There are examples, but few by geographers.
- The Detroit expedition, for one, which has been thoroughly written up
in Antipode etc.
- The Clark Grad School and its community outreach in Main South, long
before my time, back in the 1970s (Dick Peet, Ben Wisner et al)
and
- Brunel's work on Local Agenda 21 in West London (Sue Buckingham
Hatfield, Kate Theobald, me) and the Brunel student organisation, Planet
21.
- 'Third World First' in the UK, and their extensive student networks
- Sue Bleasdale, Geography, Middlesex U (primarily her work with NGOs)
- there is a new book called the 'Sustainable University' that touches on
this topic - I have lost the reference unfortunately.
- and of course, many activities conducted in people's own time - being
trustees of NGOs for example, running community campaigns. Show up at a
campaign in West London, and it sometimes seems like half the people
present are either university academics or students (or work for the
BBC)!
Any general reluctance to 'get involved' is probably traceable to normal
human behaviour. It helps, as we did at Brunel, to deliberately seek out
local projects in which students can participate, take work placements,
etc. Then there is a formal link in place.
Two problems; yes, a university market ethos will hold back local
community work at the institutional level - unless it is in the interests
of the university. It depends on the quality and credentials of the
senior mangement, I suspect. TVU under Mike Fitzgerald, for all its
massive problems, sold itself as a local 'community university', with
little pretence as to academic greatness, and did spend money locally.
Secondly, it may be true that your average lecturer doesn't have the time
or inclination to get full institutional backing for a local initiative -
but this does not stop individuals from doing things. If we scrap the
research excesses of the RAE in the UK, and the outmoded tenure system in
North America (replacing it with permanent contracts, as in the UK) I am
sure more applied work and participatory ventures could enter the
equation in one's early career.
I have written an article on local community activity if anybody wants to
read it.
>Subject: critical research in/on the university
>Sent: 3/9/19 1:53 am
>Received: 13/9/99 2:35 pm
>From: Nick Blomley, [log in to unmask]
>To: critgeog, [log in to unmask]
> GEOGFEM, [log in to unmask]
>
>I'm trying to put together a project that builds truly collaborative
>partnerships with community groups, so that, for example, university
>resources and research can be applied to address local needs, whilst
>community members are also recognised not just as the subjects of research
>but as active researchers in their own right. As part of this, I want to
>ask the question: why do universities, in general, and university members
>as individuals, not engage in this sort of research more often? This is
>often the case amongst avowedly critical researchers.
>
> My suspicion is that the issue is in part one of material rewards (eg
>we're encouraged to write papers, not engage in activism; universities are
>more generally orientated to market based forms of partnerships etc); the
>culture of academia (where research is still something that accredited
>faculty do on 'human subjects'); an odd sort of spatial politics, were
>local issues are deemed less relevant than more glamorous forms of
>distanced politics (oppression in Tibet, for example) and/or some
>postmodern angst about speaking for the 'Other'
>
>I've not seen any research that really addresses these diverse issues
>within the academy. There's stuff on the corporatization of the
>University, of course, as well as Bourdieu's work. But I'm still casting
>about for methodology, theoretical frameworks etc. Does anyone have any
>leads or suggestions, please?
>
>Nick Blomley
>
>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>N i c k B l o m l e y
>
>Associate Professor
>Department of Geography
>Simon Fraser University
>Burnaby, B.C. V5A 1S6,
>CANADA
>
>(604) 291-3713 (tel)
>(604) 291-5841 (fax)
>[log in to unmask] (email)
>
>http://www.sfu.ca/geography/faculty/blomley.htm
>
>
-----------------------------
Dr. Simon Batterbury
Development Studies Institute
London School of Economics (LSE)
Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE, UK.
telephone (+44 0)20-7955-7771 (direct) 7425 (DESTIN). Room T305.
fax (44 0)20-7955-6844,
http://www.brunel.ac.uk/depts/geo/simon.html
email: [log in to unmask] (please also send to
[log in to unmask])
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