How do academics read so many books?

Scientia imperii decus et tutamen est

First, let's interrogate the truth implied in the title question: it is believed that academics DO read lots of books.

Since most undergraduates consider that having read more than a dozen books puts you in the same league as Wittgenstein or Dr Johnson it will not be difficult to impress your friends.

But let's grant that academics do 'read' quite a lot, perhaps more than average. For teachers in the arts and in the social sciences, their books are their primary tools and resources. Text is a living laboratory.

In part, it is true that academics delve into books, gingerly excavating their contents, rather than ploughing through them word by word (pencil in hand). In most cases, skimming is superior to delving.

Since every career depends on publication, it follows that the quantity published has been increasing rapidly since the 1960s when one article on kinship ties in Beowulf was enough to secure a life journey through academia. Every year several hundred 'new' articles are written on gothic monsters. It is a Frankenstein industry, with books cobbled together from the dead remnants of their recent predecessors

For serious academics, the detailed dissection of books is an honour afforded only to the books that are absolutely crucial to your work, or that you have been asked to REVIEW.

In fact, it would be more true to say that academics BUY lots of books, rather than reading them, in the strict sense of a cover-to-cover engagement.

They also BORROW lots of books (as you will recognise if you have any academic friends visiting...)

The piles of academic books then WAIT

on their desks,
on their chairs,
on their kitchen floor,
beside the bed,
in the lavatory,
in the garden shed,
left on the bus,
bulging in a recycled bag, &c

... just waiting for that UTOPIAN moment when

all students vanish from view,
when term is over,
when that article is finished for the Journal of Unread Studies,
when the last meeting is over,
when the Head of Department stops talking
when the head of exam administration stops calling,
when they've watched the last episode of The Wire
and the last essay is marked,
and the children are fed ...

SO, rather than reading a book from cover to cover, which is frankly a little OLD-FASHIONED,

• memorise the title - some are self-explanatory, witty and memorable. Knowing what books to recommend with accurate reference is the sign of absolute professionalism.

• digest the the summary (publisher's blurb on the back of the book). At this stage you are able to discuss the book in some detail and you will be able to position it in relation to the main intellectual currents of our time.

• skim through the acknowledgements (how much money did they 'secure' from the Leverhulme Trust in 2001); how many research libraries did they visit; who read the final drafts and offered help...

• leaf through the index and check the most cited authorities (Habermas, Deleuze, Zizek, Lacan, Spivak, Foucault, hooks ...). Now you are really getting into the detail and to progress to expert status you need to notice who has been oddly missed out. What? a book on diversity in education and no bell hooks? scandal! check out any reviews to gain a diversity of insights and critical opinions

• explore the footnotes (actually these are now typically the annoying endnotes that will have you dizzy with see-sawing from back to front) are where you really dig deep into the reading. This is a great opportunity to investigate the scholarly use of primary and secondary sources. In fact, I have met academics who spend most of their time working through the footnotes, spotting gaps, missing links, inaccuracies and occasional triumphs of erudition. A whole reputation can fall in a footnote.

By now you will be really hooked, so be cautious.

It's time to risk a critical examination of the Preface, or even the Introduction, where you will often discover a convenient summary of the treasures still locked up in the main body of the book.

• Locate the most significant chapter by reading the chapter titles. Getting stuck in the wrong chapter could be a disaster and hinder your progress through the Gothic 'PILES of the UN-READ.'

Put a date in the DIARY.

Schedule some quality reading time, free from distractions.

As I wait for the day to arrive I sometimes risk a random page from a random book. This is SERENDIPITY and it is recommended when you have lots of miscellaneous books and writer's block has kicked in.

READING DAY has arrived.

Returning to the TARGET book, at this point I make an assessment of the elegance of the prose, the inventiveness of the ideas, the ingenuity of the argument, the weight of the evidence, and the authority of the scholarship.

Is this an author who is WELL-READ ?

I am now ready for the SUBLIME experience of reading a book from beginning to end.

Until the PHONE rings ...

© Dr Ian McCormick. But please do contact me if you want to use this article as a guest post on your blog. With attribution offered I seldom refuse!

End of Year Reading Recommendations - Adult Fiction

Carson McCullers, The Member of the Wedding

With delicacy of perception and memory, humour and pathos, Carson McCullers spreads before us the three phases of a weekend crisis in the life of a motherless twelve-year-old girl. Within the span of a few hours, the irresistible, hoydenish Frankie passionately plays out her fantasies at her elder brother's wedding. Through a perilous skylight we look into the mind of a child torn between her yearning to belong and the urge to run away.

Indra Sinha, Animal's People

'I used to be human once. So I'm told. I don't remember it myself, but people who knew me when I was small say I walked on two feet just like a human being'.....But now Jaanvar - Animal - walks on all fours, the catastrophic result of what happened on That Night when, thanks to an American chemical company, the Apocalypse visited his slums. He lives a hand-to-mouth existence, with a crazy old nun called Ma Franci; Nisha, the daughter of a local musician; and his dog Jara. Each of them had their lives irreversibly changed on That Night.

Lionel Shriver, We Need to Talk about Kevin

"'Once in a while, a stunningly powerful novel comes along, knocks you sideways and takes your breath away: this is it... a horrifying, original, witty, brave and deliberately provocative investigation into all the casual assumptions we make about family life, and motherhood in particular' Daily Mail 'This startling shocker strips bare motherhood... the most remarkable Orange prize victor so far' Polly Toynbee, Guardian 'One of the most striking works of fiction to be published this year. It is Desperate Housewives as written by Euripides... A powerful, gripping and original meditation on evil' New Statesman"

Dai Sijie, Balzac and the Chinese Seamstress

In 1971 Mao's campaign against the intellectuals is at its height. Our narrator and his best friend, Luo, distinctly unintellectual but guilty of being the sons of doctors, have been sent to a remote mountain village to be 'reeducated'. The kind of education that takes place among the peasants of Phoenix Mountain involves carting buckets of excrement up and down precipitous, foggy paths, but the two seventeen-year-olds have a violin and their sense of humour to keep them going. Further distraction is provided by the attractive daughter of the local tailor, possessor of a particularly fine pair of feet. Their true re-education starts, however, when they discover a comrade's hidden stash of classics of great nineteenth-century Western literature - Balzac, Dickens, Dumas, Tolstoy and others, in Chinese translation. They need all their ingenuity to get their hands on the forbidden books, but when they do their lives are turned upside down. And not only their lives: after listening to their dangerously seductive retellings of Balzac, the Little Seamstress will never be the same again. Without betraying the truth of what happened, Dai Sijie transforms the bleak events of China's Cultural Revolution into an enchanting and unexpected story about the resilience of the human spirit and the magical power of great storytelling.

