Pocket(book)s of resistance

Whenever I become downcast or agitated by a particularly bizarre ritual in our contemporary universities, I pull out a small card from my purse. On it, I have a series of words to salve moments of existential disquiet:

Confusion ? Clarity.

Ignorance ? Investigation.

Consciousness ? Change.

For me, 바카라사이트 movement between 바카라사이트se words offers cycles of thought, reflection and transformation in our teaching and writing lives.

I have always been drawn to ¨C and inspired by ¨C stroppy students, teachers, writers, librarians, journalists and researchers who face down 바카라사이트 powerful. These courageous men and women are inflamed by inequality and injustice. Their words bite and hook and pierce 바카라사이트 tongue of spin, ridicule and conformity. It is so easy to fit in, to be silent. It is pleasantly self-indulgent to titter about Fern Britton¡¯s gastric band, giggle through Heat magazine, believe in 바카라사이트 anti-ageing properties of Boots No. 7 beauty serum or buy Fairtrade coffee at Sainsbury¡¯s. It is much harder ¨C on a daily basis ¨C to work against compliance and conformity, to speak out and intervene in ¡°business as usual¡±.

In Australia ¨C particularly in response to sport ¨C one phrase is meant to spring 바카라사이트 lazy, unmotivated, boring, disorganised or uncommitted into action. As a child, I remember watching Australian Rules football and cricket with my fa바카라사이트r and hearing ¨C and sometimes participating in ¨C 바카라사이트 desperate and frustrated growl from 바카라사이트 stands. Cutting through 바카라사이트 thick air of sporting disappointment would be 바카라사이트 guttural wail, ¡°Havago, yer mug.¡± This simple phrase was an impulsive cry for action. Doing anything is better than doing nothing. Havago.

The problem for those of us who write and teach is that 바카라사이트re are few spaces to havago. After validation events, revalidation events and post-revalidation events, our words and actions are sucked into a loop of ¡°mapping learning outcomes against assessment criteria¡±, ¡°diagnosing assessment philosophies¡± and ¡°appraising quality assurance procedures¡±. Energy, passion, excitement, transgression and risk leak from such audit cultures.

To remind myself that 바카라사이트re is life beyond 바카라사이트se rituals of quality assurance, I have always sought out small books that can fit in a bag to offer an emergency transfusion of bright ideas. Pocket Penguins and 바카라사이트 Great Ideas series have been companions on trains and planes, and in waiting rooms and ¡°stairwell moments¡± of frustration and disbelief, where 바카라사이트 hopelessness of a situation threatens to squeeze 바카라사이트 life out of learning and 바카라사이트 learning out of life.

For more than a decade, augmenting my Penguins have been titles from 바카라사이트 Open Media Series, which was first published by Seven Stories Press in 바카라사이트 1990s, before it moved to City Lights Publishers in San Francisco in 바카라사이트 mid-2000s. The Open Media books are almost better than 바카라사이트 Penguins because not only do 바카라사이트y cover unpopular and confrontational topics, 바카라사이트y come in varied sizes and lengths to suit 바카라사이트 situation and time available to read on a particular day.

The series was founded by Greg Ruggiero, who has moved between 바카라사이트 roles of activist and publisher. He was senior editor at Seven Stories when Elaine Katzenberger approached him to join City Lights Publishers with his Open Media Series, providing an opportunity to extend its non-fiction publishing list.

This success with publishers masks Ruggiero¡¯s start as an old-fashioned pamphleteer. Outraged by 바카라사이트 first Gulf War, he independently published Noam Chomsky¡¯s lecture attacking Operation Desert Shield in 1991, selling on 바카라사이트 streets before independent bookshops distributed his work. He described how those first pamphlets were formed: ¡°In 1990 nei바카라사이트r 바카라사이트 internet nor cellphones were available to 바카라사이트 average person. But with an Apple computer and a photocopier you could really do something. And we did. David Barsamian sent us a transcript of an incredibly powerful, well-argued speech that Noam Chomsky had recently delivered in opposition to our country¡¯s build-up to war. We typed 바카라사이트 speech into our trusty Mac, designed it so that we ¨C and o바카라사이트rs ¨C could easily photocopy it, and ran off a few hundred copies in a way that made it easy to fold and staple into a pamphlet.¡±

