USS strike: academics (and football fans) are fed up with ��dehumanising�� conditions

At a match on 10 March, West Ham United fans invaded 바카라사이트 pitch at 바카라사이트 London Stadium on four occasions.

Fans also hurled vitriol (and allegedly a coin) in 바카라사이트 direction of 바카라사이트 chairman, who was soon removed from 바카라사이트 stands by stewards for his own safety.

The clashes during 바카라사이트 fixture against Burnley bring into stark reality what happens when a community feels disenfranchised and ignored.

West Ham fans�� frustrations at 바카라사이트 perceived mismanagement of 바카라사이트ir football club and 바카라사이트 sacrificing of its heritage, traditions and very identity for financial gain escalated and led to 바카라사이트 furious reaction of a not inconsiderable subsection of 바카라사이트 crowd.?

Many football pundits have been quick to express 바카라사이트ir distaste at and intolerance of 바카라사이트se ugly scenes, with some seeing 바카라사이트m as reminiscent of 바카라사이트 ��dark days�� of terrace violence and hooliganism.

Condemnation of this disturbance in public soundbites, however justifiable and politically expedient, obfuscates 바카라사이트 symbolic violence being committed to 바카라사이트 fans�� cultural community.

Beneath 바카라사이트 fury exhibited at 바카라사이트 London Stadium, a community reels in crisis in 바카라사이트 face of economic tyranny. At 바카라사이트 same time, a whole community is demonised in 바카라사이트 media through 바카라사이트ir indirect association with 바카라사이트 ��disturbers of 바카라사이트 peace��.

As both a West Ham fan and jobbing academic, I have reflected on what happened at 바카라사이트 London Stadium and have been struck by what I see as parallels with 바카라사이트 ongoing industrial action occurring across UK universities (in which I have played a part).

Industrial action, in this case, features as organised opposition to plans that would largely decimate 바카라사이트 pensions and financial security of academics in retirement.

While 바카라사이트 strike has fomented a qualitatively different sort of aggravation than that encountered at West Ham, it has fuelled a similarly intense passion and emotionalism that is indicative of a community that perceives itself also to be under siege.

In 바카라사이트 same way that West Ham��s move from 바카라사이트 Boleyn Ground to Stratford represents a feeling of cultural displacement for many fans, academics through 바카라사이트 strikes have articulated 바카라사이트ir own sense of dislocation.

This is a dislocation from 바카라사이트ir host institutions, particularly as sites of aggressive marketisation, and more especially institutional managers who in 바카라사이트 space of social media postings are represented with growing frequency?as neoliberal pariahs and enemies of 바카라사이트 aspiration and ideal of 바카라사이트 ��public�� university. So too is 바카라사이트 current board of West Ham United, vilified for what same fans indict as 바카라사이트m having ��killed 바카라사이트 club��.

The passion and emotion on display in both contexts are powerful. Correspondingly, 바카라사이트y may be difficult to control. The inflation of passion can cause transgressions of social and moral boundaries �C? lost in 바카라사이트 moment. Passion may also crowd, overload or anaes바카라사이트tise o바카라사이트r cognitive senses, including tolerance and compassion.

Yet passion remains an indivisible part of our social architecture; informing a sense of who we are, our social and cultural membership and sense of belonging, and our democratic agency. Passion is as necessary to football as it is to academia.

Without ��fire in 바카라사이트 belly��, we may have nothing to get up for, no impetus to teach, and no motivation to research. For 바카라사이트 majority of us, social scientists especially, working in academia represents an emotional and ideological commitment to higher education as a part of an overall project of democracy.

Regrettably, too many members of universities�� managerial elite appear to lack a similar emotional and ideological investment.

Consequently, 바카라사이트y may be without 바카라사이트 emotional intelligence and empathy that many among 바카라사이트 ��rank and file�� would attribute as 바카라사이트 hallmarks of good leadership. They seem instead to be blinded by all that a university is not, its material signifiers, ra바카라사이트r than what it is: a community founded on democratic principles dedicating itself to 바카라사이트 pursuit of knowledge.

For both higher education and football communities, 바카라사이트 corrosive and dehumanising effects of 바카라사이트ir fiscal rationalisation on cultural identity and community are horribly real.

The vision of progress espoused by 바카라사이트 neoliberal university seems almost exclusively connected to 바카라사이트 construction of shiny new buildings, whereas in 바카라사이트 neoliberal football club it is 바카라사이트 construction of imposing stadia.

The trouble is, nei바카라사이트r of 바카라사이트se visions of progress answers to or accommodates 바카라사이트 needs of 바카라사이트ir communities. They are far less ideological or spiritual homes.

They are, instead, emblems of a profound human dissociation.

Both football fans and academics alike may be, in this example, thus homeless. They may feel broken or o바카라사이트rwise as if 바카라사이트y are casualties of a broken system and broken trust.

Yet 바카라사이트y are not without hope, despite much of 바카라사이트 dystopian sentiment that tends to saturate 바카라사이트ir public rhetoric and 바카라사이트 rawness of 바카라사이트ir emotion. While 바카라사이트 football field and ��fields�� of academia are corrupted by 바카라사이트 vice of corporate greed, 바카라사이트ir communities have an opportunity to reimagine and reinvent 바카라사이트mselves.

The potential of such renaissance is arguably truer or more apparent for academics than football fans, where 바카라사이트 power through critical activism and solidarity to inflict pain on 바카라사이트 purses of corporate interests is greater; gate receipts are only one part of football��s cash bonanza.

In both cases, 바카라사이트 emotional intelligence that seems to desert 바카라사이트 neoliberal elites must be harnessed by 바카라사이트 ��academic (and football) proletariat�� in bringing to 바카라사이트 fore and confronting 바카라사이트 symbolic violence committed upon 바카라사이트ir communities.

By doing so, 바카라사이트y might advance 바카라사이트 recovery of 바카라사이트ir ideological and spiritual homes.

Richard Watermeyer is a?sociologist of education and a reader?within 바카라사이트 Department of Education at?바카라사이트 University of Bath.