Don DeLillo, The Names

Reading the fiction of Don DeLillo is an utterly original experience: powerful, prescient, perceptive. Writing in a prose that is both majestic and muscular, his unerringly accurate vision penetrates deep into the soul of America and consistently leaves readers with a fresh perspective on the world. Since the publication of his first novel, in 1971, he has been acknowledged across the globe as one of the greatest writers of his generation. DeLillo’s seventh is an exotic thriller. Set mostly in Greece, it concerns a mysterious ‘language cult’ seemingly behind a number of unexplained murders. Obsessed by news of this ritualistic violence, an American risk analyst is drawn to search for an explanation. We follow his progress on an obsessive journey that begins to take over his life and the lives of those closest to him. In addition to offering a series of precise character studies, The Names explores the intersection of language and culture, the perception of America from both inside and outside of its borders, and the impact that narration has on the facts of a story. Meditative and probing, DeLillo wonders: how does one cope with the fact that the act of articulation is simultaneously capable of defining and circumscriptively restricting access to the self?

J. D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye

The ultimate novel for disaffected youth, but it's relevant to all ages. The story is told by Holden Caulfield, a seventeen- year-old dropout who has just been kicked out of his fourth school. Throughout, Holden dissects the 'phony' aspects of society, and the 'phonies' themselves: the headmaster whose affability depends on the wealth of the parents, his roommate who scores with girls using sickly-sweet affection. Lazy in style, full of slang and swear words, it's a novel whose interest and appeal comes from its observations rather than its plot intrigues (in conventional terms, there is hardly any plot at all). Salinger's style creates an effect of conversation, it is as though Holden is speaking to you personally, as though you too have seen through the pretences of the American Dream and are growing up unable to see the point of living in, or contributing to, the society around you. Written with the clarity of a boy leaving childhood, it deals with society, love, loss, and expectations without ever falling into the clutch of a cliche.

Louis de Bernieres, The Troublesome Offspring of Cardinal Guzman

When the economy of his small South American country collapses, President Veracruz joins his improbable populace of ex-soldiers, former guerillas, unfrocked priests and reformed - though by no means inactive - whores, in a bizarre search for sexual fulfilment. But for Cardinal Guzman, a man tormented by his own private demons, their stupendous, hedonistic fiestas represent the epicentre of all heresies. Heresies that must be challenged with a horrifying new inquisition destined to climax in a spectacular confrontation

Flann O'Brien, The Third Policeman

‘Flann O’Brien learned from Joyce the art of tuning language to a lyrical pitch, which he could then turn to his purpose, whether it was to be plain foolery, unconcealed indignation or high comedy. The best of his contemporaries and many subsequent Irish writers have much to thank him for.’ Sunday Times
‘Flann O’Brien is inventive, his storytelling is swift and sure, making the eccentric seem natural and the commonplace hilarious.’ The Times ‘Even with “Ulysses” and “Finnegans Wake” behind him, James Joyce might have been envious.’ The Observer ‘Wonderful. “The Third Policeman” is a great masterpiece of black humour.’ George Mackay Brown

Kazuo Ishiguro, When We Were Orphans

Christopher Banks, the protagonist of Kazuo Ishiguro's fifth novel, When We Were Orphans, has dedicated his life to detective work but behind his successes lies one unsolved mystery: the disappearance of his parents when he was a small boy living in the International Settlement in Shanghai. Moving between England and China in the inter-war period, the book, encompassing the turbulence and political anxieties of the time and the crumbling certainties of a Britain deeply involved in the opium trade in the East, centres on Banks's idealistic need to make sense of the world through the small victories of detection and his need to understand finally what happened to his mother and father.
This new novel, however, is the deliberate antithesis of the classic English detective story--the hermetic country-house worlds of Agatha Christie, the classic "locked room" puzzles in which order and sanity is restored at the story's end. Ishiguro mimics the functional style and clipped speech patterns of the genre, ironising its reliance on melodrama and stereotype, while developing a narrative of subtlety, great emotional depth, and political and cultural acuity: what we get is a negative image of classic detective fiction, in which the solved crimes are mentioned in passing and the real mystery is played out in the psychology of the detective himself. The act of detection, Ishiguro suggests, is one we all perform on our own past, struggling to marshal clues and evidence whilst trying to construct the story of ourselves; the one mystery Banks seems unable to solve is his own.

Marina Lewycka, Two Caravans

And sitting in it two caravans – one for the men and one for the women. The residents are from all over: miner’s son Andriy is from the old Ukraine, while sexy young Irina is from the new: they eye each other warily. There are the Poles Tomasz and Yola, two Chinese girls and Emanuel from Malawi. They’re all here to pick strawberries in England’s green and pleasant land. But these days England’s not so pleasant for immigrants. Not with Russian gangster-wannabes like Vulk, who’s taken a shine to Irina and thinks kidnapping is a wooing strategy. And so Andriy – who really doesn’t fancy Irina, honest – must set off in search of that girl he’s not in love with.

