DOCSLIB.ORG

Ptsc 3/2 the Evolution of Wisdom

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Ptsc 3/2 the Evolution of Wisdom Table of Contents: PTSc 3/2 The Evolution of Wisdom Editorial . 111 Celia Deane-Drummond, Neil Arner, and Agustín Fuentes The Evolution of Morality: A Three-Dimensional Map . 115 Jonathan Marks A Tale of Ex-Apes: Whence Wisdom? . 152 Robert Song Play It Again, but This Time with Ontological Conviction: A Response to Jonathan Marks . 175 Thomas A. Tweed On Narratives, Niches, and Religion: A Response to Jonathan Marks . 183 Julia Feder The Impossible Is Made Possible: Edward Schillebeeckx, Symbolic Imagination, and Eschatological Faith . 188 Marc Kissel and Agustín Fuentes From Hominid to Human: The Role of Human Wisdom and Distinctiveness in the Evolution of Modern Humans . 217 Book Reviews Joshua M. Moritz. Science and Religion: Beyond Warfare and Toward Understanding (Michael Berhow) . 245 Peter Harrison. The Territories of Science and Religion (Benedikt Paul Göcke) . 249 Brent Waters. Christian Moral Theology in the Emerging Technoculture: From Posthuman Back to Human (Anne Kull) . 253 Eduardo Kohn. How Forests Think: Toward an Anthropology Beyond the Human (Whitney Bauman) . 257 Editorial 10.1628/219597716X14696202742019 The Evolution of Wisdom My remarks in this editorial are necessarily very brief, but I have to say that the essays contributing to this special issue are some of the most fascinating I have had the privilege to read as part of our ongoing project on the evolu- tionary origins of wisdom. This research* has not been attempted quite in this way before and represents some years of working and discussing issues together as part of a project team since the summer of 2014. My conversa- tions with Agustín Fuentes on this topic go back further to around 2010. We deliberately intend to present something of the liveliness of discussion by including two formal responses to Jonathan Marks’ article, along with a number of shorter responses to articles by Julia Feder, Marc Kissel, and Agustín Fuentes. The discussion element of this special issue will become obvious when reading the first article, which reflects an ongoing dialogue between Agustín Fuentes, Neil Arner, and myself. I have placed this article first for a number of reasons, not least to highlight the different kind of methodology we are intending to showcase here. In the first place, wisdom, as understood by many classical philosophers, was that which emerged through debate, dia- logue, and listening to each other’s perspectives. Second, our topic in this discussion is related to what could be termed the broader framing in which wisdom is discussed, namely, that of morality. So, according to our argu- ments presented in this paper, practical wisdom can be understood as a virtue focusing on the social goods of that community and, when translated into religious language, wisdom includes the transcendent dimension and thereby ultimately points to God’s divine wisdom. Such a rendering might imply that divine wisdom is simply emergent in the human imaginary and arises from a translation of human wisdom onto a divine agent. This kind of materialist reduction is resisted by theologians, who insist that divine wisdom is metaphysically prior to any human becoming. If we explore the moral discourse, a similar pattern ensues, namely, the extent to * This research is supported by two grants from the John Templeton Foundation, The Evolution of Wisdom and Human Distinctiveness projects led by Celia Deane-Drum- mond and Agustín Fuentes. The opinions in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the John Templeton Foundation. We are very grateful for their support and interest in this work. PTSc 3 (2016), 111–114 DOI 10.1628/219597716X14696202742019 ISSN 2195-9773 © 2016 Mohr Siebeck 112 Editorial which the moral sense builds on prior evolutionary patterns of behavior, and how far is it locally or contextually dependent on cultural, religious, or other factors. Our discussion on the evolution of morality highlights com- mon ground among us, but also some interesting tensions arising from our different scientific, philosophical, and theological commitments. This dis- cussion is important, since it sets the stage for a discussion of the evolution of wisdom that has not yet been tackled in a serious way in the literature to date. Wisdom, like morality, is notoriously difficult to define; so we all agree that much of the confusion in the literature can be cleared up by seeking to be clear on the particular meaning of morality in each case. The work of