[Xmca-l] Re: actions within academia

Sun Feb 5 06:34:50 PST 2017

Hello all,

Here are some additional resources that also might be helpful:

Wall of Us sends out 2-3 weekly action items.
https://www.wall-of-us.org

Weekly action items for members of all political parties.
https://jenniferhofmann.com/home/weekly-action-checklist-democrats-independents-republicans-conscience/

In coordination with Sleeping Giants (@slpng_giants), twitter users can
call out companies advertising on Brietbart.
http://adstrike.us

Sister District coordinates constituents from blue districts with
constituents in their nearest red districts.
https://www.sisterdistrict.com

Theresa

On Sat, Feb 4, 2017 at 5:10 PM, Helena Worthen <helenaworthen@gmail.com>
wrote:

> Actions within academia? Following the advice of thinking globally, acting
> locally, don’t forget the third kind of action within academia: paying
> attention to the faculty workforce itself, which is has been deteriorating
> into a gig economy for the last 30 plus years. If there is organizing going
> on among adjuncts on your campus, seek it out and support it; if there is a
> campus coalition of university-wide unions (which will mean secretaries,
> techies, landscapers, food workers, transportation and custodial workers as
> well as faculty of all levels), attend meetings and be supportive; in
> faculty meetings, insist on adjuncts/lecturers be treated equally. If a new
> kind of program gets floated (for example, an online degree) ask, “Who is
> doing this work? What are their working conditions?”
>
>  It’s amazing what a strong workforce-wide coalition can do to slow down
> the construction of luxury rec facilities and the closure of language or
> ethnic studies programs.
>
> Third kind meaning in addition to doing research or designing curriculum
> that has progressive content or protecting structures of opportunity that
> reduce inequality.
>
> H
>
> Helena Worthen
> helenaworthen@gmail.com
> Berkeley, CA 94707
> Blog about US and Viet Nam: helenaworthen.wordpress.com
>
>
>
> > On Feb 4, 2017, at 4:35 PM, HENRY SHONERD <hshonerd@gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > Richard,
> > Many thanks for this. What great resources! Medaiting artefacts. They
> come at a good time for my wife and me as far as what needs to be done in
> the larger social domain. Distributed agency at different scales. Within
> each circle we need trust and respect of one another. That really resonates
> all through. I like the metaphor of electro-magnetic field. It was in the
> title of my letter honoring Vera in the book Bob Lake and Cathrene Connery
> edited. (Shout out to Bob and Cathrene!) Part of Vera’s magic circle we
> are. So the circles are across generations. (Shout out to Vera!) Such cool
> people on the chat. But warm blooded. (Shout out to Andy!)
> > Henry
> >
> >> On Feb 4, 2017, at 2:46 PM, Richard Beach <rbeach@umn.edu> wrote:
> >>
> >> Mike, regarding your call for action on campuses, my concern is that
> people may accept a passive stance as individuals assuming that they lack
> agency to make change as opposed to achieving distributed agency (Enfield,
> 2013) through exposure to examples of collective activism so that they
> achieve agency through co-action with others. Students and researchers
> could examine examples of current organized efforts from a CHAT perspective
> in terms of use of certain tools and norms to achieve certain
> objects/outcomes, for example:
> >>
> >> - Our Revolution national organization website <
> https://ourrevolution.com/>
> >>
> >> - Indivisible: A Practical Guide for Resisting the Trump Agenda <
> https://www.indivisibleguide.com/web/>: Former congressional staffers
> reveal best practices for making Congress listen
> >>
> >> - Courage Campaign <https://couragecampaign.org/>: A California-based
> organization of 1.3 million members promoting progressive agendas
> >>
> >> - Swing Left <https://swingleft.org/>: Targets swing districts to
> promote candidates for the 2018 election.
> >> Consistent with a CHAT perspective, to avoid students framing the
> political space in individualist terms—as Trump does in his attacks on
> critics, it’s also useful for students and researchers to examine issues in
> terms of competing systems associated with institutional forces and change.
> For example, in addressing climate change, students and researchers can
> examine the intersections between ecological, economic, agriculture, legal,
> political, urban design/housing, transportation, schooling, health care,
> military, media, and scientific research as systems related to climate
> change. For example, the agribusiness agricultural system of monocrop/beef
> production is a major contributor to CO2 emissions related to climate
> change. Students can also examine examples of legal and political efforts
> as systems associated with addressing climate change issues <
> http://climatechangeela.pbworks.com/w/page/103010995/
> Chapter%209%20%C2%A0Links>, for example, a group of students in Oregon <
> http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/13/opinions/climate-kids-
> federal-lawsuit/index.html> who have a lawsuit in federal courts suing