Bernhard Schlink,The Reader

For 15-year-old Michael Berg, a chance meeting with an older woman leads to far more than he ever imagined. The woman in question is Hanna, and before long they embark on a passionate, clandestine love affair which leaves Michael both euphoric and confused. For Hanna is not all she seems. Years later, as a law student observing a trial in Germany, Michael is shocked to realize that the person in the dock is Hanna. The woman he had loved is a criminal. Much about her behaviour during the trial does not make sense. But then suddenly, and terribly, it does - Hanna is not only obliged to answer for a horrible crime, she is also desperately concealing an even deeper secret. 'A tender, horrifying novel that shows blazingly well how the Holocaust should be dealt with in fiction. A thriller, a love story and a deeply moving examination of a German conscience' INDEPENDENT SATURDAY MAGAZINE

Patrick Suskind, Perfume

Survivor, genius, perfumer, killer: this is Jean-Baptiste Grenouille. He is abandoned on the filthy streets as a child, but grows up to discover he has an extraordinary gift: a sense of smell more powerful than any other human’s. Soon, he is creating the most sublime fragrances in Paris. Yet there is one odour he cannot capture. It is exquisite, magical: the scent of a young virgin. And to get it he must kill. And kill. And kill …

Rose Tremain, Music And Silence

In the year 1629, a young English lutenist named Peter Claire arrives at the Danish Court to join King Christian IV's Royal Orchestra. From the moment when he realises that the musicians perform in a freezing cellar underneath the royal apartments, Peter Claire understands that he's come to a place where the opposing states of light and dark, good and evil, are waging war to the death.

Designated the King's 'Angel' because of his good looks, he finds himself falling in love with the young woman who is the companion of the King's adulterous and estranged wife, Kirsten. With his loyalties fatally divided between duty and passion, how can Peter Claire find the path that will realise his hopes and save his soul?

John Banville, The Sea

Max Morden has reached a crossroads in his life, and is trying hard to deal with several disturbing things. A recent loss is still taking its toll on him, and a trauma in his past is similarly proving hard to deal with. He decides that he will return to a town on the coast at which he spent a memorable holiday when a boy. His memory of that time devolves on the charismatic Grace family, particularly the seductive twins Myles and Chloe. In a very short time, Max found himself drawn into a strange relationship with them, and pursuant events left their mark on him for the rest of his life. But will he be able to exorcise those memories of the past?
The fashion in which John Banville draws the reader into this hypnotic and disturbing world is non pareil, and the very complex relationships between his brilliantly delineated cast of characters are orchestrated with a master’s skill. As in such books as Shroud and The Book of Evidence, the author eschews the obvious at all times, and the narrative is delivered with subtlety and understatement. The genuine moments of drama, when they do occur, are commensurately more powerful. --Barry Forshaw Incandescent prose. Beautifully textured characterisation. Transparent narratives. The adjectives to describe the writing of John Banville are all affirmative, and The Sea is a ringing affirmation of all his best qualities. His publishers are claiming that this novel by the Booker-shortlisted author is his finest yet, and while that claim may have an element of hyperbole, there is no denying that this perfectly balanced book is among the writer’s most accomplished work.

Diminishing Returns and the Broken Promise of Participation

In this blog I offer thirty-one critical responses to the current fashion for participatory projects and methodologies. While my main focus is grounded in playing devil’s advocate to the evangelical exponents of participatory video, I am very open to being shot down - or at least engaged - in counter-dialogues. (Either through the comments section below, or privately by email). Please attribute all quotations from this unpaid work. It is my life.

Please also excuse the rhetorical tendency to exaggerate; I’m not using this blog to craft a highly nuanced critical essay.In other work I have addressed problems with, and potential solutions to collaborative models of work.

Also, I’m still working through a projection of what comes after the promise of participation...

1. The participatory field is admittedly quite fuzzy, since arts projects in the community may be quite vague about their intended modes or levels of participation; engagement evidence is notoriously difficult to measure in terms of impacts and evaluation, and/or the empowerment achieved.

2. There is a tendency to exclude those models or practices that are partially, or not primarily participatory. This may have the effect of potentially distorting the positive impact ratio of those projects that qualify as whole-heartedly in the fold.

3. In reflective reports on participation, there is often the foggy sense of a contribution to social capital and community capital, without any sense of the methodological challenges to, or controversy around, these highly fashionable policy approaches and agendas. [See the note at the end of this blog]

4. Another weakness is that an assumption of inequality is often built into the participatory model, or into the terms of project reference. Typically, this takes the form of ‘giving a voice to the voiceless’, ‘reaching to the hard to reach’, or ‘including the excluded.’ Patronising and bourgeois. I've seldom met an angry youth who lacked voice.

5. Following from the previous point, is there not a residual romantic ideology of inspiration and failure at work in participatory discourses? Conversely, is there a lack of personalised, romantic intensity at work?

6. Claims to the effectiveness of projects are frequently or symptomatically inflated because negative outcomes adversely affect future funding; 

7. To interrogate claims on the level of value also risks offending the romantic foundations of creative worthiness of individuals in need of encouragement and support and their utopian community life that is just waiting to emerge after the intervention.

8. How far are active and effective forms of participation specific to a time and place (Western, enlightened, or romantic) ?

9. The coherence, fixity, or stability of the methodology is at odds with the variety, mobility and complexity of social practices.

10. Claims to success are often anecdotal and ephemeral. This feature of the evaluation is then defended as a quality-led approach, or falls back on romantic notions designed to resist critical analysis.

11. It is just as difficult to measure a variety of micro-impacts several years in the future, as it is to value the impact on one individual where the work had a major transformative dimension to his or her life’s work and direction. Participatory outcomes, like the medium term impact of the work of an inspiring teacher, are fundamentally difficult to qualify or quantify.

12. Effectiveness is often expressed in terms of soft targets achieved such as ‘finding a voice’ rather than material improvement in people’s lived experience.

13. There is a danger that participants become ambassadors for the local government’s unelected officers.

14. The promise of participation is vaguely geared to future possibility or potentiality sleekly framed so as to remain forever unaccountable. Often there is a narrative turn that measures story rather than material impact.