pri- matologist Frans de Waal, especially on primate empathy and inequity aver- sion, and his argument against what he terms the ‘veneer theory’ or morality, also featured in all our accounts. Perhaps wisdom is not simply a subset of morality, but much more than that, including human imagination more broadly understood in terms of a nexus of relatedness more generally, as well as obligation and morality. This is the position taken by Jonathan Marks in the second article in this issue. He argues, convincingly in my view, that secular origin myths on the human privilege continuity rather than discontinuity in a manner that has some resonance with the continuity / ​discontinuity dialectic in our discus- sion of the evolution of morality. For him, the background to such assertions is that scientists may be reacting to creationist ex nihilo accounts of human origins. Or maybe genetics has high status and so helps reinforce the conti- nuity thesis? But for him what is particularly interesting is the human ten- dency to make things seem rather more robust than they really are, namely by insisting on scientific precision over accuracy. But, at root, what he seems to think of as having solidity relates to his evolutionary biological presup- positions, namely, whether something leads to us acquiring the necessities of life or reproducing. Something like human wisdom, morality, or even marriage is ‘fictive’ not because it is not real for those involved, but because it is constructed as part of our narratives about ourselves. But this is where Robert Song presses his case, for even the ability to recognize other kinds as different and make the necessary biological judgments requires a particular ontological commit- ment. He, as a theologian, eschews an emergentist thesis if this implies a residue of philosophical materialism. Thomas A. Tweed, on the other hand, points to the epistemic, aesthetic, and moral values embedded in the con- struction of narratives, even scientific ones. So, as Marks implies but does not spell out, it is false to claim there is a fact / ​value dichotomy between science and the humanities. The imaginary that Marks points to in human The Evolution of Wisdom 113 becoming is also parsed out in Tweed in terms of cosmic crossings between this world and the next as well as embodied crossings in life style stages, both of which are specifically found in religious discourse. Julia Feder’s paper develops the evolutionary theory of niche construc- tion that both Marks and Tweed discuss, but puts this to a new use, namely to engage with the literature on the emergence of religion, but now in dia- logue with the work of Roman Catholic theologian Edward Schillebeeckx. For her, as Marks, it is the human symbolic imagination that is particularly pertinent in considering what might be in the background of a distinctively human form of wisdom. In particular, the ability of humans to imagine the seemingly impossible is a distinctly human act, and, through the lens of the theologian of hope (Schillebeeckx) opens up a gulf between what is and what could be in a negative contrast experience. How such negative contrast ex- periences begin to build a symbolic imagination captures Feder’s attention as she weaves her way through interpreting Schillebeeckx in a fresh light. Moreover, and in a credible way, her analysis probes the extent to which symbolic thought as parsed through the thought of Terrence Deacon has captured the imagination of anthropologists, asking how far a sacramen- tal theology that Schillebeeckx typifies can correct or at least question the earthen characteristics that lie behind symbol making. In other words, has anthropology, ironically perhaps, itself committed the error common to many theologies by becoming too abstracted from the world of the earthly and everyday? The final article in this issue takes the discussion further again by prob- ing a new way of considering the transition from human-like things to what eventually becomes recognizably modern humans. Like the other authors in this issue, niche construction features heavily again, but now Marc Kissel and Agustín Fuentes use that mode of becoming to probe the very deep history of the Homo lineage. I find this work particularly astonishing considering the time scales being investigated. More important, perhaps, the rhetoric of wisdom has opened up a fresh perspective on questions presupposed in the standard anthropological literature to be resolved. The out-of-Africa model for human origins, and the assumption that the transition to behaviorally modern from anatomically modern humans happened in a cluster around 200,000 years ago, starts to look more fragile than originally supposed. It is as if, to use Jonathan Marks’ language, that accuracy has given way to preci- sion. Though it would be hard to be precise at all about these scanty remains, that is, to insist on confidence in their solidity in terms of research, the cu- mulative evidence is still highly suggestive. 