> the U. S. Government for failing to address climate change.
> >>
> >>
> >> Richard Beach, Professor Emeritus of English Education, University of
> Minnesota
> >> rbeach@umn.edu
> >> Websites: Digital writing <http://digitalwriting.pbworks.com/>, Media
> literacy <http://teachingmedialiteracy.pbworks.com/>, Teaching literature
> <http://teachingliterature.pbworks.com/>, Identity-focused ELA Teaching <
> http://identities.pbworks.com/>, Common Core State Standards <
> http://englishccss.pbworks.com/>, Apps for literacy learning <
> http://usingipads.pbworks.com/>, Teaching about climate change <
> http://climatechangeela.pbworks.com/>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>> On Feb 4, 2017, at 11:55 AM, mike cole <mcole@ucsd.edu> wrote:
> >>>
> >>> Richard and Alfredo
> >>>
> >>> I keep coming back to the question of how we, as academics, located in
> the
> >>> system of higher education, researchers on the social creation of
> social
> >>> inequality, ought to be re-orienting our research in light of the
> >>> re-surrection of global nationalist/populism.
> >>>
> >>> So for me, its important to focus on concrete exemplars that might
> unloose
> >>> this potential: "shock events' possibility not only for separating but
> for
> >>> actually offering opportunities to re-organize and unite priorly
> separated
> >>> forces."
> >>>
> >>> In a recent discussion at LCHC, this topic came up in terms of how to
> >>> connect our research and our undergraduates to the life of the
> communities
> >>> whose children do not make it to the university. Such an effort
> requires
> >>> coordination of a variety of dis-articulated groups with a common
> concern
> >>> about socially and culturally marginalized, econonomically stressed,
> >>> communities.
> >>>
> >>> The challenge of engaging successfully in such work and satisfying the
> >>> academic production requirements of their academic personnel committees
> >>> seems a major challenge.
> >>>
> >>> Positive suggestions of how to meet this challenge would be warmly
> accepted.
> >>>
> >>> mike
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> On Fri, Feb 3, 2017 at 10:33 PM, Alfredo Jornet Gil <
> a.j.gil@iped.uio.no>
> >>> wrote:
> >>>
> >>>> Thanks for sharing Richard, I had seen Richardson's analysis online.
> In
> >>>> fact the amount of analyses in the media that this crisis is
> generating is
> >>>> overwhelming, but also very encouraging and gives hopes towards
> >>>> Richardson's notes on shock events' possibility not only for
> separating but
> >>>> for actually offering opportunities to re-organize and unite priorly
> >>>> separated forces. I wonder, if Lincoln managed without the web and the
> >>>> i-phone, will it happen today?
> >>>>
> >>>> Alfredo
> >>>> ________________________________________
> >>>> From: xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu <xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.
> edu>
> >>>> on behalf of Richard Beach <rbeach@umn.edu>
> >>>> Sent: 03 February 2017 00:28
> >>>> To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
> >>>> Subject: [Xmca-l]  Bannon's actions as "shock event"
> >>>>
> >>>> Here’s an interesting analysis of Bannon’s actions on banning
> immigrants
> >>>> that’s related to Bakhtin’s notion of “eventness” and Roth’s (2014)
> >>>> analysis of “events-in-the-making” associated with the experience of
> >>>> unfolding events with unpredictable consequences. We still don’t know
> what
> >>>> the fallout will be from attempts to implement this ban.
> >>>>
> >>>>> From Heather Richardson, professor of History at Boston College:
> >>>>
> >>>> "I don't like to talk about politics on Facebook-- political history
> is my
> >>>> job, after all, and you are my friends-- but there is an important
> >>>> non-partisan point to make today.
> >>>>
> >>>> What Bannon is doing, most dramatically with last night's ban on
> >>>> immigration from seven predominantly Muslim countries-- is creating
> what is
> >>>> known as a "shock event."
> >>>>
> >>>> Such an event is unexpected and confusing and throws a society into
> chaos.
> >>>> People scramble to react to the event, usually along some fault line
> that
> >>>> those responsible for the event can widen by claiming that they alone
> know
> >>>> how to restore order.
> >>>>
> >>>> When opponents speak out, the authors of the shock event call them
> >>>> enemies. As society reels and tempers run high, those responsible for
> the
> >>>> shock event perform a sleight of hand to achieve their real goal, a
> goal
> >>>> they know to be hugely unpopular, but from which everyone has been
> >>>> distracted as they fight over the initial event. There is no longer
> >>>> concerted opposition to the real goal; opposition divides along the
> >>>> partisan lines established by the shock event.
> >>>>
> >>>> Last night's Executive Order has all the hallmarks of a shock event.
> It
> >>>> was not reviewed by any governmental agencies or lawyers before it was
> >>>> released, and counterterrorism experts insist they did not ask for it.
> >>>> People charged with enforcing it got no instructions about how to do