15. The clarity of the message delivered by participants is confused by the need to report positive or constructive changes taking place (alienated facilitator or funder agendas creeping in.)

16. Sometimes it is clear that participants feel they have not expressed what the funder wanted, or that they have fallen short of a perceived goal. Such are 'compromised' projects. Is there not a conspiracy of silence about the frequency of these?

17. Participants sense that they have not met the facilitators’ ideals which may be more ideologically coherent than the collective experience expressed by the participants. Has political correctness silenced certained voices?

18. Funders are perceived to be the enemy, they are on the other side, whereas the reality is that they are tasked with (1) being responsible and accountable purseholders (2) having to respond to the priorities of their bosses, who are in turn, people elected by the people.

19. Participatory discourses are stuck in a 1970s crafty-utopianism and fail to adequately take account of major cultural shifts expressed in postmodernity (Lyotard, Baudrillard), high modernity (Giddens), liquid modernity (Baumann), performativity (Butler), Enlightenment and communicative action (Habermas), Mass communications and culture (Adorno), convergence theory (Jenkins), ideology and psychoanalysis (Zizek), rhizomatic and intensive differences (Deleuze), singularities and complexities (teratology and chaos theory ...) ...

20. In fact, the promise of the participatory is insulated from most of the major currents in contemporary cultural theory and tends to confine itself to narrower sociological, psychology or community work based analytical frames.

21. Disciplinary boundaries are also strictly enforced as a consequence of the need for specialization and professionalization (Ivan Illich), or in line with academic career paths and associated research citations and outputs.

22. In more general terms, where in one sense the participatory dimension lacks specificity and evidence, in another, it fails to engage with broader movements at work in society and in intellectual thought.

23. Despite its proclaimed emphasis on communicative actions and contexts, participatory video practice becomes too rooted in its technology and IT-related skills rather than ontological awareness.

24. Often the issue just mentioned is emphatic because funding has been awarded based on IT skills-development and employablity issues, narrowly defined. Instrumentality rules in a materialist-capitalist society (Marx). Taking this one step further leads into a Heideggerian perspective on a failure to think being.

25. The participation is confined to an already ghettoized social sub-section, rather than promoting critical dialogues and creative disseminations between sections of society.

26. As fashions and policies shift, specific groups are excessively favoured compared to others (e.g. youth)

27. And may groups or localities may suffer new initiative fatigue, or become disenchanted by yet another innovatory intervention in which the participants are the ever-ready-made-laboratory-for-life.

28. Because aims and objectives are narrowly project-specific, bounded by a specific time and locality, products of participation are quickly dated and disposed of. This represents poor value compared to other forms of intervention that may grow from within, rather than being professionally facilitated from above / without.

29. Participation is seldom framed in terms of a wider architecture of a global politics of the silenced and the disenfranchised. What starts local stays local. Developmental means safely apolitical.

30. Because participatory projects depend on trained facilitators there will in turn be a dependence on training programmes for facilitators and a reliance on specialist professionals who need to be paid for their work. As the public funding of social projects at all levels diminishes the viablity of this model has to be questioned.

31. The participatory project seldom matches (or respects) the existing forms of organic participation in, and critical distance from, the already ‘present’ forms of popular culture or lived experiences. Looked at another way, there is a vaguely embarrassing effort on the part of facilitators to co-opt current themes such as gangs, guns, mobiles and hip-hop, in order to ‘come closer’ to the ‘life’ of the people. Again this may simply valorize the ephemeral in a process of collective top-down indulgence, rather than addressing the critical challenge of the ‘other.’

© Dr Ian McCormick

Notes

Please see: http://www.socialcapitalresearch.com/problems.html

Problems with Conceptualisation of Social Capital

As identified above, the conceptualization of social capital is the biggest challenge facing proponents of the theory. At present there is a lack of rigorous conceptualization of social capital (Krishna and Uphoff 2002). Lin, Cook et al (2001, p. 58) identified that there is a 'danger that we may reach a point where the term might be used in whatever way it suits the purpose at hand, and thus be rendered meaningless as a scientific concept that must meet the rigorous demands of theoretical and research validity and reliability'. Fine (1999) pointed out that social capital is taking over explanations of economic development, growth, and prosperity, he also suggest that social capital had other possibilities before being turned against the other social sciences by economics (Fevre 2000).  Hean, Cowley et al (2003) made the observation that the accumulation of literature on social capital has begun to obscure the understanding of the concept. The inappropriate measurement techniques that have been implemented have caused problems for understanding social capital at the conceptual level and led to debate over whether the concept is relevant or appropriate (Stone 2001). Or as McHugh and Prasetyo (2002, p. 1) put it, 'the proliferation of competing definitions, analytical methods and applications associated with the term is perhaps only dwarfed in volume by the literature critical of its theoretical ambiguity, ambitious conceptual scope, and practical over-versatility'.

© Dr Ian McCormick. But please do contact me if you want to use this article as a guest post on your blog. With attribution offered I seldom refuse!

Further Reading

Arnstein, S. R. (1969) "A Ladder of Citizen Participation" JAIP 35 (4) 216-24

Bandura, A. (1995) “Exercise of personal and collective efficacy in changing societies” in Self-efficacy in changing societies. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press: 1-

45

Barnado’s Report (2001). “Do community-based arts projects result in social gains? A review of literature.” By Authors: Tony Newman, Katherine Curtis and Jo Stephens. Available here http://www.barnardos.org.uk/commarts.pdf

Bauman Z. (2006) Liquid Times: living in an Age of Uncertainty. Cambridge; Polity Press.

Bery, R. (2003) “Participatory Video that empowers” Participatory Video: images that Transform and Empower, S. A. White (eds.) New Delhi, Sage publications: 102-

21.

Blond, P. (2010) Red Tory: How Left and Right have broken Britain and how we can fix it. London, Faber and Faber.