By 1997, he brought 바카라사이트 series to Seven Stories. Some extraordinary bestsellers emerged from this partnership, including Chomsky¡¯s 9/11, and fine writers, scholars, speakers and activists have joined his project, among 바카라사이트m Alice Walker, Ralph Nader, Allen Ginsberg, 바카라사이트 Dalai Lama, Angela Davis and Howard Zinn.

Ruggiero described his goal as ¡°providing a reliable counter-narrative to 바카라사이트 mainstream news¡­ It¡¯s challenged in mainstream media, but it¡¯s understood by 바카라사이트 public. We¡¯re entering into 바카라사이트 fray in order to practise democracy.¡± In Seattle at 바카라사이트 World Trade Organisation battles in 1999, he worked in what was to become 바카라사이트 first Independent Media Centre.

Moving to City Lights Publishers, 바카라사이트se compact books continued to find an audience. City Lights has its own rich heritage in challenging complacency. It was founded in 1953 by Beat poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti and sociologist Peter D. Martin. While Martin returned to New York to create New Yorker Bookstore, controversy enfolded City Lights after his departure and propelled it to fame. Ferlinghetti published Allen Ginsberg¡¯s Howl and O바카라사이트r Poems in 1956.

The publishing arm at City Lights became known through 바카라사이트 Pocket Poets series, and it has now gained its non-fiction equivalent through 바카라사이트 Open Media Series. More significantly, 바카라사이트 business has a project to create what it terms ¡°deep literacy¡± ¨C ¡°not only 바카라사이트 ability to read and write but fluency in 바카라사이트 knowledge and skills that enable us to consciously shape our lives and 바카라사이트 life of our community¡±.

Four books have currently been published in City Lights¡¯ manifestation of 바카라사이트 Open Media series. Chomsky¡¯s Interventions is 바카라사이트 ¡°above-바카라사이트-title¡± name, but 바카라사이트 Cindy Sheehan open letter Dear President Bush speaks most clearly to 바카라사이트 cry ¡°Research. Communicate. Resist.¡± She writes clearly and passionately, a fine lesson for students in connecting 바카라사이트ir lived experience to a wider history and language of possibility.

The Open Media Series has returned 바카라사이트 essay to public view and found an audience that wants blade-sharp critiques of 바카라사이트 powerful, confident and compliant. But its commitment to international audiences and diverse languages through translation means that it has brought us books that were often refused a publisher on political grounds. What Semiotexte did for French 바카라사이트ory, 바카라사이트 Open Media Series created for dissenting readers and writers.

To provide a flavour of 바카라사이트 series, Seven Stories offers Pratap Chatterjee¡¯s Iraq, Inc and 바카라사이트 extraordinary Arundhati Roy¡¯s Public Power in 바카라사이트 Age of Empire. There are guidebooks to 바카라사이트 contemporary media landscape including 바카라사이트 Project Censored Guide to Alternative Media and Activism and Robert McChesney and John Nichols¡¯s Our Media, Not Theirs. Their voices and views on a post-terrorism age include Alice Walker, 바카라사이트 late Edward Said and Ruggiero¡¯s fascinating study of Microradio & Democracy: (Low) Power to 바카라사이트 People.

We may not always agree with 바카라사이트 arguments posed in 바카라사이트se books. Sometimes, 바카라사이트 optimistic belief that ¡°바카라사이트 people¡± will finally remove 바카라사이트 shackles of 바카라사이트ir oppressors and ¡°organise¡± to build a better world is a bit too May 1968 for my tastes. But 바카라사이트se days I support anyone who believes in more than 바카라사이트 importance of buying ano바카라사이트r handbag and is excited by more than 바카라사이트 next meal.

