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Hi all, Both Sara and Peter are right about 'communiversity' ... it was a joint effort but we might have re-invented the term ... and research into the term's history is a great idea. Also, ironically, laying claim to the term entraps us in the citation games of the academy even while we attempt to resist them - but this of course, is the paradox in which we all find ourselves: needing to 'play the game' whilst finding ways to play a different game. In terms of the pseudonym... I have argued long and hard with one of my colleagues here about whether it is merely a pretentious ruse; his suggestion being that if we were really serious we would have been "anonymous". But Rachel, Sara and I, and latterly Caitlin Cahill, all decided that a feminist politics did not support a voice from nowhere, and that our collective ideas needed to be situated, and responsibility taken for them. For me the whole exercise was worthwhile when I was called before the Professor in charge of REF returns. He was not pleased, his orderly audit had been disrupted. His look of confusion about the authorship was priceless. I suggested he would need to read the paper if he wanted to understand why we had done it. This was not at all part of his intended mode of assessment. Building on the IBG 2012 session on "Ludic Geographies" - such playful (yet serious) tactics of resistance and disruption might be part of our strategy too. Let's be prepared to step forward and childishly point out: "the emperor has no clothes...." Mike -----Original Message----- From: Discussion list on participatory geographies [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of North, Peter Sent: 23 July 2012 09:43 To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: A proposal: Please read and respond (asap) I wonder how old the idea of a "communiversity" is, outside academic circles. Our local communiversity, in Croxtecth, goes back to a secondary school that was occupied and run by local parents and activists when the then Liberal Council tried to close it back in 1983. It was one of the key mobilising events that led to the election in May 83 of the left wing Labour Council that then went into the battle against the government that ended up with 47 councillors disbarred and surcharged. It then evolved in to a social enterprise and is now called the communiversity. Hot sure when they started using the name though: http://www.communiversity.co.uk/Default.aspx?ID=2 Peter North Department of Geography School for Environmental Sciences University of Liverpool 0151 794 2849 Building the Low Carbon Economy on Merseyside www.lowcarbonliverpool.com www.liv.ac.uk/geography/research/lowcarboneconomy/index.htm Local Money http://greenbooks.co.uk/store/local-money-p-320.html?osCsid=53cafffb104745d08678d499c824626e ________________________________________ From: Discussion list on participatory geographies [[log in to unmask]] on behalf of Sara Kindon [[log in to unmask]] Sent: 22 July 2012 12:43 To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: A proposal: Please read and respond (asap) Dear All, Kia ora koutou, It is great to see this discussion gaining momentum, being widened and moving towards a useful and hopefully 'impactful' form of strategic resistance. Thank you to all of you who have already had a part to play in this process and the 'communifesto' draft to date. I will soon send some further ideas to Kelvin directly. In the meantime, I also wanted to correct something via the list (rather than just to Kelvin) because it connects to one of the key terms and concepts of the communifesto: the term 'communiversity'. This is a term that arose through a collective 'dialogue' between myself, Rachel Pain and Mike Kesby in late January 2008. The dialogue and this term was recorded in Mike's living room as we grappled with what we thought emerging participatory geographers and geographies might be doing after our participation in the first Participatory Geographies conference held at Durham University earlier that month. Another allied term we coined at the same time was 'acadevist' (academic/activist). With both 'communiversity' and 'acadevist', we were playing with terminology to political and practical effect to destabilize commonplace, but unhelpful and artificial binary distinctions. We wanted to open up new ways of conceiving about the spaces within which we worked and new ways of thinking about ourselves as academics to provide more room to do solidarity, activist and justice-oriented research within our increasingly neoliberal universities. Our discussion (in a slightly edited form) was subsequently published in Transactions later in 2008 under the collective name (nomme de guerre) of mrs kinspaisby. Through this specific nomenclature (which played with our individual initials and family names) and the paper which made our individual voices identifiable, we sought to trouble distinctions between the individual and the collective within processes of knowledge generation. We also sought to trouble processes of individual attribution of authorship within in our bureaucratic processes of RAE and PBRF (Publication Based Research Funding) assessment exercises in our two countries (UK and NZ), and emphasize the relational nature of knowledge generation within our