Boog, B. W. M. (2003) "The emancipatory character of action research, its history and the present state of the art" Journal of Community and Applied Social

Psychology 13(6) pp. 426-438.

Braden, S. (2004) Participation: A promise unfulfilled? Building alliances between

government and people. Research Report. Dept For International Development, UK.

Braden, S. and M. Mayo (1999) "Culture, community development and representation" Community Development Journal 34(3)

Buckingham, D., M. Pini and R. Willett (2007) “‘Take back the tube!’: The discursive

construction of amateur film and video making” Journal of Media Practice

8(2) pp. 183-201

Carpentier, N., R. Lie and J. Servaes (2003) “Community Media: muting the democratic media discourse?” Journal of Media and Cultural Studies 17(1)

Castells, M. (2009) Communication Power. Oxford, Oxford University Press.

Chvasta, M. (2006) “Anger, Irony and Protest: confronting the issue of efficacy, Again” Text and Performance Quarterly 26(1) pp. 5-16

Cohen, M.B. and Mullender, A. (2006) “The Personal in the Political: Exploring the

Group Work Continuum from Individual to Social Change Goals” Social Work

With Groups 28 (3/4) 187-204

Cooke, B. (2001) “The Social Psychological limits of participation?” B. Cooke and U.

Kothari (eds.) Participation: the New Tyranny? London, Zed Books: 102-21.

Craig, G. and Mayo, M. (eds.) (1995) Community empowerment: a reader in

participation and development.  London, Zed Books.

Deleuze, G. and F. Guattari (1987) A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and

Schizophrenia.  (trans.)  B. Massumi London, New York, Continuum International.

Dinham, A. (2005) “Empowered or over-powered? The real experiences of local

participation in the UK's New Deal for Communities” Community Development

Journal, Oxford University Press

Ellsworth, E. (1989) "Why doesn't this feel empowering?" Harvard Educational Review, (59): 297-324.

Freire, P. (1970) Pedagogy of the Oppressed. London, Penguin

Freire, P. (1972) Cultural action for freedom.

Freire, P. (1974) Education for Critical Consciousness. London, Continuum

Freire, P. and D. P. Macedo (1987) Literacy: reading the word and the world. London, Routledge and Kegan Paul

Freire, P. (1994) Pedagogy of Hope: re-living Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York,

Continuum

Giddens, A. (1991) Modernity and Self-Identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern

Age Cambridge, Polity Press / Basil Blackwell.

Giddens, A. (1991) The consequences of modernity. California, Stanford University

Press.

Giddens, A (2000) The third way: The Renewal of Social Democracy. Cambridge, Polity Press / Basil Blackwell.

Goffman, E. (1990) The presentation of self in everyday life. Harmondsworth, Penguin

Habermas, J. (1984) The theory of communicative action: life world and system, a

critique of functionalist reason. London, Heinemann Education.

Habermas, J. (1989) The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere: An inquiry into a Category of Bourgeois Society. Cambridge, Polity Press.

Jenkins, H. (2006) Convergence Culture: Where old and new media collide. London,

New York, New York University Press.

Jovchelovitch, S. (2007) Knowledge in context: Representations, Community and

Culture. London and New York, Routledge.

Loxley, J. (2007) Performativity: The New Critical Idiom. Routledge.

Lyotard, J. (1984) The post modern condition: a report on knowledge. Manchester,

Manchester University Press.

Matarasso, F. (2007) “Common ground: cultural action as a route to community

development” Community Development Journal 42 (4) 449-458

Reason, P. and H. Bradbury (2001) Handbook of Action Research: participative Inquiry and Practice. London, Sage publications.

Shaw, J. and C. Robertson (1997) Participatory video: a practical approach to using

video creatively in group development work. London, Routledge.

Wenger, E. (1998) Communities of practice: Learning, meaning and identity Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.

White, S. A. (2003) Participatory Video: images that Transform and Empower. New Delhi and London, Sage Publications.

Toxic Individualism and Corporate Community

As a participant in the The 17th International Symposium on Electronic Art I was struck by how many delegates were hostile to the notion of community. Is it that, in the humanities, perhaps, academia is fatally geared to recognition of solo-achievement at the expense of collaborative methodologies? Perhaps that’s because the ‘art’ element is still understood in terms of romantic-period notions of self, ego, genius, and originality?  In these terms community is the wicked Father called Family, or Tradition. Individualism, in contrast, is Rebel Energy; it is innovation and creativity. The available writing on the self has arguably been more inspiring than that on the community, which tends to fall into windy utopianism or dreary sociological treatises.

But we certainly have a degree of nostalgia for our self-willed creativity, despite the thinly veiled reality that the majority of human beings are merely tiny cogs in the global machine. In part, the delusional component arises because the global conglomerates constantly promote the notion that we are actively making democratic choices; the money-driven system relies on the glorification of the free consumer while masking the grim realities of massive global inequality. It is a sad realisation that every sleek gadget is a displaced testament to an undocumented exploitation of a poor exploited sweat-shop factory worker.

Or consider how the global entertainment industry creates myths of the superhero while demonstrating its necrotising groupthink uncreativity by relying on a corporate production line of sequels and prequels dreamed up in the boardrooms of film studios. For Hollywood these fan-cash-machines now represent 80% of its business activity and are at the core of this dominant marketing regime. This species of film, backed by so much global advertising that it seldom dares to fail, is not the product of the heroic creative individual, an undiscovered J. K. Rowling, toiling away in a cafeteria to keep warm. So let’s not despair: it appears that the local genius still breaks through by means of her sublime efforts to embrace the larger issues of culture and humanity, woven superbly into a well told story. And if you break through then you too will have your global film franchise. We know how to reward success.

But such film-industry-style commercialisation is not altogether new. The notion that writers cater for the market can been witnessed in the work of Shakespeare, who wrote several popular history cycles. Let’s congratulate the BBC (backed by American finance in this cases) which is currently screening Richard II, Henry IV Part 1, Henry IV Part 2, and Henry V, delightfully titled The Hollow Crown.) But Shakespeare showed us both the allure and the responsibility of absolute power; he showed power, cynically, as a necessary performance, a scripted regime; and he showed us the life of the people - warts and all.

