The problem for someone like me, and why I responded as I did, is that although I have spent many years, in various ways in the production of knowledge about disability. (I gave examples of previous research I was involved in, that led to particular actions in social policy at the "Hardest Hit" conference last year) that knowledge has not necessarily been produced within those linguistic and cultural norms that you cite but in the context of political and social action.
It is an aspect of our current society that academic knowledge, even bad and invalid academic knowledge is privileged above other forms of equally valid research produced outside of it. Somehow it has to be brought within the norm by a PhD researcher in a list of citations before it is even recognised as a building block on the way.
For me it has been unfortunate within those norms of researching an unfunded PhD that I have even had to resort to citing those who came up with the knowledge after I did, because they were first in print with it, notwithstanding they took much of that knowledge that was available in a community of non academics and used it for there own purposes.
I do fervently believe in alternatives, in other ways linking in with accepted and orthodox academia of validating and assisting the production of knowledge by those whom it most intimately concerns. I have even founded a journal on this principle.
I shall hopefully get my PhD in the end but it would be nice to have some more formal acknowledgement of the steps along the way. Unlike most PhD researchers I do not have either a first degree or an MA in between and I guess that could well end any hopes of an academic carreer where someone with the same knowledge as I but who took the path more travelled will continue along that highway to a destination arriving well ahead of me, but not necessarily better equipped at the end of the journey.
Considering the onslaught on disabled people in the UK, and I being caught in the middle of it, there is so much to risk even taking up an academic carreer as there is then no safety net if I fall. There is absolutely no way a person on limited means can finance something like an MA, one of the reasons I quit the pursuit of one to go over to research was because I couldn't afford it, as PhD's are easier to pay for especially if you stretch them over time as I have. Had I had the finances, and the opportunities I would be both MA and Dr by now graduating full time well before my current schedule runs out. Perhaps you can see why I feel a bit miffed by it all.
Larry
> -----Original Message-----
> From: The Disability-Research Discussion List [mailto:DISABILITY-
> [log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Gareth Millward
> Sent: 07 March 2013 16:19
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: New Disability Studies M.A.
>
> There are myriad problems with what I'm about to say. So, all the usual caveats about
> "truth", etc. apply.
>
> I appreciate that the culture of academia it is still a barrier to people who will not or
> cannot conform to its rules of behaviour and arbitrary conditions for entry which affect
> many queer and subaltern communities. But I feel like I at least have to offer some
> defence of the academy, because it's not as simple as you appear to be making out.
>
> The reason why Western education follows the path that it does is because it
> "disciplines" people. This is problematic, but it is also a strength. It allows people from
> the same or related disciplines to converse with each other in a common language. In
> my field, history, we don't expect students to read, produce essays, reference their
> sources, and think rationally and critically about texts for the sake of it; it's the key to
> the discipline. Work needs to be verifiable and needs to be written in a way in which it
> can be processed. This is restrictive, certainly; but I wonder (genuinely) how else any
> culture can operate. If we can't communicate with each other, then it makes all of our
> work redundant. We may have to adapt the ways in which we communicate, but we
> need common reference points. These will always discriminate against and exclude
> certain people. Again - how do we solve this? (This is a genuine, and intriguing open
> question.)
>
> In order to keep an institution running, certain barriers to entry have to be crossed to
> ensure people can converse with one another within that community. The PhD and the
> post-doctoral study are not arbitrary. They show a) that one has the skills to contribute
> to the collective and b) that one is willing and able to collaborate with others to further
> the discipline. Great breakthroughs have come from outsiders, and always will. But on
> some level, they still need to know enough of the language of the ivory tower to be able
> to get their message through the door.
>
> I know there are many, many problems with this. The PhD scheme, for example, is
> prohibitively expensive, and requires skills which are not necessarily central to
> producing, synthesising and sharing knowledge.
> However, I think we can get the Western academy to adapt better to the needs of those
> who it has excluded far better by engaging in the debate.
> Over the past 50 years, it has been far, far more willing to do this than many other areas
> of capitalist society.
>
> We all know our social models and queer theory. We all know the problems of
> academia. But we must also surely know that cultures like this don't just spring up
> arbitrarily. There is a reason why the academy behaves the way that it does. How
> should it change? I'm not asking this out of anger or spite - I'm genuinely intrigued to
> hear your thoughts.
>
> I'm naive, I know! I'm in a privileged position in being able to mould myself to adapt to
> their (our?) game. But to me, it just seemed these comments have been ridiculously
> reductive of the whole university system. You may well be right. But I like to have
> balance in a debate!
>
> Gareth
>
> Gareth Millward
> PhD Student
> Centre for History in Public Health
> London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
>
> On 07/03/2013 13:39, Larry Arnold wrote:
b page.
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