposition of the neo-liberal logic on the public sector in general and education in particular with both dismay and a determination to continue to resist this imposition as it widens and deepens. Like Freire (1996) and others (see, for example, Bourdieu, 2003; Giroux, 1999, 2009), I recognise that education is never a neutral process and therefore that HE, like other formal and informal educational spaces, is a political site like others. Indeed my research and teaching are motivated by the recognition that we and our students work under progressively worsening conditions. As I and others have discussed elsewhere, lecturers now teach, research, and complete the paperwork that audit and new managerialism require, under worsening conditions.

Publication details

Published in:

Burnett Judith, Jeffers Syd, Thomas Graham (2010) New social connections: sociology's subjects and objects. Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan.

Pages: 204-232

DOI: 10.1057/9780230274877_13

Full citation:

Canaan Joyce E. (2010) „Sand in the machine: encouraging academic activism with sociology he students today“, In: J. Burnett, S. Jeffers & G. Thomas (eds.), New social connections, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 204–232.