Richard II

But community does sometimes hold people back when it is not open to growth, vulnerability and metamorphosis. Vibrant inter-cultural communities where genuine dialogue is enjoyed and conversations fostered can be highly successful. Throughout the world we witness the inexorable rise of super cities and mass migration from rural to urban areas. Indeed, the closed local community can be the most absurdly oppressive place to live (as satirized in Little Britain’s solo-homo Welsh Village ‘I am the Only Gay in this Village.)

Village Rights

But we also tend to romanticize the individuals who struggle against all odds and who gleefully challenge traditional expectations of them. Such is the tap-dancing working class romance Billy Elliot. It is a wonderful and very necessary mythology.

It seems that we are doomed to run our lives between the twin pillars of toxic individualism and oppressive community expectations. Between who we want to be and what society expects of us. The Scylla and Carybdis of individualism and communitarianism. Arguably, then, each term needs to be qualified, such that they can function in dialogue, rather than as reductive and destructive binary oppositions. Either that, or we change the system. Over to you!

Let's Dance our Way into the Future

Get More Children Reading: A 15-point Action Plan:

In recent years I have been working with parents and children to improve reading skills. There is strong evidence that boys' reading skills are increasingly falling behind those of girls, and that boys come back to school after the summer holidays with poor reading skills.

These are the questions that I asked in this blog:

How can we guide and support the enjoyment in reading and help to improve skills?

How can we link reading with creativity, community, and interactivity?

The results. Here are 15 motivational tips (with an emphasis on reading for boys):

1. Any reading is good reading. 

Boys often re-read books that they have enjoyed. But don't just stick to fiction; there are great factual illustrated books, top tips for boys, motor car books, jokebooks, sports annuals, magazines and graphic novels. Don't just stick to the classic fiction that adults say they enjoyed reading in their childhood.

2. Lead by example 

Children copy those around them. If a boy sees his brother, dad, or uncle reading, then he will be more likely to identify reading with positive male role models. Demonstrate that reading is a normal human activity. Try newspapers, car manuals, TV guides, celebrity books, survival guides ...

3. Install bookshelves.

Having a place to keep your books safe shows that they are a valued resource and part of the living furniture of the house.

4. Start to use the local library.

We hear a lot about cuts to library services but the truth is that many children's libraries are an excellent resource. Take time to explore and select books.

5. Listen to recommendations. 

Asks teachers, librarians and bookshop staff for recommendations. Explain what kind of books you like. Sometimes it is better to build on existing tastes rather than developing new ones.

6. Boys like gadgets!

So I'm not excluding online reading, e-readers and kindle. Let children research their reading styles and preferences.

7. Friendly, polite conversation, and open questions build confidence. 

Children like to talk about what they read and why they liked something. Often they will be delighted to tell you the full story in their own words. Ask them about their favourite moment in a book! This process is the beginning of critical reading and creative insight. Talking about reading builds the activity into the fabric of school and community life.

8. Build creatively on what you read. 

Make your own picture books and story continuations (prequels and sequels) based on favourite books. Or try alternative endings. Make a short film or radio broadcast about your favourite reading.

9. Set an agreed reading time.

This approach involves trial and error. Reading by discipline misses the point that reading ideally is self-motivated. However, reading may be a good wind-down evening or night-time activity - half an hour at the end of the day is often enough. It does not have to be every day.

10. A sense of progress. 

Some children work well with a target and a bar chart of their daily reading progress. Try setting a token reward for boys who get past page 100. (Research shows that many children give up before then.)

11. Collaborative reading. 

Children love reading and being read to. It helps if you both try out funny voices or read the characters with facial expressions. Children's reading groups and clubs are also an excellent way to share reading experiences. Why not set one up in your local area? Also look out for reading activities at your local school or library.

12. Multiple languages.

Some books are available in parallel translations which helps if English is not your first language.

13. Encourage your child to read with other children. 

There is not reason why an eleven year old cannot teach his seven year old brother how to read. When the child slips into teacher mode he or she will have a massive confidence boost.

14. The ideal present. 

When you have find out what your child likes, remember that a book is a great gift. Or give book tokens and allow the children to make their own choices. But books should not be the only present. 

15. Reading should not be like a term in prison!

Although I've read thousands of books there are still some days when I prefer a walk, or just listening to music. Motivated reading is more about freedom, and less about control. Parents who are too ambitious can do quite a lot of damage. Use your common sense and find a negotiated balance.

Finally.  

Shared time may, in fact, be the most rewarding human interactive element in reading.

Over to you! Do you have any tips, recommendations, or questions?

© Dr Ian McCormick. But please do contact me if you want to use this article as a guest post on your blog. With attribution offered I seldom refuse!

Online publishing opportunity

Online publishing opportunity CFP for academic and non-academic writers

Submitted by Sam Oneill on May 20, 2012 - 

Visible Margin is a new section of #Alt-Academy which will feature high-quality critical writing in the form of peer-reviewed essays and blog posts, as well as creative writing and work in other media.

In keeping with the theme of #Alt-Academy, we are especially interested in contributions from authors and scholars pursuing alternative, non-tenure track, and non-academic careers—individuals whose voices are heard less often within the academy.

Complementing #Alt-Academy’s existing clusters, Visible Margin will focus on cultural and intellectual production, with the aim of increasing the visibility of this growing majority of knowledge workers and of democratizing knowledge within and outside the university.  

We also welcome contributions from non-academic writers who share our goals.

http://mediacommons.futureofthebook.org/alt-ac/pieces/visible-margin-cfp

Call for Submissions:

We are interested in a variety of submissions, including essays, topical articles, blogs, reviews, fiction, poetry, visual art and multimedia work. The essays and articles will typically be within the author’s area of expertise and should be written in accessible, polished prose.
General topics for essays and articles may include but are not limited to:
 
Arts and Culture: Anything from book and film reviews to critical or reflective essays on any topic within the arts and humanities.  

