next »

[categorical]

Look, sock of the day, if you want to be taken seriously, then make an academic-style case with explicit premises and supported points.  Stop throwing out one-liners as though they meant anything.

I don't see why your style requirements lead necessarily to more purposeful or successful communication in the long run.  It wouldn't be good if everyone wrote the same way.  It would be monotonous.

I recognize what I'm doing, and I don't see why, given the stakes, that a particular discourse (or tone) needs to prevail in this discussion.  In many way these subjects probably suffer from too much "academic-style," certainly too much politesse.  How many times have I read in these pages, that adjuncts get what they deserve, because they don't stand up for themselves? 

I'm curt, because I'm tired.  I'm tired of the way that language, as argument, pretends to be action.  These threads go nowhere and get caught up in sideshows and minutiae in the name of argument. 

As for meaning in my earlier post, it's not entirely in my hands, but I'll rephrase, as things have gotten more dialectical: there's been a lot of "magical thinking" going on in this economy about labor, generally, for the last couple of decades. Naomi Klein did a good job of outlining this in No Logo in the mid-1990s.

If the adjunct is thinking "magically" about his/her situation, he/she isn't the only one.  Administrators and employers are thinking even more magically if they think that they can sustain a faculty, a department, a school, or a society, by eliminating decent-paying, full-time jobs and replacing them with so-called adjunct positions.

[southerntransplant]

I'm curt, because I'm tired.  I'm tired of the way that language, as argument, pretends to be action.  These threads go nowhere and get caught up in sideshows and minutiae in the name of argument. 

I'm sorry. Were you waiting for someone to pass out the torches and pitchforks?

This is a discussion forum. The discussion will get to where it's going when it gets there.

[polly_mer]

I'm curt, because I'm tired.  I'm tired of the way that language, as argument, pretends to be action.  These threads go nowhere and get caught up in sideshows and minutiae in the name of argument. 

What kind of academic are you to not want the sideshow of discussion?

You can do whatever you like; I certainly can't stop you.  I merely point out that if you want to be taken seriously, then certain behaviors lead to that result better than other behaviors.  If you want to be a circus clown or sideshow, then that's your call.  However, don't then whine that people aren't responding seriously to your posts when you haven't said anything that prompts and/or continues discussion.

[spinnaker]

If the adjunct is thinking "magically" about his/her situation, he/she isn't the only one.  Administrators and employers are thinking even more magically if they think that they can sustain a faculty, a department, a school, or a society, by eliminating decent-paying, full-time jobs and replacing them with so-called adjunct positions.

Only by making the adjunct an object of derision.

[categorical]

I'm curt, because I'm tired.  I'm tired of the way that language, as argument, pretends to be action.  These threads go nowhere and get caught up in sideshows and minutiae in the name of argument. 

What kind of academic are you to not want the sideshow of discussion?

You can do whatever you like; I certainly can't stop you.  I merely point out that if you want to be taken seriously, then certain behaviors lead to that result better than other behaviors.  If you want to be a circus clown or sideshow, then that's your call.  However, don't then whine that people aren't responding seriously to your posts when you haven't said anything that prompts and/or continues discussion.

I'm not complaining about responses to my posts.  I'm speaking to my dissatisfaction with the wanderings of the thread. 
And I recognize that you don't get me, but I don't get you either. 

[aprilmay]

I found the manifesto confusing. This is coming from someone who is in the tenure system, and works very hard to  improve conditions for our adjuncts. I routinely argue for full-time positions rather than adjuncts at all, so I think I am one of the people the manifesto is trying to reach. But I found it baffling.

It is unclear how adjuncts will demand changes. How are adjuncts to demand anything? All universities have to do is hire another adjunct. Very few are truly irreplaceable. There is a long list of people begging to take the place of anyone who quits. This sounds pessimistic, but we have literally had people offer to teach for free just to put it on their CV in hopes of improving their chances at a future job elsewhere. The job situation is that dire. The idea that adjuncts are going to make demands, such as tenure, is naive. Many tenure track faculty do not have the authority this manifesto wishes to give adjuncts. The adjuncts do not have a unified voice through unions. Some appreciate union rules that do not allow adjuncts to teach more than a certain number of units at a given school system, so that university cannot hire part-timers that are really full-timers without benefits. Others do not like their employment options limited and have lost courses, and salary, because of this. It is a mess. I am not sure how the manifesto is particularly helpful.

Is this really the path forward? What I am not getting?

[spinnaker]

Great idea. 

One note is that white type on a dark background is the hardest to read of any combo.

Improved:   http://johnacaseyjr.wordpress.com/2011/12/06/we-are-not-contingent-an-adjunct-manifesto/

[prof_smartypants]

Great idea. 

One note is that white type on a dark background is the hardest to read of any combo.

Improved:   http://johnacaseyjr.wordpress.com/2011/12/06/we-are-not-contingent-an-adjunct-manifesto/

In aesthetics, maybe. Not in content.

[polkadott]

aprilmay:  I agree.  This manifesto is tone-deaf.  (Also, as a sidenote, the MFA is a terminal degree for creatives.  Even as the person derives authority from his or her marginal position, s/he marginalizes others.)  Obviously, the system needs to change.  But manifestos such as this one don't do any good, and create false binaries between adjuncts and other workers within the system.

[spinnaker]

aprilmay:  I agree.  This manifesto is tone-deaf.  (Also, as a sidenote, the MFA is a terminal degree for creatives.  Even as the person derives authority from his or her marginal position, s/he marginalizes others.)  Obviously, the system needs to change.  But manifestos such as this one don't do any good, and create false binaries between adjuncts and other workers within the system.

Why, in your opinion, does the system need to change, and how?