No, it is not correct. Although I have only been in the county for one
year, LEPU seems to me to be one of centers for real political engagement,
and while a lot of what it does can be interpreted from a distance as
Blairite and reformist, that is absolutely not my experience with Pete
North, or anybody else there. There are two problems "real" academics have
with LEPU. The first is that it's part of an underfunded old-poly "new"
university at South Bank, so it gets no money or intellectual support (and
its faculty don't get the respect of people at proper "old"
universities). The second is that they get their hands dirty with the real
messy politics of on the ground community involvement around South
London. And as far as being gentrifiers goes, you're way off base, and you
should get to know the work they're doing in the Elephant and Castle (while
all the good academics are simply waiting for it to gentrify, so they can
then come in and write a proper academic article and wring their hands in
self-satisfied disgust).
James
At 05:04 PM 1/22/01 +0100, Paul Treanor wrote:
>Pete North wrote:
>
>
> > The pilot round of Employment Zones was a seed bed for experimentation
> > in helping unemployed people back to work.
>
>
>In junk jobs, which the children of the New Labour elite would never accept.
>
>I am not familiar with the politics of specific academic institutions in
>Britain, but judging by the website, the LEPU is a bastion of Blairite
>workfare and gentrification ideologists. Is this guess correct?
>
>
>
>
>--
>Paul Treanor
>
>My UPC e-mail address has changed, it is now [log in to unmask]
James DeFilippis
Department of Geography
King's College London
Strand Campus
London WC2 2LS
020-7848-2610
[log in to unmask]
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