114 Editorial Although Kissel and Fuentes do not go into these aspects, it is tantalizing for theologians to consider the variety and traces of what seem to be more than practical workings out of the human mind. We are touching here on deep questions of the origins of a particularly human form of consciousness, but now cast in a different light from the standard brain / ​mind problem.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • 8113-Yasham Neden Var-Nick Lane-Ebru Qilic-2015-318S.Pdf
    KOÇ ÜNiVERSiTESi YAYINLARI: 87 BiYOLOJi Yaşam Neden Var? Nick Lane lngilizceden çeviren: Ebru Kılıç Yayına hazırlayan: Hülya Haripoğlu Düzelti: Elvan Özkaya iç rasarım: Kamuran Ok Kapak rasarımı: James Jones The Vital Question © Nick Lane, 2015 ©Koç Üniversiresi Yayınları, 2015 1. Baskı: lsranbul, Nisan 2016 Bu kitabın yazarı, eserin kendi orijinal yararımı olduğunu ve eserde dile getirilen rüm görüşlerin kendisine air olduğunu, bunlardan dolayı kendisinden başka kimsenin sorumlu rurulamayacağını; eserde üçüncü şahısların haklarını ihlal edebilecek kısımlar olmadığını kabul eder. Baskı: 12.marbaa Sertifika no: 33094 Naro Caddesi 14/1 Seyranrepe Kağırhane/lsranbul +90 212 284 0226 Koç Üniversiresi Yayınları lsriklal Caddesi No:181 Merkez Han Beyoğlu/lsranbul +90 212 393 6000 [email protected] • www.kocuniversirypress.com • www.kocuniversiresiyayinlari.com Koç Universiry Suna Kıraç Library Caraloging-in-Publicarion Dara Lane, Nick, 1967- Yaşam neden var?/ Nick Lane; lngilizceden çeviren Ebru Kılıç; yayına hazırlayan Hülya Haripoğlu. pages; cm. lncludes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-605-5250-94-2 ı. Life--Origin--Popular works. 2. Cells. 1. Kılıç, Ebru. il. Haripoğlu, Hülya. 111. Tirle. QH325.L3520 2016 Yaşam Neden Var? NICKLANE lngilizceden Çeviren: Ebru Kılıç ffi1KÜY İçindeki le� Resim Listesi 7 TEŞEKKÜR 11 GiRİŞ 17 Yaşam Neden Olduğu Gibidir? BiRİNCi BÖLÜM 31 Yaşam Nedir? Yaşamın ilk 2 Milyar Yılının Kısa Ta rihi 35 Genler ve Doğal Ortamla ilgili Sorun 39 Biyolojinin Kalbindeki Kara Delik 43 Karmaşıklık Yo lunda Kayıp Adımlar
    [Show full text]
  • Understanding Adaptation in Large Populations
    Perspective Understanding Adaptation in Large Populations Nick Barton* Institute of Science and Technology (IST) Austria, Klosterneuburg, Austria For the past half-century, population independent of whatever long-term factors a surrounding genome whose diversity genetics has been dominated by studies determine neutral diversity. Resistance to depends only on the number of favour- of molecular evolution, interpreted under organophosphate insecticides is due to able mutations that enter in every gener- the neutral theory. This predicts that the specific amino-acid changes in the active ation, 2Nm, and whose length depends on rate of substitution equals the rate of site of the target enzyme acetyl-cholines- the inverse of the time to fixation, ,S/ neutral mutation and that the genetic terase, with the most resistant alleles log(S/m) (Figure 1). diversity within populations depends on having three changes. Karasov et al. show In very large populations, the distinc- the product of population size and that although the same amino acids tion between adaptation from new muta- neutral mutation rate, 4Nm.Yet,diver- (indeed, because of constraints from the tions—invoked here by Karasov et al. sity clearly does not increase in direct genetic code, the same nucleotide changes) [5]—and adaptation from standing varia- proportion to population size [1,2]. are always involved, these have arisen tion becomes blurred. If there is selection s Bacterial populations are typically more independently many times on different against resistance alleles before insecticide diverse than insects, which in turn are local haplotypes. Most striking is that is applied, then resistance alleles will be more diverse than mammals, but these complex resistance alleles have arisen present at a frequency of ,m/s, and each differences span only an order of magni- through successive mutations, with no allele will have originated on average tude, even though actual population sizes need for recombination, and all within ,1/s generations back; in this example, vary far more.
