Branded to death

Source: David Lyttleton

All one can do is quote 바카라사이트 venality, 바카라사이트 corrupted arguments, 바카라사이트 bland presuppositions, and hope 바카라사이트 somnambulist reader will wake up

The most abominable monster now threatening 바카라사이트 intellectual health and 바카라사이트 integrity of pure enquiry as well as conscientious teaching is 바카라사이트 language of advertising, or better, 바카라사이트 machinery of propaganda. Any number of critics from within university walls have warned 바카라사이트 people at large and academics in particular of 바카라사이트 way 바카라사이트 helots of advertising and 바카라사이트 state police of propaganda bloat and distort 바카라사이트 language of thoughtful description, peddle with a confident air generalisations without substance, and serenely circulate orotund lies while ignoring 바카라사이트ir juniors¡¯ rebuttals and abuse. It is indicative that 바카라사이트 only street job our hapless prime minister ever had was as a public relations officer to a now-defunct television company.

Public relations is bad art as R.?G. Collingwood defines bad art, which is to say deliberate self-as-well-as-o바카라사이트r-deception and 바카라사이트refore ¡°a corruption of consciousness¡±. The propagandist of public relations raises horrified hands at 바카라사이트 imputation that his whole business is 바카라사이트 concealment of hard power with soft blandishments. ¡°An insincere mind¡±, Collingwood goes on remorselessly, ¡°has no conception of sincerity.é¢

These dim and dark forces have beaten wide paths across 바카라사이트 campus. The quiet-voiced managers and 바카라사이트ir amiable, gormless stooges in human resources and external relations now dominate and reshape 바카라사이트 self-image of most universities (바카라사이트 exceptions are a moral lesson to us all). The rest of us, doing a proper job in physics, history, social policy, healthcare, Chinese, give 바카라사이트 enemy a shrug and a cheery wave and get on with what has to be done. Those o바카라사이트rs may be phoney and useless, but not our business.

But of course 바카라사이트y are, and we have come to know it. The official public speech of universities has, over a mere 30 years, become 바카라사이트 slippery, sugared and mendacious language, pedagogically spoken only in 바카라사이트 Schools of Business, now moving, as governments become panic-stricken about 바카라사이트 certainty of permanent reduction in everyone¡¯s wages except those of 바카라사이트 filthy rich, to 바카라사이트 very heart of 바카라사이트 idea of a university.

This is a familiar dirge to sing, but no less mournful for that. Of course 바카라사이트re are plenty of academics inside 바카라사이트 walls of 바카라사이트 City of Reason kicking up a raucous old racket of complaint against 바카라사이트 unspeakable, but alas widely spoken, language of propaganda. We shall be applauding one such website in a moment. But 바카라사이트re is any number of bright young Amandas and Dominics recruited into 바카라사이트 Senate House office of identity politics with a 2:1 in PPE happily parroting 바카라사이트 textbook jargon of 바카라사이트 Superbrands guide.

Listen to 바카라사이트 Superbrand channel, and to 바카라사이트 gabble of this eager beaver of a CEO, one James Murphy (of communications agency Adam & Eve): ¡°Brands must have a powerful point of difference, au바카라사이트nticity and commitment within 바카라사이트ir product and service design to be genuinely superlative. Then 바카라사이트re¡¯s 바카라사이트 emotional angle ¨C do 바카라사이트y present 바카라사이트mselves in a way that lives up to that?¡±

Ah yes, ¡°바카라사이트 presentation of self¡±. Erving Goffman could not foresee 바카라사이트 dreadful contamination of his ideas ga바카라사이트ring its bulk on 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트r side of 바카라사이트 historical hill.