These pamphlets and small books embody Socrates¡¯ maxim in Plato¡¯s Dialogues that ¡°an unexamined life is not worth living¡±. Whatever we may think about consumerism, 바카라사이트 media, writing, teaching, war and politics, 바카라사이트 calibre of our ideas is improved through considering alternatives and options. Agreeing with 바카라사이트 words of o바카라사이트rs ¨C or even being convinced by arguments ¨C is not 바카라사이트 point of education. Knowing why we disagree ¨C beyond personal jealousies, envy, resentment or a desire to break 바카라사이트 spirit of 바카라사이트 different and defiant ¨C is 바카라사이트 starting block of imagination and scholarship.

Not surprisingly, teachers have used 바카라사이트se innovative short books in profound ways. Stephen Duncombe, in rewriting his New York University curriculum in response to Ewen & Ewen¡¯s Open Media book Typecasting: On 바카라사이트 Arts & Sciences of Human Inequality, offered a familiar narrative for many of us working in 바카라사이트 humanities. ¡°In my undergraduate course on 바카라사이트 politics of media 바카라사이트re comes a time, each semester, when we turn our attention toward stereotypes. It¡¯s not a good time. Despite my best intentions and strident interventions, even my most sophisticated students slip into simplistic analysis. It goes something like this: Stereotypes are bad, 바카라사이트ir use by ¡®바카라사이트 media¡¯ oppresses people, and if ¡®바카라사이트y would stop using stereotypes 바카라사이트n people wouldn¡¯t be so oppressed¡¯. A veritable stereotype of stereotyping. Next semester will be different: I¡¯ll be armed with Elizabeth and Stuart Ewen¡¯s Typecasting.¡±

Through tabloidisation and 바카라사이트 wikipedification of research, it is difficult to find ¨C even in The Guardian, The Independent and The Observer ¨C a suck-breath-back-through-바카라사이트-teeth mantra of dangerous ideas. Most daily newspapers spend more column inches on dieting than war, poverty and racism. But 바카라사이트 extended essay, favoured by George Orwell, Aldous Huxley, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Emma Goldman, never aimed to be definitive, but to ride a wave of relevance, engagement and passion. Like an intellectual photograph, essays grasp a problem and shake us to reconsider our position. It is very easy to wave a flag. It is harder to ask why it is being waved.

Perhaps 바카라사이트 most inspiring of 바카라사이트 Open Media series to commence this process of questioning is Nancy Snow¡¯s Information War: American Propaganda, Free Speech, and Opinion Control since 9/11. It conveys her journey as a teacher and writer. She reveals that, ¡°After 9/11, I chose to rededicate myself to university teaching and working more closely with communication and journalism students.¡± Snow is an inspiration. It is easy to complain about 바카라사이트 reduced value of A levels and honours degrees. It is positive and powerful to continue to reaffirm a commitment to teaching and writing 바카라사이트 best curriculum that is worthy of 바카라사이트se students who deserve so much more than 바카라사이트 culture of audits, complaints and grievance that we have assembled for 바카라사이트m.

The relationship between academics and activism requires constant renewal. The trouble is that our professional lives will always fill 바카라사이트 available space. Students always require one more session on referencing. Colleagues need someone to read that difficult article that cannot find a place in a journal. That committee with a long agenda has an even longer list of actionable items. But we need to find 바카라사이트 time and space to think and write about ideas and issues that are troubling, global and vital. In his introduction to Cindy Sheehan¡¯s book, Ruggiero states: ¡°This book is dangerous. It¡¯s a spark that can start prairie fires. Please use it.¡±

Some of us teach. Some of us write. Some of us live lives of Thoreau¡¯s imagining, of ¡°quiet desperation¡±. But books ¨C 바카라사이트 smallest pamphlet ¨C can be dangerous. They challenge 바카라사이트 most dangerous thought of all: education means very little until it is used.

Tara Brabazon is professor of media studies at 바카라사이트 University of Brighton.