    [Show full text]
  • Editor's Note
    Volume 8: Issue 1 (2021) Editor’s Note CONTENTS Dear ICA Members, Editor’s Note .................. 1 Welcome to 2021! We are now a year into the COVID-19 pandemic, and with vaccines on the market, we are seeing the light at the end Meetings, of the tunnel. Announcements, and Calls for Papers .............. 3 The ICA Interest group will be meeting at this year’s virtual SAA Research Highlights ....... 4 meeting on April 16 from 12-1 PM EDT. Please join us to learn more about the group, get involved, and network with colleagues. All are Lapidary artwork in the welcome! Amerindian Caribbean, a regional, open, online Over the past year, there have been over 1000 new publications in database and GIS ....... 4 81 different journals in our field. In addition, several new books have The La Sagesse been published, four of which are featured in our “Recent Community Publications” section. The quantity and quality of new literature attests to the fact that, despite the pandemic, island and coastal Archaeology Project research is thriving. (LCAP) in Grenada, West Indies ................ 6 As always, please continue to send us your new publications. While Recent Publications ....... 7 we do not rely exclusively on sources sent to us by our members, we usually receive at least one member submission from a journal that Featured New Books: 7 we missed in our biannual literature review. Your submissions help Journals Featuring to provide publicity for your work and assists us in putting together a Recent Island and more thorough bibliography each cycle. Coastal Archaeology Papers: ....................... 8 The last issue of the Current appeared when wildfires and political scandal dominated news headlines, and coastal archaeologists faced New Papers in the reports of accelerating sea level rise.
    [Show full text]
  • Directory 2016/17 the Royal Society of Edinburgh
    cover_cover2013 19/04/2016 16:52 Page 1 The Royal Society of Edinburgh T h e R o Directory 2016/17 y a l S o c i e t y o f E d i n b u r g h D i r e c t o r y 2 0 1 6 / 1 7 Printed in Great Britain by Henry Ling Limited, Dorchester, DT1 1HD ISSN 1476-4334 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH DIRECTORY 2016/2017 PUBLISHED BY THE RSE SCOTLAND FOUNDATION ISSN 1476-4334 The Royal Society of Edinburgh 22-26 George Street Edinburgh EH2 2PQ Telephone : 0131 240 5000 Fax : 0131 240 5024 email: [email protected] web: www.royalsoced.org.uk Scottish Charity No. SC 000470 Printed in Great Britain by Henry Ling Limited CONTENTS THE ORIGINS AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH .....................................................3 COUNCIL OF THE SOCIETY ..............................................................5 EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE ..................................................................6 THE RSE SCOTLAND FOUNDATION ..................................................7 THE RSE SCOTLAND SCIO ................................................................8 RSE STAFF ........................................................................................9 LAWS OF THE SOCIETY (revised October 2014) ..............................13 STANDING COMMITTEES OF COUNCIL ..........................................27 SECTIONAL COMMITTEES AND THE ELECTORAL PROCESS ............37 DEATHS REPORTED 26 March 2014 - 06 April 2016 .....................................................43 FELLOWS ELECTED March 2015 ...................................................................................45
    [Show full text]
  • John Maynard Smith Archive (1948-2004) (Add MS 86569-86840) Table of Contents
    British Library: Western Manuscripts John Maynard Smith Archive (1948-2004) (Add MS 86569-86840) Table of Contents John Maynard Smith Archive (1948–2004) Key Details........................................................................................................................................ 1 Arrangement..................................................................................................................................... 2 Provenance........................................................................................................................................ 2 Add MS 86569–86574 Reprints and copies of articles and book chapters by John Maynard Smith (1952–2003)...................................................................................................................................... 3 Add MS 86575–86596 Correspondence files, F–Z (1975–1991).............................................................. 