wider communities of practice. It is therefore ironic that in this current draft of the communifesto, our work has become referenced as an individual piece of work by one member of the collective, Pain 2008, in both the text and the reference list. mrs kinpaisby meanwhile, as a tactic of resistance and solidarity, is mis-placed almost as an afterthought, after the second colon within the article's title, hidden away and marginalized. I am sure that this was an honest mistake. In drawing attention to it here I do not wish to embarrass or chastise anyone. Rather, I think that the term's attribution to Rachel Pain replicates the way in which this work may have been identified and incorporated into the RAE archive and how it may now appear on some internet sites. It's inclusion in the communifesto in this form highlights how easy it is to repeat and reinforce the hegemonic apparatuses we seek to resist. ( I also learnt recently that within the PBRF here in NZ, it has been recorded as 'Kindon, S., with mrs kinpaisby (2008)' so the processes at work are not confined to the UK). By raising this issue publicly, and providing the contextual history for the 'communiversity's' actual evolution and authorship (mrs kinpaisby 2008), I want to highlight the challenges that beset any of us attempting to work in ways that resist individualizing neoliberal practices. This 'error' usefully illustrates the critical need for this 'communifesto', and calls us to remain vigilant to the subtle workings of power even as we attempt to do things differently. I'd be grateful if this error could be corrected at your earliest convenience and I thank you once again for generating a thoughtful and inspiring draft. Warm Antipodean greetings. Yours, Sara Dr Sara Kindon School of Geography, Environment and Earth Sciences Victoria University of Wellington Wellington Aotearoa New Zealand ________________________________ From: Discussion list on participatory geographies [[log in to unmask]] on behalf of Kelvin Mason [[log in to unmask]] Sent: Monday, July 23, 2012 5:20 AM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: A proposal: Please read and respond (asap) Fuller Geographies: A participatory proposal for contesting insecurities Kelvin Mason, Kye Askins, Sophie Wynne-Jones, Kerry Burton The Fuller Geographies session at the 2012 RGS/IBG Annual International Conference took as its theme: The insecurity of geography and geographers' insecurities, with the following call for participation: Amidst continuing debates about the relevance of geography, we find ourselves at a critical moment of increasingly uneven geographies: economic and environmental 'crises', poverty, social inequality, and disconnection between dominant political (and geopolitical) discourses and everyday lived lives. Through both our research and teaching, participatory geographers remain committed to working with communities and students in the co-construction of agencies and knowledges that can respond to these issues. Yet, this is also a time when we see academic jobs disappearing, an increase in precarious forms of academic employment, and artificially separated career tracts based on research or teaching-only positions. Collegiate and socially engaged modes of working remain undervalued, despite (we could argue) some reference to 'impact' in auditing processes across the academic world. This raises questions regarding what we are doing as geographers, to ourselves and to others, and what the academy is doing to us as we strive to teach and learn well, support each other, research where research is needed (and not just where it is funded), to work collaboratively and make our work public and useful, and attempt to have fulfilling lives beyond the academy.' Fuller Geographies' is an open/roundtable for discussion, inviting participants to explore possible spaces for mutual aid and to share strategies for securing our own and geography's relevance and futures. In the heartening and creative roundtable discussion which resulted from this call participants took seriously the invitation 'to explore possible spaces for mutual aid and to share strategies for securing our own and geography's relevance and futures.' One 'outcome' of the session is an embryonic 'communifesto' (a participatory communiqué) for contesting insecurities, which we hope will have 'impact'. The aim of this current round-robin is to extend the discussion to include colleagues who could not make the Fuller Geographies session. We seek to develop the communifesto into something that we can all use in our professional practices: guidelines for creative resistance and constructive (re)engagement to contest our personal and disciplinary insecurities. Ultimately, we aim to post the manifesto on the Participatory Geographies Research Group website (http://pygyrg.org/) and to publish it. So, please read the manifesto and contribute to the emerging strategy and tactics as well as to the references and sources of information we have begun to compile. If you feel strongly that you cannot live with the communifesto as PyGyRG output, then do please let us know. Contributions, comments, and clarifications in the first instance to Kelvin Mason [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> Towards Mutual Security: The Fuller Communifesto (first draft, July 