Mae Shaw

Community Development and the Arts

In some ways 2011 was a bad year for authority figures in Ireland and the UK. Rioting, the drip feed of abuse revelations, the phone-hacking scandals, the Euro currency crisis and the unfolding consequences of financial retrenchment, have concentrated the minds of populations on both sides of the Irish Sea.

Solidarity in and Against the Academy

Perhaps one of the least likely places to find solidarity is in the academy. This is not because academics are a different species from the rest of humanity – although some might disagree – but because the contemporary conditions of academic life make solidarity increasingly difficult. If anything, these conditions are accelerating the pace of isolation, competition and the centripetal tendencies of university life.