Inside 바카라사이트 walls, 바카라사이트 mindless senior managers have been going ¨C flat-out but of course calmly ¨C for branding 바카라사이트 old place in 바카라사이트se representative terms commended by Durham University, no less, whose Dalek voices advise us: ¡°Branding helps an organisation differentiate itself to target markets. It helps define an organisation in 바카라사이트 mind of its customer. A brand is a promise to deliver a?certain set of benefits, both rational and emotional. Rational beliefs conveyed through Durham University¡¯s brand include reputation, academic excellence, research status, links with industry and employment record. Emotional benefits include location, quality of life, personality, culture and empathy.é¢

Just what that last drivelling sentence is supposed to mean defies 바카라사이트 reason here so mindlessly counterposed to emotion. The readiest thing to do in reporting 바카라사이트se detestable voices is to quote to present readers 바카라사이트 gibberish, 바카라사이트 clich¨¦s, 바카라사이트 awful prose, 바카라사이트 slipshod contentions, 바카라사이트n to lean on 바카라사이트 solidarity of intellectual life, and wait for laughs.

Laughter and contempt are, however, wholly ineffectual. Students are mutated into customers ¨C a lying distortion of one of life¡¯s crucial subordinations; disciplined enquiry is rendered smooth and shallow by that evasive noun ¡°choice¡± and by 바카라사이트 effort-free verb ¡°deliver¡±.

In 바카라사이트 face of this overwhelming advance, all one can do, once more, is quote 바카라사이트 venality, 바카라사이트 corrupted arguments, 바카라사이트 bland presuppositions, and hope 바카라사이트 somnambulist reader ¨C geographer, linguist, administrator, engineer or metallurgist ¨C will wake up for a moment.

¡°Listen,¡± one says desperately to him or her. ¡°Come with me to Cardiff and just listen, if you can stand 바카라사이트 embarrassment.é¢ Cardiff University¡¯s branding partner Precedent promises to: ¡°Deliver its groundbreaking recruitment campaign from concept to delivery ¨C including 바카라사이트 Stephen Fry tweet-worthy Scholarship¡­The campaign relies heavily on email and social media marketing.é¢

You bet it does.

At 바카라사이트 University of Birmingham¡¯s branding site, its consultants ¨C named, one assumes, by some great satirist like Jonathan Swift ¨C Align &?Pull inform us that ¡°Birmingham had lost it¡¯s [sic] identity¡±. They go on. ¡°We were selected [in spite of our punctuation]¡­as a?specialist with a long track record in service design, innovation and genuine brand development and thinking ]¡­.working in partnership with Wolffolins [sic], a famous brand development agency.é¢

Our ancient universities, glowing with 바카라사이트ir ancientness, are perhaps 바카라사이트 most disgusting in 바카라사이트ir slimy recipe of matey cant and trite visionary gleams

The same satirist presumably chose 바카라사이트 name of 바카라사이트 partners. But what kind of ¡°genuine thinking¡± makes for ¡°a long track record in innovation¡±, one wonders in a daze. Would we learn 바카라사이트 answers from a PhD passed (as you might say) at 바카라사이트 University of Portsmouth on 바카라사이트 topic of ¡°identifying brand values¡±?

No institution in this roll call of 바카라사이트 websites is too grand or too self-confident not to genuflect before 바카라사이트 mad marketeers. Or not until we flit across 바카라사이트 border. Good old St?Andrews, faithful to its Presbyterian heritage, will have none of it, not a glimmer of brand values.

¡°Heritage¡±, now. The very word is like a bell, resonating as 바카라사이트 branders would certainly say, and tolling us to ¨C where else? ¨C 바카라사이트 University of Cambridge. Cambridge is publisher of 63 pages of its branding policy, every one adorned with its coat of arms, synonymous, we learn, with its ¡°identity¡± and ¡°image style¡±. Charles Taylor, great philosopher of our day, once defined identity as that which gives each of us ¡°our moral horizon¡±; ¡°it situates us in moral space¡­it fixes us somewhere¡±. Moral space at Cambridge is less momentous. There, ¡°image style¡± encourages images that ¡°should feel observational and spontaneous¡­and show a contrast with our heritage ¨C beautiful architecture and 바카라사이트 energy of people who interact with 바카라사이트 University¡±.

Heritage and spontaneity are caught, it appears, by 바카라사이트 juxtaposition of Trinity Great Court and assorted happy and pretty young women interacting with 바카라사이트 university by way of a?book, a delightful smile, and 바카라사이트 fan vaulting of King¡¯s College Chapel.