2010) Strategies: · Refuse the imperative to become increasingly individualised in our reactions - build the 'communiversity' (Pain, 2008). · Resist the monetisation and thence trading of our academic practices. If we want universities to be socially just, we must consider not only the equitable distribution of education and research but also how we value them. · Realise our current time and situation as one to build solidarity, finding common ground with colleagues and others within and beyond the university who share our struggle, frustration and insecurities. We do not have to reach consensus on all issues, but aim to find the common concerns we do share. Solidarity can respect and accommodate difference. · Work across disciplinary boundaries and other divisions. · Do not allow our struggles within the university to be constrained by the very ethos that we seek to resist and change. · Foster an ethic of care and respect for each other: participate and reciprocate in our interactions. · Develop solidarities across academic, administrative, support and other staff boundaries in our universities. Tactics: · Compile and share an open-source list of subversion strategies and tactics that we have used to work in, against and beyond the neoliberalisation of the university. · Share such ideas via social media. · Suggest alternative forms of measurement - what do we want to be valued and how? · Continue to push for a progressive interpretation of 'impact' - and enact this, realising the power of iteration. · Communicate with management: inform them about participatory work and ethics, send them published work in this field and show them the strength of this scholarship; legitimate this approach as an alternative to the neoliberal trajectory. · Return to University Charters - and reassert original aims as core objectives for our institutions, which were not designed to be businesses but have a wide range of responsibilities. For example, many universities are charities with explicit commitments to their local communities. Raise awareness of this and hold management to account for such objectives. · Create a forum for academic trauma support - do not let the emotional pain and grief from the current situation be cleansed and erased. · Continue to share the lived experiences of working in the neoliberal university with each , and make this experience public knowledge. References Anderson, C. (2012) Life and time(s) in the neoliberal university: Tell me about it (seriously, do) Available at http://antipodefoundation.org/2012/05/21/life-and-times-in-the-neoliberal-university-tell-me-about-it-seriously-do/#comments (Accessed 20 July 2012) Bailey, M. & Freedman, D. (Eds.) (2011) The Assault on Universities: A Manifesto for Resistance. London: Pluto Press. Boden, R. and Epstein, D. (2011), A flat earth society? Imagining academic freedom. The Sociological Review, 59: 476-495. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-954X.2011.02014.x Brahinsky<mailto:[log in to unmask]>, R. (2012) Thoughts on transition: Public education, social justice, and geography. Available at http://antipodefoundation.org/2012/07/05/thoughts-on-transition-public-education-social-justice-and-geography/ (Accessed 17 July 2012) Canally<mailto:[log in to unmask]>,C. (2012) Intervention - Where's our agency? The role of grading in the neoliberalization of public universities. Available at http://antipodefoundation.org/2012/03/30/intervention-wheres-our-agency-the-role-of-grading-in-the-neoliberalization-of-public-universities/ (Accessed 17 July 2012). Collini, S. (2012) What are Universities for? London: Penguin. Holmwood, J. (Ed.) (2011) A Manifesto for the Public University. London: Bloomsbury. Nussbaum, M. C. (2010) Not for Profit: Why Democracy Needs the Humanities. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Pain, R. (2008) 'Taking stock of participatory geographies: envisioning the communiversity: mrs kinpaisby.', Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers., 33 (3). pp. 292-299. Pain, R., Kesby, M. & Askins, K. (2010) 'Geographies of Impact: Power, participation and potential'. Area, 1(1), 1-6. Sandel, M. (2012) What Money Can't Buy: The moral limits to markets. London: Allen Lane. Sources of information Times Higher Education http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/index.asp?navcode=92 Guardian HE http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/higher-education @GdnHigherEd Phil Batty on Twitter @phil_baty<http://www.twitter.com/phil_baty> and @THEworldunirank<http://www.twitter.com/THEworldunirank> Prof Patrick McGhee on Twitter @VC_UEL Fuller Geographies @fuller_geogs Wonkhe 'the home of higher education wonks' http://www.wonkhe.com/ University and College Union (UCU) http://www.ucu.org.uk/ Sally Hunt (UCU General Secretary) http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/sally-hunt Campaign for the Public University http://publicuniversity.org.uk/ Dr Kelvin Mason Human Dimensions of Climate Change School of City and Regional Planning Cardiff University Glamorgan Building King Edward VII Avenue Cardiff CF10 3WA Tel: +44 (0)29 2087 4850 Mob: 07817 596 285 @KelvinMason1 Can we imagine Wales as consisting of a plurality of experiences, cultures and identities? Can we rethink Welshsness as heterogenous, as inclusive of difference? (Jordan, 2005)