Politics and activism: current or historical issues or a combination of both.  

Science and Technology: digital publishing, digital humanities, discussion of recent innovations or any topic within this category.  

Academic Research: excerpts from recently undertaken research presented to an audience outside your discipline; reflections on research or the process of doing research while pursuing an alternative career.  

Writing and publishing: discussions of different forms of writing and publication; transition from academic to other kinds of writing; the publishing field; advantages and limitation of writing for academic and non-academic publications and audiences. Alternative academic careers: essays and edited groups of essays directly addressing this topic may be submitted to the existing clusters on #Alt-Academy’s main page. Review the cluster descriptions and follow the "How It Works" submission instructions.
 
Reviews: Reviews of recent books, films, or any other material of about 800 words in length are welcome. Reviews could also be part of a blog (see below).
 
Creative Work: High-quality fiction, poetry, creative non-fiction, visual art and multimedia projects. While there are no specific guidelines for these genres, the work should be compatible with on-line publication and in line with the site’s focus on intellectual exchange.
 
Blogs: The publishing platform for #Alt-Academy, MediaCommons, supports blogging. If you would like to start a blog within the MediaCommons network and have it aggregated and listed as a part of Visible Margin, please submit a brief description of its scope and topics and a sample entry to the email address below. Blogs could be individual or collaborative and should be updated at least twice a month.

Collaborative Writing Projects

This website is strongly recommended for

collaborative writing projects:

Writing Spaces Open Textbook Chapters

Each of these titles is available under a Creative Commons license (consult the individual text for the license specifics). Click on the title to view the chapter abstract and a downloadable PDF of the chapter. Click on any of the keywords to see a listing of chapters tagged with that keyword.
On the main information pages for each volume, you can also download full versions of
 Volume 1 or Volume 2.

