Alistair and others,
Your observation rings many bells with me. In my last university I sat
through an end of year dinner which coincided with Germany
playing the UK (I think?) for the world cup - approximately 70% of
the Faculty sat in the restaurant glued to the TV screen and the rest
of us were bunched up at the far end trying to talk about something
else and being periodically drowned out by yells and shouts. It was
not a pleasant experience (but, I suppose, hardly surprising in a
faculty of 21 people only 2 of whom were actually female)
Sarah.
> Emma's observation is an interesting one. Sport appears to be an
> important part of many university work place cultures. Of the two
> geography departments I have recently been part of, both have
> football teams and much of the coffee room culture revolves around
> the discussion of sport. While departmental football teams and
> sport 'chit-chat' appear to help to transcend differences between
> male academic and non-academic staff, in a fairly obvious,
> mundane, yet powerful way, they help to perpetuate a specific kind
> of exclusionary agressive/competitive masculinity that is still
> commonplace among academic workplace cultures. Such activities
> serve to further legitimise the inherent masculinity of academic
> work practices, blurring the distinction between work and leisure. It
> is perhaps not surprising that the RAE is often likened to
> professional football.
>
>
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