Two points,
The great thing about skateboarding is the appropriation of
public/private/corporate space: to practice the art/sport in an arena of
late 20th century building technology. The challenge is to redefine the
space in sketboarders' terms. Heaven may be a half pipe... but let it be
on banking corporation property. (responsible skaters need not apply).
It is the rare (CURRENT) university manager that got there through being
an entrepreneur. Universities in the UK seem to adopt the worst case of
public sector managerial processes which are a function of modernism in
the sense that there is a vision that management can be separated from the
process which is trying to manage.
I say that the "university management is trying to protect the university
from the work of its academics" can be illustrated in the following
example.
The university is mindfully politically correct. This means for instance
that there is a strong level of accountability on the way public money is
spent and also on issues like equal opportunities employment. Before I can
act therefore I have to demonstrate clearly that I am acting in a way that
complies with regulations. This means submitting everything for approval
to administrative staff before I act. I can cite many instances where this
process actually results in less than equal opportunities and wastes the
taxpayers money. The alternative: to trust my professionalism and
knowledge of regulation etc and have me accountable for my actions both
before the law and my peers seems beyond their comprehension (although if
things currently foul up I still think the ordure would be at my door).
In the development of curricula and changes in academic practice there are
also layers of faux accountability designed with fordist models of
"quality control". Our managers should realise that quality control in
commerce is about producing uniformity and not about producing absolute
"quality".
The modern University is largely a product of the railway age. That
seamless web twixt technology culture and mediation will presumably over
time ( timescales Jay?) change the other parts of the Activity triangles.
Martin
"A big Hi to all you sentient beings out there. For the rest of you, the
trick is to bang the rocks together."
D.N.Adams (1952-2001)
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