5 Add MS 86597–86830 Subject files (1948–2003).................................................................................. 18 Add MS 86831–86835 Notebooks and plant lists (1973–2003)............................................................... 223 Add MS 86836–86837 Lecture notes ([c 1990–c 1999])........................................................................ 226 Add MS 86838–86839 Artefacts and books (1983–2001)....................................................................... 227 Add MS 86840 Annotations and manuscripts with offprints received by John Maynard Smith (1952?–2003)...................................................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • The Barrier to Genetic Exchange Between Hybridising Populations
    Heredity 56 (1986) 357—376 The Genetical Society of Great Britain Received 13 February 1986 The barrier to genetic exchange between hybridising populations Nick Barton* and * Departmentof Genetics and Biometry, University College London, 4 Stephenson Way, London Bengt Olle Bengtssont NW1 2HE, U.K. tDepartmentof Genetics, University of Lund, Sölvegatan 29, S-223 62 Lund, Sweden. Suppose that selection acts at one or more loci to maintain genetic differences between hybridising populations. Then, the flow of alleles at a neutral marker locus which is linked to these selected loci will be impeded. We define and calculate measures of the barrier to gene flow between two distinct demes, and across a continuous habitat. In both cases, we find that in order for gene flow to be significantly reduced over much of the genome, hybrids must be substantially less fit, and the number of genes involved in building the barrier must be so large that the majority of other genes become closely linked to some locus which is under selection. This conclusion is not greatly affected by the pattern of epistasis, or the position of the marker locus along the chromosome. INTRODUCTION neutral. This selection pressure will only cease after the incoming alleles have recombined away from Theseparation of biological species requires the their old genetic background. The rate of flow of evolution of genetic barriers to gene exchange. a neutral marker into the new population will Thus, to understand the process of speciation, we therefore depend on the ratio between selection at need to know not only how genetic differences the "barrier locus", and recombination between evolve, but also the effect these differences have that locus and the marker locus.
    [Show full text]
  • Sarah Perin Otto
    Curriculum Vitae SARAH PERIN OTTO Address: Mail: Department of Zoology University of British Columbia 6270 University Boulevard Vancouver BC V6T 1Z4, CANADA Phone: (604) 822-2778 FAX: (604) 822-2416 E-mail: [email protected] Personal: Nickname: Sally Citizenship: United States & Canadian Education and Work Experience: Current position: Full Professor, Killam University Professor & Canada Research Chair (Tier I), Department of Zoology; 2000-2005: Associate Professor, Department of Zoology, University of British Columbia 1995-2000: Assistant Professor, Department of Zoology, University of British Columbia 1994-1995: SERC Post-Doctoral Research Fellow, University of Edinburgh, UK Sponsor: N. Barton 1992-1994: Miller Post-Doctoral Fellow, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA Department of Integrative Biology Sponsors: G. Thomson, M. Slatkin 1988-1992: Ph. D., Stanford University, Stanford, CA Department of Biological Sciences Committee: M. W. Feldman (advisor), L. L. Cavalli-Sforza, J. Roughgarden Thesis: Evolution in Sexual Organisms: The Role of Recombination, Ploidy Level, and Nonrandom Mating 1990: Complex Studies Summer School, Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, NM 1989,1991: Lab rotation (two semesters), Harvard University, Harvard, MA Advisor: R. C. Lewontin 1985-1988: B.Sc. with honors in Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA Advisors: V. Walbot, M. W. Feldman 1985: International Baccalaureate Degree, Washington International School Grant and Fellowship Support: 1. Discovery grant, Natural Sciences & Engineering Research Council, Canada (2016-2021) C$92,000 per annum 2. International Research Roundtable grant, Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies (2015-2016) C$38,720 total 3. Discovery grant, Natural Sciences & Engineering Research Council, Canada (2010-2015) C$82,000 per annum 4. Discovery Accelerator grant, Natural Sciences & Engineering Research Council, Canada (2010-2013) C$40,000 per annum 5.
