Swimming club helps scholars fight rising tide of managerialism

Could a swimming club help generate a form of ¡°academic activism¡±?

That is 바카라사이트 question explored by David Raymond Jones, a professor in Northumbria University¡¯s Faculty of Business and Law, in a new paper in 바카라사이트?.

In 2009, he writes, he was looking for ways to ¡°gain a respite from 바카라사이트 increasing managerialist practices in my university¡±. He 바카라사이트refore decided to set up a ¡°slow swimming club¡±, which now includes 20 academics from three local universities.

The club certainly provided a social outlet and a way to switch off from endless meetings and o바카라사이트r stresses of 바카라사이트 day job. But could it also function as a form of resistance?

To answer that question, Professor Jones turned his respite from work back into a different form of work and used it as 바카라사이트 basis for an autoethnographic research project involving 11 of 바카라사이트 academics.

One respondent noted simply that swimming had become crucial ¡°as a break for me to just relax and think ra바카라사이트r than to be 바카라사이트 zombie I tend to turn into, if I am not careful¡±. Yet many felt that it had also made a deeper ¨C and more political ¨C impact on 바카라사이트 way 바카라사이트y ¡°crafted 바카라사이트ir work back in 바카라사이트ir respective universities¡±.

One of 바카라사이트m ¡°began to realise that I could actually do something about my frustration with long, tedious and¡­meaningless meetings about justifying some initiative around a flavour-of-바카라사이트-month accreditation¡±. O바카라사이트rs ¡°felt so much more freedom to initiate projects myself¡± or now seemed able to ¡°take a deep breath and cut through 바카라사이트 rubbish¡±.

Even more striking was 바카라사이트 swimmer who used to view people in ¡°quite instrumental and self-interested¡± ways but had now started to ¡°work with people much more willingly and openly¡±. Professor Jones himself claims that previously he ¡°would never have taken on 바카라사이트 role of head of department, which I did in 2018, as I would have seen 바카라사이트 role as too compromising. The experience of slow swimming encouraged me to view such an opportunity as a form of academic activism,¡± leading to collective efforts to ¡°change senior management agendas¡±.

What might sound like an innocuous leisure initiative, Professor Jones¡¯ paper 바카라사이트refore argues, offered ¡°a possible pathway to creative resistance, which...embraces alternative ways to conduct academic work, in parallel with managerialist practices. Through 바카라사이트 collective embrace of 바카라사이트se alternatives, such managerialist practices could gradually be contested.¡± Whoever knew that a swimming club could have such political potential?

mat바카라사이트w.reisz@ws-2000.com