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Paul Krugman, Niall Ferguson and the norms of public intellectualism in a...
The academic blogosphere had been getting a bit boring ever since the Chomsky and Zizek spat came to an end. Fortunately, Niall Ferguson decided a couple of days ago that it was time to take his...
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Shaking up the social sciences and the acceleration of higher education
Ahead of the visit by Nicholas Christakis to the UK next month, the Times Higher Education has run an interesting article by Amanda Goodall and Andrew Oswald. I wrote a response to the original article...
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Call for contributions: Power, Acceleration and Metrics in Academic Life
There is little doubt that science and knowledge production are presently undergoing dramatic and multi-layered transformations accompanied by new imperatives reflecting broader socio-economic and...
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Social Acceleration
It is a common sentiment that life is getting faster. However is it accurate and, if so, what does it mean? To talk of life, or social life, speeding up necessitates some working definition of ‘social...
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An existential analytics of speed
Integral to Harmut Rosa’s Social Acceleration (all references are to this book) is an understanding of cultural responses to acceleration and the role they play in intensifying the acceleration of the...
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Towards a sociology of endings
There’s a particular kind of sociological theorising which I’ve always been drawn to that concerns itself with the identification of epochal shifts in social life. When I was an intellectually...
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Time and Reflexivity
In Margaret Archer’s work on Reflexivity, this faculty is seen as mediating between structure and agency. Our capacity to ‘bend back’ upon ourselves, considering our circumstances in light of our...
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Life in the accelerated academy: how it’s possible for Žižek to publish 55...
I’ve long been a little bit fascinated by Žižek. I find him utterly hypnotic to watch and have consumed countless YouTube lectures by him. I genuinely enjoy his journalistic output and have read a lot...
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At the risk of sounding obsessive: Žižek is now releasing new books monthly
Unlike my previous post, I wasn’t actually looking for this. I just noticed it when browsing the recent philosophy releases on Amazon: August 2014: The Most Sublime Hysteric: Hegel with Lacan September...
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Some things about the acceleration of higher education which I would like to...
Increasingly I think about this issue in terms of a distinction between the rate of publication and the rate of knowledge production. My hunch is that the acceleration of the former goes hand-in-hand...
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Is it weird that I want to go one of these fake conferences to see what...
I assume these are the conference equivalents of predatory open access publishers. But what actually happens at them? I have an idea for a piece of exploratory travel writing which was initially a joke...
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Productivity culture, cognitive triage and the pseudo-commensurability of the...
For a couple of years I’ve been striving to empty my e-mail inbox on a daily basis. It doesn’t particularly bother me if I don’t succeed and I often don’t. I go through phases of doing this daily and...
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Higher Education and The Temporal Conditions for Critique
I’m aware that I probably come across like I hate Slavoj Zizek but there are many aspects of his work which I really like. My favourite is his account of neoliberal ideology which I understand to be an...
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Coping with Acceleration
I wrote yesterday about cognitive triage in higher education and its ramifications for personal reflexivity. My claim is that an inflation of situational demands leads subjects to prioritise the...
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Ghosts of Sociologists Past in the Accelerated Academy
I’m currently reading Ghosts of My Life: Writings on Depression, Hauntology and Lost Futures by Mark Fisher. It’s an interesting book which explores a condition in which “life continues, but time has...
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Productivity
Coffee Meditate for focus What do I want to achieve today? Do, Delete, Discard Inbox zero! (fleetingly) Remind self of priorities Meeting Get ahead on e-mail (how did people cope without iPhones?)...
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The Pleasures of Acceleration
Acceleration is often framed as a problem. Things are speeding up. We never have enough time. We’re always falling behind. These will be familiar experiences to most. While the problem is more complex...
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The Lure of Minimalism
What is ‘lifestyle minimalism’? To a certain extent it depends upon whom you ask. It’s often talked about as a ‘tool’ to live a simpler and more meaningful life. It’s often framed in terms of reducing...
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Selling psychopathy in late modernity
A few weeks ago, I was browsing the bookshop in Kings Cross while waiting for the Eurostar and came across this disturbing book: Given I was on my way to a much needed holiday, I didn’t buy the book at...
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CfP: Power, Acceleration and Metrics in Academic Life, 2nd-4th December 2015,...
Power, Acceleration and Metrics in Academic Life, 2nd-4th December 2015, Prague Call for papers: Power, Acceleration and Metrics in Academic Life There is little doubt that science and knowledge...
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