> so.
> >>>> Courts immediately have declared parts of it unconstitutional, but
> border
> >>>> police in some airports are refusing to stop enforcing it.
> >>>>
> >>>> Predictably, chaos has followed and tempers are hot.
> >>>>
> >>>> My point today is this: unless you are the person setting it up, it
> is in
> >>>> no one's interest to play the shock event game. It is designed
> explicitly
> >>>> to divide people who might otherwise come together so they cannot
> stand
> >>>> against something its authors think they won't like.
> >>>>
> >>>> I don't know what Bannon is up to-- although I have some guesses-- but
> >>>> because I know Bannon's ideas well, I am positive that there is not a
> >>>> single person whom I consider a friend on either side of the aisle--
> and my
> >>>> friends range pretty widely-- who will benefit from whatever it is.
> >>>>
> >>>> If the shock event strategy works, though, many of you will blame each
> >>>> other, rather than Bannon, for the fallout. And the country will have
> been
> >>>> tricked into accepting their real goal.
> >>>>
> >>>> But because shock events destabilize a society, they can also be used
> >>>> positively. We do not have to respond along old fault lines. We could
> just
> >>>> as easily reorganize into a different pattern that threatens the
> people who
> >>>> sparked the event.
> >>>>
> >>>> A successful shock event depends on speed and chaos because it
> requires
> >>>> knee-jerk reactions so that people divide along established lines.
> This,
> >>>> for example, is how Confederate leaders railroaded the initial
> southern
> >>>> states out of the Union.
> >>>>
> >>>> If people realize they are being played, though, they can reach
> across old
> >>>> lines and reorganize to challenge the leaders who are pulling the
> strings.
> >>>> This was Lincoln's strategy when he joined together Whigs, Democrats,
> >>>> Free-Soilers, anti-Nebraska voters, and nativists into the new
> Republican
> >>>> Party to stand against the Slave Power.
> >>>>
> >>>> Five years before, such a coalition would have been unimaginable.
> Members
> >>>> of those groups agreed on very little other than that they wanted all
> >>>> Americans to have equal economic opportunity. Once they began to work
> >>>> together to promote a fair economic system, though, they found much
> common
> >>>> ground. They ended up rededicating the nation to a "government of the
> >>>> people, by the people, and for the people."
> >>>>
> >>>> Confederate leaders and Lincoln both knew about the political
> potential of
> >>>> a shock event. As we are in the midst of one, it seems worth noting
> that
> >>>> Lincoln seemed to have the better idea about how to use it."
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> Richard Beach, Professor Emeritus of English Education, University of
> >>>> Minnesota
> >>>> rbeach@umn.edu
> >>>> Websites: Digital writing <http://digitalwriting.pbworks.com/>, Media
> >>>> literacy <http://teachingmedialiteracy.pbworks.com/>, Teaching
> literature
> >>>> <http://teachingliterature.pbworks.com/>, Identity-focused ELA
> Teaching <
> >>>> http://identities.pbworks.com/>, Common Core State Standards <
> >>>> http://englishccss.pbworks.com/>, Apps for literacy learning <
> >>>> http://usingipads.pbworks.com/>, Teaching about climate change <
> >>>> http://climatechangeela.pbworks.com/>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>> On Jan 26, 2017, at 10:16 AM, Helena Worthen <
> helenaworthen@gmail.com>
> >>>> wrote:
> >>>>>
> >>>>> On the subject of dividing, here is an ugly snapshot of the wedge
> >>>> getting driven in — the building trades unions finding common ground
> with
> >>>> Trump as a “developer.” The other deeply regressive unions are the
> prison
> >>>> guards and police.
> >>>>>
> >>>>> http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2017/01/building-trades-allow-
> >>>> themselves-to-be-played-like-fools
> >>>>>
> >>>>> I attend monthly discussion groups in the Bay Area organized around
> >>>> readings from the magazine Jacobin. I like these because the other
> >>>> participants are mostly 20s and early 30s, techies or grad students.
> Very
> >>>> smart, very alert, very well-read and articulate. They are stamped,
> >>>> however, with evidence of never having studied history. (Philosophy,
> yes —
> >>>> which is interesting.) To many of them, the building trades and police
> >>>> unions are typical of the political position of labor unions.
> >>>>>
> >>>>> So they see LIUNA leaders meeting with Trump and smear the whole
> labor
> >>>> movement with it.
> >>>>>
> >>>>> H
> >>>>>
> >>>>> Helena Worthen
> >>>>> helenaworthen@gmail.com
> >>>>> Berkeley, CA 94707
> >>>>> Blog about US and Viet Nam: helenaworthen.wordpress.com
> >>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>>> On Jan 26, 2017, at 9:26 AM, <lpscholar2@gmail.com> <
> >>>> lpscholar2@gmail.com> wrote:
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> Yes,
> >>>>>> Today, the strategy of dividing, leaving us in disarray, is how i
> >>>> experience the deluge of draconian executive ‘orders’ that  leaves me
> >>>> spinning.
> >>>>>> Leaves me questioning where to start.