    [Show full text]
  • Epistasis Can Facilitate the Evolution of Reproductive Isolation by Peak Shifts: a Two-Locus Two-Allele Model
    Copyright 0 1994 by the Genetics Society of America Epistasis Can Facilitate the Evolution of Reproductive Isolation by Peak Shifts: A Two-Locus Two-Allele Model Andreas Wagner,* Giinter P. Wagner* and Philippe Similiont “Yale University, Department of Biology, Center for Computational Ecology, New Haven, Connecticut 06520-8104 and Yale University, Department for Applied Physics, Becton Center, New Haven, Connecticut 06520-2157 Manuscript received October 13, 1993 Accepted for publication July 8, 1994 ABSTRACT The influence of epistasis on the evolution of reproductive isolation by peak shifts is studied in a two-locus two-allele model of a quantitative genetic character under stabilizing selection. Epistasis is in- troduced by a simple multiplicative term in the function that maps gene effects onto genotypic values. In the model with only additive effects on the trait, the probability of a peak shift and the amount of reproductive isolation are always inverselyrelated, i. e., the higherthe peak shift rate, thelower the amount of reproductive isolation caused by the peak shift. With epistatic characters there is no consistent rela- tionship between these two values. Interestingly, there are cases where both transition rates as well as the amount of reproductive isolation are increased relative to the additive model. This effect has two main causes: a shift in the location of the transition point, and the hybrids between the two alternative optimal genotypes have lower average fitnessin the epistatic case. A review of the empirical literature shows that the fitness relations resulting in higher peak shift rates and more reproductive isolation are qualitatively the same as those observed for genes causing hybrid inferiority.
    [Show full text]
  • How Does Epistasis Influence the Response to Selection&Quest;
    Heredity (2017) 118, 96–109 & 2017 Macmillan Publishers Limited, part of Springer Nature. All rights reserved 0018-067X/17 www.nature.com/hdy ORIGINAL ARTICLE How does epistasis influence the response to selection? NH Barton Much of quantitative genetics is based on the ‘infinitesimal model’, under which selection has a negligible effect on the genetic variance. This is typically justified by assuming a very large number of loci with additive effects. However, it applies even when genes interact, provided that the number of loci is large enough that selection on each of them is weak relative to random drift. In the long term, directional selection will change allele frequencies, but even then, the effects of epistasis on the ultimate change in trait mean due to selection may be modest. Stabilising selection can maintain many traits close to their optima, even when the underlying alleles are weakly selected. However, the number of traits that can be optimised is apparently limited to ~4Ne by the ‘drift load’, and this is hard to reconcile with the apparent complexity of many organisms. Just as for the mutation load, this limit can be evaded by a particular form of negative epistasis. A more robust limit is set by the variance in reproductive success. This suggests that selection accumulates information most efficiently in the infinitesimal regime, when selection on individual alleles is weak, and comparable with random drift. A review of evidence on selection strength suggests that although most variance in fitness may be because of alleles with large Nes, substantial amounts of adaptation may be because of alleles in the infinitesimal regime, in which epistasis has modest effects.
