The Hopeless University

The Hopeless University Hopeless The “The“The hopeless hopeless University University isis aa flagflag bearerbearer for for a collectivea collective life lifethat that is becoming is becomingmore efficiently more efficiently unsustainable.” unsustainable.” FacedFaced by by the the realities realities and livedlived experiences experiences of of intersecting intersecting crises, crises, the Universitythe Universityhas become has hopeless, become in hopeless, two respects. in two First, respects. it has become First, ita plhasace become that has a no placesocially-useful that has no role socially-useful beyond the reproduction role beyond of thecapital, reproducti and hason become of capital, an anti- andhuman has becomeproject devoid an anti-human of hope. Second, project it devoid is unable of tohope. respond Second, meaningfully it is unable with crises that erupt from the contradictions of capital. Thus. in its maintenance toof respond business-as-usual, meaningfully the Universitywith crises remains that erupt shaped from as thea tactic contraal responsedictions to ofthese capital. contradictions. Thus. in its maintenance of business-as-usual, the University remains shaped as a tactical response to these contradictions. The The Hopeless University examines the structures/forms, cultures/pathologies Theand Hopeless activities/methodologies University examines of the University,the structures/forms, in order to question cultures/pathologies what kind The andof activities/methodologieshigher learning we yearn for of and the deserve. University, In looking in order at theto questionways in which what the kindUniversity of higher represents learning our we entangled, yearn for intellectual and deserve. existences, In looking Richard at the Hall ways asks whether we might compost the structures, cultures and activities that engender Hopeless in which the University represents our entangled, intellectual existences, Richardhopelessness Hall asks and helplessness.whether we mightMight othercompost modes the of structures, intellectua lcult workures and and higher learning be possible? Hopeless activities that engender hopelessness and helplessness. Might other modes ofIn intellectual addressing workthis question, and higher individuals learning and be communities possible? are invited to consider University: Inthe addressing potential forthis reimagining question, individuals intellectual workand communities as a movement are of isensuousnvited to human activity in the world, and as a refusal of its commodification. As considerwidespread the potentialsocial struggles for reimagining against capitalism intellectual are revealed, work as we a aremovement reminded of University ofour sensuous ability tohuman make activityhistory. Thus, in the we world, must discussand as ahow refusal to reimagine of its and recycle Intellectual Work commodification.intellectual work in Associety. widespread We must social discuss struggles how to compostagainst capitalismThe Hopeless are Hall Richard revealed,University we as are an remindedindignant movement of our ability of dignity. to make history. Thus, we must Intellectualat the end Work of discuss how to reimagine and recycle intellectual work in society. We must discussRichard how Hall to is compost Professor The of Education Hopeless and University Technology as an at Deindignant Montfort movement at the end of ofUniversity, dignity. Leicester, UK. He is a National Teaching Fellow and writes about The End of History life in higher education at: richard-hall.org. Richard Hall is Professor of Education and Technology at De Montfort The End of History University, Leicester, UK. He is a National Teaching Fellow and writes about life in higher education at: richard-hall.org. Richard Hall www.mayflybooks.org Acknowledgements Endorsements for The Hopeless University: Krystian Szadkowski, Institute of Philosophy, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland. Raymond Williams wrote that the most formidable task of all is to show the connections between “the formations of feeling and relationship which are our immediate resources in any struggle”. In The Hopeless University Richard Hall takes up this task seriously, by helping us to understand how the “university-as-is” relies on the universalization of anxiety and the spread of alienation, at the end of the End of History. Moving from hopeless hierarchies, elitists privileges, widespread pathologies of the capitalist academic workplaces to ineffective positivist methodologies that lay at the core of the contemporary university, he criticizes the widespread culture of self-harm, imposed precarity, senseless competition, to address the contradictory essence of our hopeless institutions. Richard suggests that to escape, we need to find the strength in what we have and who we are – in our daily practices of solidarity and mutuality, in our acts of self-care and kindness. The Hopeless University is the first and necessary step on this long path. Svenja Helmes, PhD student at the University of Sheffield and co-author of Life for the Academic in the Neoliberal University. In The Hopeless UniversityRichard Hall builds on his previous book, The Alienated Academic, as he argues against the University in its current form. He delves deeper into the idea of refusing what the University has become, an anxiety machine responsible for its workers’ ill-health, i The Hopeless University for the sake of producing labour power and capital. Not only does the book reflect on the circumstances of those involved, it also situates the University within global socio- economic and socio-environmental crises, and positions it as an anti-human project that puts surplus before people. He reiterates the non-neutrality of the University and its complicity in the reproduction of inequality and inequity, as those in precarious positions are further exploited when they are gendered, racialised, disabled and/or queer. Thus, The Hopeless Universitycentres calls for the abolition of the University as we know it, through the dismantling of its forces and relations of production at the level of society. Joel Lazarus, University of Bath. At the end of The End of History, we urgently need brave voices to tell us that, no matter how fervently we might hope, we must confront the stark truth that everything may well not turn out all right; to confront ourselves in and of this truth; and to begin the necessary process of grieving this truth. Richard’s forensic deconstruction of the capitalist university, and the senses of hopelessness and helplessness it generates, leaves us unable to deny this truth any longer. Each page of this wonderful book is filled with vulnerability, courage, wisdom, and, above all, love. Richard combines all four of these qualities in his refusal to offer any strategic blueprint for an alternative post-capitalist university, and in his invitation to us to sit with ourselves and with each other, with our wounds and our pain, and the bewildering but beautiful entangled messiness of our lives and our world. As such, we might be attentive at last to a present that can integrate and be fertilised by a past, in order to conceive a new dawn yearning to be born. ii Acknowledgements iii The Hopeless University iv Acknowledgements The Hopeless University: Intellectual Work at the end of The End of History v The Hopeless University Published by Mayfly Books. Available in paperpack and free online at www.mayflybooks.org in 2021. © Richard Hall 2021 ISBN (Print) 978-1-906948-54-2 ISBN (PDF) 978-1-906948-55-9 ISBN (ebook) 978-1-906948-56-6 Layout by Mihkali Pennanen. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Non commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0 vi Acknowledgements The Hopeless University: Intellectual Work at the end of The End of History Richard Hall vii The Hopeless University viii Acknowledgements Contents Acknowledgements xiii Foreword, by Sarah Amsler xix Introduction: A terrain of hopelessness at the end of The End of History 1 Hopeless struggle in the anxiety machine 41 Forms of hopelessness 77 Pathological hopelessness 113 Methodological hopelessness 145 A Movement of the Heart 183 Beyond the University at the end of The End of History 217 References 252 ix The Hopeless University x Acknowledgements This book is dedicated to friends who were there from the start. Joel, Joss, Keith, Keri, Krystian, Liz, Mike, Mohamed, Nick and Sarah. xi The Hopeless University xii Acknowledgements Acknowledgements his book is overdue. Its late arrival reflects the realities of life Tand work under the rule of a pandemic and the uncertainties wrought by it. That it is here at all is a testament to the forgiveness and support of a number of friends, not least Jo, to whom I owe an immense debt. The pandemic helped to shape the argument by slowing it down, and enabling me to remember my training as a historian. Remembering reflects my yearning to understand my present in light of my past, in order to act. This has required sitting with, excavating and writing-through my own entanglements as a means of letting out. Such letting out is the first step in taking meaningful action, and in the context of this book it is fundamental in building the argument that, in the midst of intersecting crises, we are able to make our own history. We were told that we were at the end of history, because capitalism had won, and alternative paths had been foreclosed upon. Yet, this

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