Comments on: Testimonials of precarity in French universities, part 2

By: eli

eli — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 11:38:07 +0000

“It seems the “altruists” of the world are too often the ones called upon to make sacrifices (probably because they’re the easiest people from whom to extract sacrifices).”

Well said!

By: Max

Max — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 09:44:29 +0000

I think it’s a good thing to value fulfilling work without regard for compensation. But when you know that your lack of compensation is the result of ever-more-invasive bureaucratic decisions, rather than a longstanding, well known part of the job description, I think that thoughts of compensation are warranted. It seems the “altruists” of the world are too often the ones called upon to make sacrifices (probably because they’re the easiest people from whom to extract sacrifices).

Also, I wish I had a Harper’s subscription so I could read that article!

By: eli

eli — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 08:27:48 +0000

Yeah, Max, on second thought I probably should have been more sympathetic in the post. I mean I certainly sympathize strongly with people in this condition (I'm not all that far from being there myself). On the one hand, one wonders if it actually makes any sense for anyone to be strongly committed to academic work: when you think about the triviality and delusions of grandeur that accompany many academic projects, it seems a bit hard to justify wholesale, lifelong commitment. (I guess a Buddhist would go so far as to say that any wholehearted attachment whatsoever is problematic.) On the other hand, of course, one of the worst aspects of the contemporary world is the constant practical and ideological pressure to reduce all values and attachments to a cash value. So I do admire people who manage to retain really strong attachments to the unpractical... like the author in question here. About the broader question of having nonmonetary attachments, the most interesting thing I've read about this is David Graeber's Army of Altruists. You should totally read it if you haven't!

By: Max

Max — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 04:43:24 +0000

I think that publicly describing one’s own situation unlivable, and yet claiming to remain deeply committed to it, is often a sort of defense mechanism designed at once to inspire pity (or a form of pity), but also to ward off the projected response that these conditions are, themselves, part of an apprenticeship, and that if one can’t handle them, perhaps X professional field is not for her/him.

Not that we should always doubt the expressed sincerity of people who make formal complaints of this nature. In fact, I think that academia, on every level, instills the virtues of commitment to one’s project without regard to compensation. The same feelings of virtue are expected from K-12 teachers in America, and pretty much anybody engaged in a form of lower-tier public service. To think about compensation in the midst of one’s Important Duty is crass, if not borderline taboo.

By: BC

BC — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 12:32:49 +0000

On public laments: see boltanski & thevenot “la dénonciation”