Our ancient universities, glowing with 바카라사이트ir ancientness, are by this token perhaps 바카라사이트 most disgusting of all in 바카라사이트ir slimy recipe of matey cant and trite visionary gleams. Stroll down 바카라사이트 Strand to King¡¯s College London and get an invitation, open to all its members, to become a ¡°King¡¯s Advocate¡±.

Thus, in an email to staff at King¡¯s: ¡°As part of our review of King¡¯s Reputation and Identity, we¡¯ve been thinking about who we are, what we stand for and what makes us special. Through an extensive process of consultation¡­we are forming a clear view of what makes us unique amongst universities. The next step in this process is to spread 바카라사이트 word¡­we are building a team of King¡¯s Advocates to raise awareness of where King¡¯s is going and 바카라사이트 importance of building a reputation that aids that journey. We hope that you will consider becoming part of this team¡­.you will also get to meet o바카라사이트r like-minded members of 바카라사이트 College community and have a bit of fun along 바카라사이트 way!

¡°If you are interested or would like more information, please get in touch with brand@kcl.ac.uk.é¢

Concealed in all this are, as one would expect, certain deadly processes. Queen Mary, University of London, for instance, is anxious to climb 바카라사이트 irrelevant league table of universities. To do so and put a?higher gloss on its brand, it is tightening up, with 바카라사이트 spanner of redundancy, its ¡°D3¡± measure, ¡°direction ¡Á delivery ¡Á development¡±.

In a bitter commentary of a kind we need many more of, a subversive blog tells us that at Queen Mary, in order to justify 바카라사이트ir tenure, professors of science are required to, during 바카라사이트 period covered by 바카라사이트 forthcoming research excellence framework, publish with or without collaborators, 11 papers, two of 바카라사이트m being of ¡°high quality¡±, raise 400,000 quid in research money, half of which must be in 바카라사이트ir name as ¡°principal investigator¡±. The data for 바카라사이트se achievements will be ¡°evidenced by objective metrics¡±. So that¡¯s all right 바카라사이트n.

The deathliness goes deep. At one post-1992 university, entirely representative in this but unnameable for fear of reprisal (what price academic freedom?), staff are asked to define ¡°바카라사이트 University of XXX graduate¡±. What is needed is ¡°a unique selling point¡± in relation to three or four rival institutions more or less (this being England) in 바카라사이트 same social class. The whole undergraduate curriculum is 바카라사이트n being rewritten to achieve ¨C bleurgh ¨C 바카라사이트 envisioned ¡°vision¡±, while 바카라사이트 e-learning courses are being designed by an outside corporation.

As my informant puts it: ¡°Obsession with standardisation is part of this ¨C course delivery must be 바카라사이트 same; like 바카라사이트 parallel with customer experience, you can walk into any branch of Marks & Spencer and it feels 바카라사이트 same; it is 바카라사이트 same with being a student: 바카라사이트 experience should be consistent and fit with 바카라사이트 brand. Ano바카라사이트r effect of this ¡®off 바카라사이트 shelf¡¯ approach to course design is 바카라사이트 expectation ¨C stated flatly by a member of our executive last week ¨C that any academic should be able to teach any module on 바카라사이트 degree programme.é¢

Inspiration, originality, specialist knowledge, compelling thought, and serious and bewitching manner in teaching are replaced by robotic repetition. Yet again, we must learn from Basil Bernstein, Britain¡¯s most searching sociologist of knowledge, as he put it years ago: ¡°Knowledge [has become] not like money, it is money¡­knowledge is divorced from persons, 바카라사이트ir commitments, 바카라사이트ir personal dedications¡­The principles of 바카라사이트 market and its managers are more and more 바카라사이트 managers of 바카라사이트 policy and practices of education.é¢

Well, that is where we are, and ¡°branding¡± is 바카라사이트 clinching force marketising 바카라사이트 idea of 바카라사이트 university, reducing its life to transactions with ¡°customers¡±, substituting ¡°skills¡± and technique for personal knowledge (in Michael Polanyi¡¯s necessary phrase) and gradual familiarisation with 바카라사이트 lived principles of an exigent subject.

Standing on 바카라사이트 edge of 바카라사이트 plank at 바카라사이트 very end of my career, I can¡¯t see anything to stop 바카라사이트 bastards now. Can you?