    [Show full text]
  • Sewall Wright on Evolution in Mendelian Populations and the “Shifting Balance”
    | CLASSIC Sewall Wright on Evolution in Mendelian Populations and the “Shifting Balance” Nicholas H. Barton1 Institute of Science and Technology Austria, A-3400 Klosterneuburg, Austria ORIGINAL CITATION Evolution in Mendelian Populations Sewall Wright GENETICS March 1, 1931 16: 97–159 fter the rediscovery of Mendel’s work in 1900, bitter similarrates ofselection,migration,and randomdrift.This would Adisputes erupted between the first geneticists and the allow more efficient exploration of the “adaptive landscape.” biometricians who studied quantitative traits. How could the Wright’stheorywashighlyinfluential, stimulating many discrete genes of the geneticists explain the continuous var- studies of natural population structure. Nevertheless, it is iation observed by biometricians? And could natural selec- not clear that his “shifting balance” mechanism actually tion shape variation in these genes? Eventually, the two operates in nature (Coyne et al. 1997). As Fisher argued, a camps came to understand that quantitative variation is changing environment allows continual evolution across the due to multiple Mendelian genes of small effect, and selec- vast space of possible genotypes (see Provine 1986 for the tion on this variation is highly effective. Yet in 1931, very few correspondence between Fisher and Wright on these issues). attempts had been made to formally describe the genetics of The roles of local fitness peaks and gene flow in adaptive evolving populations. By explicitly reconciling Mendel’s and evolution remain major open questions in evolutionary biol- Darwin’s theories, Sewall Wright and the other pioneers of ogy, nearly a century after Wright first raised the issue. population genetics laid an enduring mathematical founda- Communicating editor: C.
    [Show full text]
  • Tue 13/02/2007 To: Vice-Chancellor/Principal Subject: University Privatisation - an Open Letter from UCU Members to Vice- Chancellors and Principals
    -----Original Message----- From: Sally Hunt, UCU joint general secretary Sent: Tue 13/02/2007 To: Vice-chancellor/Principal Subject: University privatisation - an open letter from UCU members to vice- chancellors and principals Dear vice-chancellor/principal, I am writing to provide you with a copy of an open letter to all vice-chancellors and principals from UCU members setting out UCU's opposition to increasing levels of private sector involvement in the provision of academic and other key university functions. We are concerned that, in common with experience across the rest of the public sector, the increasing involvement of private sector providers threatens both the quality of services and the pay and terms and conditions of staff. As you know, I have raised our concerns with UUK and with UCEA through the JNCHES machinery, where our position was supported by all the unions representing university staff. You should be in no doubt that the academic community is overwhelmingly opposed to further privatisation. In just over a week nearly 4,500 staff have signed the open letter and more are signing every day. I will be sending you a paper copy of both the open letter and the signatures so far this week and I would be grateful for a reply confirming that your university will not seek to privatise or contract out any aspect of the running of any academic department or key support function Yours Sally Hunt Joint general secretary, UCU An open letter to vice-chancellors and principals from UCU members We are writing to you to let you know of UCU's opposition to increasing levels of private sector involvement in the provision of academic and other key university functions.
    [Show full text]
  • Volume 6, Issue 2
    Volume 1: Issue 2/2 2018 CONTENTS Editor’s Note Dear ICA Members, Editor’s Note ............ 1 Happy New Year! We are pleased to announce the launch of the Island and Coastal Archaeology Interest Group e- Meetings, Communities webpage, which is automatically accessible to all Announcements & interest group members through the SAA’s newly updated Calls for Papers ........ 3 website. The e-Communities page is a venue to share and discuss new articles, workshops, grant opportunities, field methods, and laboratory analyses. It is also intended as a Research Highlight ... 6 venue to help coordinate events during annual meetings and to distribute interest group newsletters. When you have the Recent opportunity, please visit our e-Communities webpage and the Publications ............ 7 SAA e-Community Rules of Engagement. We hope the e- Communities platform will make it easier for ICA members to Submission communicate with one another and make us a tighter-knit and more engaged research community. Instructions ............ 57 The list of 550 recent publications demonstrates the breadth and depth of work taking place globally. Island and coastal archaeologists continue to be at forefront of knowledge concerning human-environment relationships in the past. However, there are also a number of publications highlighting aspects of ancient communities’ social and artistic lives. Especially notable is the amount of work coming from the underwater and maritime archaeology segment of our community. The word “shipwreck” alone occurs in the titles of thirteen publications from the list. If you have recent publications that have not appeared in one of our past issues, we encourage you to submit these for inclusion in our next issue.
    [Show full text]