[Xmca-l] Re: Our Broken Economy, in One Simple Chart - The New York Times

[Greg Thompson]

Helena,
Do you think that it would be possible to do both? Or is that a Faustian
bargain?
-greg

On Thu, Aug 10, 2017 at 5:22 PM, Helena Worthen <helenaworthen@gmail.com>
wrote:

> Hello --
>
> This message from Alfredo struck me as especially vivid and typical of
> teaching in higher education today. It's that moment of getting back to
> work in the morning and facing afresh the question, "How can I make my
> research useful to the human cause?" in the face of the crowd of interests,
> powers and constraints that condition the response to the question - that
> moment is familiar to so many people! Including the need to find new jobs,
> over and over.
>
> Joe and I are now in Viet Nam at Ton Duc Thang University. This is the
> second time we've come, to teach in the Faculty of Trade Unions and Labor
> Relations. Like a lot of universities all over the world, it is tooling up
> to teach in English and become "ranked." One aspect of this is publishing.
> Faculty are being encouraged (you might say pressured very hard) to publish
> in journals on certain ranking lists. Success will be rewarded with cash
> (value of a couple of thousand dollars per article). This is not support
> for research -- it's pay for research. Joe and I are going to convene and
> mentor a "research group" and talk about how to get published. The
> enthusiasm for getting in on this bandwagon is palpable. I'm not kidding.
> They are highly motivated to do it. But they are not asking "How can I make
> my research useful to the human cause?"
>
> Joe and I are going to have to tool our mentoring to put Alfredo's
> question into the picture.
>
> Alfredo's snapshot of him sitting at the start of a work day is like a
> message from the future. I too would like to hear what the ISCAR community
> has to say.
>
> Thanks -- Helena
>
>
>
> Helena Worthen
> helenaworthen@gmail.com
> Vietnam blog: helenaworthen.wordpress.com
>
> On Aug 9, 2017, at 8:56 PM, Alfredo Jornet Gil wrote:
>
> > Capitalism is incapable to carry over humanity. The other way around is
> another story, I guess. I do wish we could attain a true democratic
> (communist) society though.
> >
> > In any case, I often wonder what WE, each one of us, can do. The first
> thing I come up with, and not surprisingly because that's the field in
> which I work, is pedagogy. On the one hand, it is a contradiction, because
> the whole of pedagogy, as institutionalised field (I mean, as faculties, as
> my temporary salary, as the pursuing and achievement of publishing
> incentives, etc...), it wholly belongs to Capitalism.
> >
> > Yet, judging by the level of involvement and engagement that education
> faculties show, it seems to me that the notion of pedagogy that most
> faculty members hold is that our field is about learning, when in fact I
> think it is about generating culture. I sit every day with my freshly
> collected data at a small independent school and wonder, having briefly
> checked the discouraging world news, and I wonder:  'how can I make my
> research useful to the human cause?' But then I need to address journal
> audiences, the motives that got me the funding for my research, my
> temporary contract and the need to find a new job soon... and one feels
> pretty hopeless. I don't give up, though. It feels good having you all out
> there, xmca'ers,
> >
> > How does, e.g., the ISCAR community stands for these matters? How does
> your respective faculties/institutions stand for this?
> >
> > Alfredo
> >
> > ________________________________________
> > From: xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu <xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu>
> on behalf of Ulvi İçil <ulvi.icil@gmail.com>
> > Sent: 09 August 2017 14:38
> > To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
> > Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: Our Broken Economy,       in One Simple Chart -
> The New York Times
> >
> > Capitalism should be destroyed urgently.
> > Primarily in US and China.
> > Otherwise, it will destroy humanity even without wars.
> >
> > I wonder if anyone is able to claim that human species can be saved by
> > mechanisms belonging to capitalism which is itself the very owner of the
> > current destructive mechanisms.
> >
> > Like it or not, communist society is the unique exit. Capitalism is
> > incapable to carry over humanity.
> >
> > I do not believe communism is inevitable but I think that communism is a
> > necessity to save human species. This is a scientific truth.
> >
> > Otherwise, we are the final generations of our species and humanity will
> > not survive after 21st century.
> >
> >
> >
> > 9 Ağu 2017 15:03 tarihinde "Larry Purss" <lpscholar2@gmail.com> yazdı:
> >
> >>
> >> THIS IS DRAMATIC:
> >>
> >> This graph captures the depth of the crisis.
> >>
> >> The 8 richest people in the world have more wealth than the bottom half
> of
> >> the planet’s population.
> >>
> >> Also...
> >> Canada’s latest census also documents that for the first time single
> >> occupancy residency is now the dominant form of living arrangement.
> Only a
> >> single person in each apartment or townhouse is now the most prominent
> >> living arrangement
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> Our Broken Economy, in One Simple Chart
> >> This chart captures the rise in inequality better than any other chart
> >> that I’ve seen.
> >>
> >>
> >> https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/08/07/
> opinion/leonhardt-income-
> >> inequality.html?emc=edit_mbe_20170809&nl=morning-briefing-
> >> europe&nlid=69072237&te=1
> >> Sent from Mail for Windows 10
> >>
> >>
>
>
>


-- 
Gregory A. Thompson, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Anthropology
880 Spencer W. Kimball Tower
Brigham Young University
Provo, UT 84602
WEBSITE: greg.a.thompson.byu.edu
http://byu.academia.edu/GregoryThompson