Title	Author	Series Edition	Keywords
A Student’s Guide to Collaborative Writing Technologies	Barton, Matt and Karl Klint	Vol. 2	collaboration, collaboration technology, Doodle, drafting, editing, Etherpad, Facebook, Google Docs, Google Scholar, instant messaging, Mindomo, news reader, prewriting, research paper, RSS, social media, Twitter, Zotero
Annoying Ways People Use Sources	Stedman, Kyle D.	Vol. 2	attribution, citation, paraphrasing, patchwriting, quoting, research writing, source integration, summarizing, works cited
Backpacks vs. Briefcases: Steps Toward Rhetorical Analysis	Carroll, Laura Bolin	Vol. 1	advertisement analysis, argumentation, audience, Bitzer, constraint, contextual, emotion, ethos, exigence, first day, genre, guidelines, implication, logos, media, pathos, persuasive, questioning, rhetorical analysis, situational, social, tone, triangle
Beyond Black on White: Document Design and Formatting in the Writing Classroom	Klein, Michael J. and Kristi L. Shackelford	Vol. 2	alignment, APA, contrast, design elements, document design, documentation style, font, formatting, graphics, headings, illustrations, images, margins, MLA, proximity, repetition, resume, typography, visual design, white space
Collaborating Online: Digital Strategies for Group Work	Atkins, Anthony	Vol. 1	collaboration, digital, dysfunctional, Google Docs, group, member role, oral presentation, productivity, task evaluation, teamwork, technology, wiki, Wikipedia
Composing the Anthology: An Exercise in Patchwriting	Leary, Christopher	Vol. 1	anthology writing, arrangement, assignment, cut-up, editing, found poetry, memoir writing, patchwriting, peer evaluation, plagiarism, poetry writing, student opinion, student publishing, table of contents, teacher story
Composition as a Write of Passage	Singh-Corcoran, Nathalie	Vol. 2	academic, argument, assessment, composition studies, FYW, knowledge transfer, professional writing, research, rhetoric, rhetorical analysis, WAC, workplace
Critical Thinking in College Writing: From the Personal to the Academic	Dasbender, Gitanjali	Vol. 2	academic, analysis, critical reading, critical thinking, engagement, evaluation, FYW, main idea, primary sources, problem solving, reflection, summarizing
Everything Changes, or Why MLA Isn’t (Always) Right	Walker, Janice	Vol. 2	academic, AP, APA, attribution, citation, credibility, documentation style, information literacy, intellectual property, MLA, new media, plagiarism, quoting, rhetoric, source critique, WID
Finding the Good Argument OR Why Bother With Logic?	Jones, Rebecca	Vol. 1	argumentation, Aristotle, burden of proof, classical rhetoric, closure, complexity, deductive, duality, ethical, ethos, freedom of speech, implicit, inductive, jargon, logical, logos, nonadversarial, pathos, Plato, pragma dialectical, premise, Quintilian, reasoning, relevance, standpoint, Stephen Toulmin, topoi, validity
Finding Your Way In: Invention as Inquiry Based Learning in First Year Writing	Lessner, Steven and Collin Craig	Vol. 1	Anzaldua, audience, bullets, composing, creativity, critical freewriting, exercise, focused freewriting, freewriting, FYW, graphic organizer, inquiry based, invention, outlining, peer evaluation, reader strategy, rhetorical, sample
From Topic to Presentation: Making Choices to Develop Your Writing	Hewett, Beth L.	Vol. 1	author story, brainstorming, composing, drafting, essay writing, peer evaluation, projector, revising, teacher as writer, topic, writer choice
Googlepedia: Turning Information Behaviors into Research Skills	McClure, Randall	Vol. 2	annotated bibliography, focus, Google, Google Scholar, information literacy, Internet research, library databases, preliminary research, research, research paper, source critique, thesis, Wikipedia
How to Read Like a Writer	Bunn, Mike	Vol. 2	active reading, audience, context, critical reading, genre convention, purpose, read like a writer, reading, reading questions, reading to write, writing process
I Need You to Say “I”: Why First Person is Important in College Writing	McKinney Maddalena, Kate	Vol. 1	academic, discourse analysis, exigence, expertise, first person, guidelines, insider, integrity, objectivity, ownership, scholarly, science writing, situational, sophistication, style, viewpoint
Introduction to Primary Research: Observations, Surveys, and Interviews	Driscoll, Dana Lynn	Vol. 2	data collection, ethics, hypothesis, interview, observation, primary research, primary sources, research ethics, research question, researcher bias, sampling, survey
Introduction: Open Source Composition Texts Arrive for College Writers	Cummings, Robert E.	Vol. 1	introduction to the volume, open source, open textbook
Looking for Trouble: Finding Your Way Into a Writing Assignment	Savini, Catherine	Vol. 2	academic, argument, critical thinking, deadline, discourse community, genre, problem solving, questioning, research, success, WAC, writing assignment analysis, writing process
Murder! (Rhetorically Speaking)	Boyd, Janet	Vol. 2	audience awareness, colloquial, connotation, context, denotation, ethos, eulogy, euphemism, genre, jargon, logic, logos, pathos, rhetoric, rhetorical appeals, rhetorical situation, tone
Navigating Genres	Dirk, Kerry	Vol. 1	arrangement, form content, genre, genre knowledge, popular music, purpose, rules, situational, thesis statement
On the Other Hand: The Role of Antithetical Writing in First Year Composition Courses	Krause, Steve	Vol. 2	antithesis, argument, audience, debate, opposing arguments, position paper, research, research writing, thesis
Putting Ethnographic Writing in Context	Kahn, Seth	Vol. 2	analysis, authority, context, description, ethics, ethnography, evidence, fieldnotes, fieldwork, inductive reasoning, interview, participant-observation, primary research
Reading Games: Strategies for Reading Scholarly Sources	Rosenberg, Karen	Vol. 2	academic, active reading, audience, critical reading, discourse, prior knowledge, reading, reading as joining a conversation, reading to write, rhetorical reading
Reflective Writing and the Revision Process: What Were You Thinking?	Giles, Sandra	Vol. 1	author story, case study, composing, letter to the reader, process, reflection, revising, sample, self-reflection, student-teacher memo, writer intention
Reinventing Invention: Discovery and Investment in Writing	Trim, Michelle D. and Megan Lynn Isaac	Vol. 1	activity, audience, brainstorming, creativity, discovery, genre, group, guidelines, implied reader, individual, interest, invention, needs analysis, problem solving, process, purpose, sample, topic
So You've Got a Writing Assignment. Now What?	Hinton, Corrine E.	Vol. 1	apprehension, argument, assignment, audience, directive verb, emotion, evidence, format, guidelines, interpretation, panic, procrastination, purpose, questioning, resources, sample, stylistic
Storytelling, Narration, and The Who I Am Story	Ramsdell, Catherine	Vol. 2	advertising, character, communication, creative nonfiction, grant writing, literacy narrative, memoir, narrative, narrative discourse, narrative structure, narrative theory, organization, professional writing, story, storytelling, who I am story, word choice
Taking Flight: Connecting Inner and Outer Realities during Invention	Antlitz, Susan E.	Vol. 1	apprehension, composing, compound topics, connection, content, creativity, digital, email, emotion, exercise, graphic organizer, growth, heuristic, ideas, invention, journal writing, meditation, messaging, personal, play, PowerPoint, prayer, private public, procrastination, random words, sample, social, writing ritual
Ten Ways To Think About Writing: Metaphoric Musings for College Writing Students	Reid, E. Shelley	Vol. 2	argument, audience, description, detail, invention, metaphor, purpose, show vs. tell, story, style, writer's block
The Complexity of Simplicity: Invention Potentials for Writing Students	Charlton, Colin	Vol. 2	audience, creativity, critical thinking, draft, feedback, focus, FYW, invention, invention activities, invention questions, inventiveness, rhetoric, writing assignment analysis
The Inspired Writer vs. the Real Writer	Allen, Sarah	Vol. 1	academic, alienation, author story, authoring, Bizzell, composing, inspiration, jargon, motivation, myth, quality, real life, teacher as writer, writer strategy
The Sixth Paragraph: A Re-vision of the Essay	Lynch, Paul	Vol. 2	argument, clarity, concise, essay, interpretation, introduction, Montaigne, personal essay, reflection, thesis, use of I, writing as exploration, writing to learn
Walk, Talk, Cook, Eat: A Guide to Using Sources	Haller, Cynthia R.	Vol. 2	assignment analysis, Burkean parlor, Google, Internet research, library databases, research, research paper, research strategies, source critique, sources, Wikipedia, writing process
What is Academic Writing?	Irvin, L. Lennie	Vol. 1	academic, analysis, argumentation, assignment, audience, closed assignment, communication, complexity, controlled, critical, definition, first person, genius, genre, grammar, interpretation, myth, open assignment, purpose, researching, semi-open assignment, situational
Why Blog? Searching for Writing on the Web	Reid, Alex	Vol. 2	argument, audience, description, essay exam, freewriting, metaphor, paragraph, primary audience, purpose, read like a writer, reader perception, repetition, rhetoric, secondary audience, show vs. tell, weblog, writer's block
Why Visit Your Campus Writing Center?	Rafoth, Ben	Vol. 1	audience, collaboration, conferencing, confidence, motivation, needs analysis, student opinion, tutoring, writing center
Wikipedia Is Good for You!?	Purdy, James P.	Vol. 1	accuracy, changeability, collaboration, dialogic, guidelines, interactive, internet, invention, resources, review writing, revision, term paper, Wikipedia
Writing “Eyeball To Eyeball”: Building A Successful Collaboration	Ingalls, Rebecca	Vol. 2	affinity diagram, collaboration, communication, conflict resolution, creativity, ethics, group theory, innovation, invention, professional writing, project management, reflection, teamwork, WAC, writing process