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> Exposing the disarray on the other side in concrete ways (Koch vs
> >>>> Mercer) is a valuable addition to our ways of responding.
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> Sent from my Windows 10 phone
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> From: Peg Griffin
> >>>>>> Sent: January 26, 2017 8:57 AM
> >>>>>> To: 'eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity'
> >>>>>> Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: The Cambridge Atlantica site that Peg
> referred to
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> At this point, Larry, I'm content to rise to as much concrete as I
> can
> >>>> get near, until at least the late spring, to get at ideas and
> >>>> contradictions, to keep moving and supporting so I'm in enough places
> to
> >>>> and bits of the movement to find the productive places for me.
> >>>>>> A mini-mission of mine right now is to get people to recognize the
> >>>> divide among the big money folks in the US -- the Mercer father
> daughter
> >>>> beat the Koch brothers within the Republican moneyed.
> >>>>>> The other side works hard to divide us and take advantage of the
> >>>> disarray, so why not pay attention when they are dividing themselves!
> >>>>>> No use being a day late and a dollar short about who's who!
> >>>>>> Maybe it's just that my great uncle was in vaudeville and showed us
> >>>> three yammering nieces a super card game called "52 pick-up."  It's
> not too
> >>>> good too often for too long but everyone once in a while it's not a
> bad
> >>>> game.
> >>>>>> PG
> >>>>>> -----Original Message-----
> >>>>>> From: xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu [mailto:xmca-l-bounces@
> >>>> mailman.ucsd.edu] On Behalf Of lpscholar2@gmail.com
> >>>>>> Sent: Thursday, January 26, 2017 11:02 AM
> >>>>>> To: Peg Griffin; 'eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity'
> >>>>>> Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: The Cambridge Atlantica site that Peg
> referred to
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> Peg, Mike,
> >>>>>> Reading these two articles on BigData and remembering how funding
> will
> >>>> be given to academic research that slots into being verified (or
> negated)
> >>>> through BigData is profoundly disturbing and leaves me with a sense of
> >>>> inertia at the scope of the alienation involved in this manipulation.
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> Using Simmel’s back and forth notion of the relation of (distance
> and
> >>>> intimacy) and finding the proper ratio depending on the events
> occuring
> >>>> then the proper relation between distance and intimacy will be
> shifting in
> >>>> scope in each historical era.
> >>>>>> Will our response to the vast distance incarnated through BIgData
> >>>> require intimate responses as counterpoint??
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> If this is LIKE the 1930’s, do we have any answers from the past
> that
> >>>> give glimmers of a way forward that can be responsive at scale to the
> >>>> distancing of BigData?
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> Sent from my Windows 10 phone
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> From: Peg Griffin
> >>>>>> Sent: January 25, 2017 5:39 PM
> >>>>>> To: 'eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity'
> >>>>>> Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: The Cambridge Atlantica site that Peg
> referred to
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> And here's  a Guardian story https://www.theguardian.com/
> >>>> us-news/2016/nov/23/donald-trump-cambridge-analytica-steve-bannon for
> >>>> those interested in the post-election ties among the Mercers (father
> and
> >>>> daughter), Bannon, Conway, and Cambridge Analytica.
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> -----Original Message-----
> >>>>>> From: xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu [mailto:xmca-l-bounces@
> >>>> mailman.ucsd.edu] On Behalf Of Peg Griffin
> >>>>>> Sent: Wednesday, January 25, 2017 7:43 PM
> >>>>>> To: 'eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity'
> >>>>>> Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: The Cambridge Atlantica site that Peg
> referred to
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> Hee hee hee, Mike Cole, you rogue!  This is the official Cambridge
> >>>> Analytica site https://cambridgeanalytica.org/ But Mike direct you
> to a
> >>>> meatier sit about it!
> >>>>>> Peg
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> -----Original Message-----
> >>>>>> From: xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu [mailto:xmca-l-bounces@
> >>>> mailman.ucsd.edu] On Behalf Of mike cole
> >>>>>> Sent: Wednesday, January 25, 2017 1:41 PM
> >>>>>> To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
> >>>>>> Subject: [Xmca-l] The Cambridge Atlantica site that Peg referred to
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> https://antidotezine.com/2017/01/22/trump-knows-you/
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>
> >
> >
>
>
>