Dear reader… hit the restart button

…[UPDATED 4/5/17] Somewhere along the way I lost my blogging voice. Why? I asked myself that more than once. One factor for sure: I loaned it out too often and for too long at the behest of others -- groups, organizations, campaigns, causes, individuals. My blogger's voice lost track of whose it was. This March I took a leap and committed to the #sol17 March blogging challenge hosted by the Two Writing Teachers blog and writing community where I wrote 31 days straight, a blog post a day and commented on 9 (or more) other posts every day. 

All blogging challenges include a commenting requirement, usually a minimum of three. The additional commenting load was from volunteer to welcome and support a group of new participants because I knew the extra commitment would stay me from dropping out. It worked and was also a lesson about blogging that I had forgotten: the conversation matters as much as content. Authentic exchanges, the sifting of opinion and information, as Jacques Barzun defined conversation, what makes the content matter. Along with regular posts, I want to bring that back to my blogging.

Am I ready? I think so. I know I can but will I?

Precariat? R'us? If not, then who?

We're who but not the only ones; now what about who else and 'what'? The University of Sydney, cited below, gives an overview in its news release introducing visiting speaker, UK economics professor Guy Standing (truly, a minimalist home page). 

The precariat consists of a growing number of people around the world who live in social and economic insecurity, without occupational identities, drifting in and out of jobs and constantly worried about their incomes, housing and much else. (sound familiar?)

On the precariat

Among candidates in the "Naming Games" (a periodic event among adjunct/ NTT/ contingent faculty), precariat and variants on it keep come up more as the tanks of globalization roll through our cavalry lines. Back in 2002 when I was doing the Valencia AAUP Chapter newsletter and webpage, I fancied "precarious faculty" for its "call a spade a spade" directness. At that time, Canadian NTT faculty were called that as often as sessional. Every one working without a safety net.

Since then, the global precariat has grown, extended increasingly to "knowledge workers" of all stripes, and become a more widely identifiable term. It's back in the running. In the UK and NL, the Precarious Workers Brigade brings together artists, designers, writers, teachers, "insecure" university lecturers, freelance web workers ~ knowledge workers in education and culture.

Whether or not a variant or some other terms catches on among us remains to be seen. Self naming of a large, diverse group is ultimate crowdsourcing. By definition, no individual, group, organization or even consortium of organizations controls the process. Making it stick later with the Department of Labor is yet another matter.

In the meantime, I'm exploring the precariat here and around the world, primarily but not exclusively, knowledge workers (go Gramsci!) to aggregate and curate sources. I added sites and alerts to the feed reader to bundle and widgetize, started a Storify series (first entry below) and am also developing a "Welcome to the Precariat" newspaper in Paper.li.

Joe Berry's COCAL Updates 27March12

 in brief, with links

A great quote  "Capitalism teaches the people the moral conceptions of cannibalism are the strong devouring the weak; its theory of the world of men and women is that of a glorified pig-trough where the biggest swine gets the most swill." - James Connolly 1910.

Mundo Precario

Another, this time international, conversation of what to call ourselves. [I personally have come to favor "precarious" even over "contingent"]. Hyperlink Academia blog

Yet another article about overpaid and underworked professors (WaPo) that ignores the contingent majority [written by a former college president who assuredly knows better, since his old institution, New School U, spent big bucks fighting an adjunct unionization campaign] and discussion of his article on IHE

• CHE on bad court decision regarding U of IL Chicago petition for joint (TT/NTT) bargaining unit and open letter from union to administration offering to accept two separate units in same local union.
• Accreditation as a means to aid adjuncts by considering staffing ratios and working conditions as factors in accreditation. CHE

Joe Berry's COCAL Updates 23Mar12

Email joeberry@igc.org, to subscribe to regular updates in brief and links by email. More about Joe Berry.   

Updates in brief and links

ADJUNCTIVERSE

Adjunct problem is every professor's problem, on More or Less Bunk 

Idaho adjunct with bipolar disorder fired after gun incident 

A "nosey" philosophical contribution by our fellow precarious faculty (and author) Alex Kudera, on his blog

Adjunct Nation,  about "one of the fastest-growing job titles in America ... ‘adjunct professor’ (an ill-paid, overworked species of academic).” IHE

Article about College of William and Mary adjuncts 

ORGANIZING

Joe Berry's COCAL Updates 7Mar12

Yes, these are a week late. There's another set of updates from Joe waiting in the email box for formatting, link embedding and perhaps an image or so to perk it up. I'm experimenting with layout and organization too. Email joeberry@igc.org, to subscribe to regular updates in brief and links by email. More about Joe Berry, Updates, COCAL, publications, links.

 

Joe Berry at COCAL VI

Updates in brief and links

Reading Room: about reading highered + links of my own

Yes indeed, Joe Berry's COCAL Updates, Omnivore and Michael Meranze's "In case you missed it..." (Remaking the University) links are fine and dandy, but I have a feed reader too and links of my own, collected here for a change. This might also explain why I might miss articles in IHE and CHE and run short of time to pore over comments. News Flash! Not everyone in the universe checks them or even the Grey Lady first thing.

So much more is written about higher education, contingent workplace conditions, education and the economy than on just those august pages. Depending on either or even both for all your higher and other education news is just another way to stay trapped in the Ivory Silo©. Think too of the great adjunct writing online that doesn't make it into those pages. Why let commercial, advertising soliciting gatekeepers dictate what you read? Look for the Adjunct Label...

  

Joe Berry's COCAL Updates 3Mar12

Email joeberry@igc.org, to subscribe to regular updates in brief and links by email. More about Joe Berry, COCAL, publications, links.  

Note: Please participate in the March 1-8 week of action called nationally by Occupy. For details see Occupy Edu on Tumblr and Occupy Education CA. Check your local area for more details.

 

Updates in Brief and Links

1. Workers, supported by their union, United Electrical Workers (UE),  re-occupy former Republic Windows and Doors plant (now Serious Materials) in Chicago [video]   to stop closure and save jobs. [Could contingent faculty consider occupation as a tactic?] Press release, "Workers Strike a Deal to Try and Save Jobs." Contact:  Leah Fried, UE Organizer  773-550-3022 , leahfried@gmail.com

2. New study from UC Berkeley shows for-profits taking up slack for public institutions cutbacks, with quality falling as a result, "the Brazilian effect" (Inside HigherEd)

3. Yet another Chicago building occupation, this one of a school slated for closure. (Labor Notes)

4. March 1 Action in Chicago at East-West and Columbia and Pfac update on situation at Columbia College Chicago here, from Pfac Executive Committee.

5. Upcoming at Left Forum, March 16-18,  in NYC: 

Names 101: The Precarious Brigade

I'm not sure how or even whether the UK Precarious Workers Brigade fits into 'naming' series (or whatever I end up calling it and about which I have yet to post an already belated introduction). For now, I say yes. Consider the definition, precarious workers in culture & education, and decide for yourself. Including creative workers (how Gramsci) expands scope and should remind us that college instructors in creative disciplines are predominantly adjunct/contingent faculty. Further, the precariat identifies with other labor areas defined below

The Precariat: The New Dangerous Class … "Unlike the proletariat – the industrial working class on which 20th century social democracy was built – the precariat's relations of production are defined by partial involvement in labour combined with extensive 'work-for-labour', a growing array of unremunerated activities that are essential if they are to retain access to jobs and to decent earnings." Guy Standing

I came across the page just today, serendipity via a link post at Defend Education Ohio, just one of many in the Defend Public Education network. All are now in my feed reader: expect to see more of them,

Selections from Related Clippings (note inclusion of How the University Works)