Comments on: The Neoliberal Race to the Bottom Affects Us All!* https://allegralaboratory.net/anthropologists-are-not-immune-from-the-neoliberal-race-to-the-bottom/ Anthropology for Radical Optimism Tue, 17 May 2022 11:06:19 +0000 hourly 1 By: Mariya https://allegralaboratory.net/anthropologists-are-not-immune-from-the-neoliberal-race-to-the-bottom/#comment-55054 Thu, 27 Nov 2014 11:19:44 +0000 https://allegralaboratory.net//?p=8742#comment-55054 In reply to Susanne Ådahl.

Hi Susanne, thanks for your response! I can’t agree more with the points you raise. And it is so difficult to gather and act in a meaningful way as we’re so spread out, and hypermobile, moving between contexts with different labor relations and conditions all the time… But let’s hope we organize at some point and find a way to get back our voice and visibility… In solidarity, Mariya

]]> By: Susanne Ådahl https://allegralaboratory.net/anthropologists-are-not-immune-from-the-neoliberal-race-to-the-bottom/#comment-54258 Tue, 25 Nov 2014 08:15:10 +0000 https://allegralaboratory.net//?p=8742#comment-54258 Thank you for this thought provoking piece of writing that stated the gruesome facts of the conditions we face as researchers. Having for long been an involuntary member of the academic precariat I am in an ambiguous way pleased to see this discussion has finally gained momentum. I am ambigous because I naturally wish we would not have to fight for these rights that are obvious workers rights regardless of profession. I live in a country, Finland, where a very large percentage of the workforce is unionised and at least in my generation it has been clear that you pay a union membership to have representatives defend your rights. The union I belong to does good work and, undoubtedly, I could be more actively involved in their work. In addition there should be campaigning, active protest and visible actions – a definite activist stance to defending the knowledge industry that we represent. To stay afloat in the game of academics and also be a parent and a daughter to aging parents I, not only lack job security, but also TIME to be politically engaged. This a good strategy to ensure the silencing of protest; keep us so busy with the basics of life that we cannot spend time on defending our own welfare. In the neoliberalising world order of short-term thinking and a race for profits, there seems to be little concern for the intellectual property rights of academics or the production of knowledge that we are involved in (or we can have these rights if we pay for them – in what other profession does one pay to have one’s own work published, to have visibility of one’s work and to spread knowledge of research that benefits society?). There seems to be a move towards claims that what we produce as academics is not productive because it cannot be measured in the short-term. In a market-based manner of thinking the investor feels he has the right to ask what the (short-term) returns on his investment are. It is so true that precisely at this hour we need solidarity between researchers so as to fight as a unified front against these threats to the academic profession. Every time a new change takes place (like a few years ago researchers on grants were told they had to pay for their office space, sums that were about 10% of their monthly earnings) that indicates the onslaught of market-based thinking in a (still) state funded university system we write angry emails of indignation and organise some protests. The problem is that this action is not militant enough and does not trickle up to the decision makers – there is a wall of university administration and decision makers that barrikade our path to making ourselves heard, and in all of us lives the fear of labelling ourselves trouble makers, of black listing ourselves. What classical means do we have to protest? Going on strike? This works if all university staff go on strike so that teaching, exams and tutoring stops. Refusing to write articles in academic journals will just be a disfavour to us when we need to get more funding. A cross-border, transnational campaign to save the academic profession is an effort I would gladly support – there is strength in numbers! Count me in and lert me know what I can do to further the cause.

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