[SSC] SSC Digest, Vol 13, Issue 2

Thu Jan 5 12:57:05 UTC 2012

Thanks, Peter, for sending your thoughts even though you won't be able to make the meeting tonight. I'll print them out and we'll try to incorporate them. I can't respond just at the moment, but will also try to as there are some very interesting points. I think we are coming from quite different ways of problematising plurality, but as this is a complex debate and we expect there are things to discuss, this is  precisely one of the things we were hoping to tease out this evening and beyond in continuing inquiry. We are also thinking about the tension you raise in your second paragraph; wanting again to think through what non-hierarchical practices of judgment actually look and feel like; what work they do in education and everyday life. In any case, thanks and more soon.

Best,
Sarah

Dr Sarah S Amsler
Lecturer in Sociology
Aston University
Birmingham, B4 7ET, UK
+44 (0) 121 204 3072
s.s.amsler at aston.ac.uk

Campaign for the Public University: http://publicuniversity.org.uk
________________________________________
From: ssc-bounces at lists.aktivix.org [ssc-bounces at lists.aktivix.org] on behalf of ssc-request at lists.aktivix.org [ssc-request at lists.aktivix.org]
Sent: Thursday, January 05, 2012 12:00 PM
To: ssc at lists.aktivix.org
Subject: SSC Digest, Vol 13, Issue 2

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Today's Topics:

   1. Re: Next meeting (Michael Neary)
   2. Re: Times Next meeting (Michael Neary)
   3. Re: SSC Digest - Quality and Peer Review working group
      (Peter Somerville)
   4. SSC meeting, 5/1/12 - for mention/discussion (Amsler, Sarah)

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Message: 1
Date: Wed, 4 Jan 2012 17:19:32 +0000
From: Michael Neary <nearymichael at hotmail.com>
To: <joss at josswinn.org>, <ssc at lists.aktivix.org>
Subject: Re: [SSC] Next meeting
Message-ID: <COL101-W55C4A6D1DFD4AC712EBFE7C9970 at phx.gbl>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Dear All,
Just another gentle reminder that there is an SSC meeting tomorrow evening at Mint Lane from 5.30 to 7.30.
You can see from Joss' email below the main topics for discussion.
I would be grateful if you could let me have your apologies if you are not able to attend.
Best wishes,
Mike

> From: joss at josswinn.org
> Date: Mon, 19 Dec 2011 08:47:08 +0000
> To: ssc at lists.aktivix.org
> Subject: [SSC] Next meeting
>
> Dear all,
>
> Just a reminder that our next meeting is on January 5th 7.30-9.30pm.
>
> It will be at the Involvement Centre on Mint Lane, Lincoln (where we've met several times before). This time we will have the main, central room. Please note that it will not be at Croft Street, as previously advertised.
>
> We'll also have some guests who have offered to help with the design work we've been discussing and I'd like to discuss the curriculum further and start to plan student recruitment.
>
> If there's anything you'd like to add to the agenda, please let the mailing list know.
>
> Best wishes
>
> Joss
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> SSC mailing list
> SSC at lists.aktivix.org
> https://lists.aktivix.org/mailman/listinfo/ssc

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Message: 2
Date: Wed, 4 Jan 2012 17:33:33 +0000
From: Michael Neary <nearymichael at hotmail.com>
To: <joss at josswinn.org>, <ssc at lists.aktivix.org>
Subject: Re: [SSC] Times Next meeting
Message-ID: <COL101-W531F81F25E88CDBB40C1EC9970 at phx.gbl>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Dear All,Meeting starts at 7.30 pm and ends at 9.30 pm. Not 5.30 to 7.30.See  you tomorrow.Mike

> From: joss at josswinn.org
> Date: Mon, 19 Dec 2011 08:47:08 +0000
> To: ssc at lists.aktivix.org
> Subject: [SSC] Next meeting
>
> Dear all,
>
> Just a reminder that our next meeting is on January 5th 7.30-9.30pm.
>
> It will be at the Involvement Centre on Mint Lane, Lincoln (where we've met several times before). This time we will have the main, central room. Please note that it will not be at Croft Street, as previously advertised.
>
> We'll also have some guests who have offered to help with the design work we've been discussing and I'd like to discuss the curriculum further and start to plan student recruitment.
>
> If there's anything you'd like to add to the agenda, please let the mailing list know.
>
> Best wishes
>
> Joss
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> SSC mailing list
> SSC at lists.aktivix.org
> https://lists.aktivix.org/mailman/listinfo/ssc

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Message: 3
Date: Wed, 4 Jan 2012 17:55:32 -0000
From: "Peter Somerville" <psomerville at lincoln.ac.uk>
To: "Amsler, Sarah" <S.S.AMSLER at aston.ac.uk>
Cc: ssc at lists.aktivix.org
Subject: Re: [SSC] SSC Digest - Quality and Peer Review working group
Message-ID:
        <6A2C225F32AD154D9D822F00DF34D8CB01986670 at AEXCMS02.network.uni>
Content-Type: text/plain;       charset="us-ascii"

Sorry I can't attend the meeting tomorrow but here are a few comments on
your paper for possible discussion.

You say: 'Our affirmative practice begins from a social and political
ontology of plurality and diversity'. This seems to suggest that you
regard plurality and diversity as socially and politically desirable. I
would question this, or at least I would want to argue that the
important thing is to understand the limits of plurality and diversity
and not to regard them as having inherent value (and if they do not have
inherent value, why start your practice from them?). A starting point
from plurality and diversity lacks any clear ethical framework and leads
to the acceptance of all kinds of unethical views and practices (female
genital mutilation was an actual example not so many years ago -
defended on the grounds of cultural diversity). This ethical vacuum
reflects the Schumpeterian view of (plural and diverse) capitalism as
the institutional aggregation of individuals' (moral) choices.

Quality is, to quote Tina Turner, 'simply the best'. It has nothing to
do with hierarchy. But then it is not clear what you mean by hierarchy.
Obviously, if something is the best then, unless it is the only one of
its kind, something else of the same kind might be second best. But how
could it be otherwise? If you don't want to accept that everything has
the same quality (and, if you did, what would that quality be?), then
you must agree that some things have more value than others. Personally,
I would not call this hierarchy.

You ask why we desire to make judgments about quality. I answer: because
it is the primary purpose of education precisely to develop this faculty
of judgment. What does a learner learn? To describe things, yes, to
analyse, yes, but above all to evaluate, which requires making
judgements about the value of what they learn. The role of a teacher is
to help them do all this. In academia, as in life generally, we are all,
to different degrees (no hierarchy implied!), learners and teachers.

Best

Pete

-----Original Message-----
From: ssc-bounces at lists.aktivix.org
[mailto:ssc-bounces at lists.aktivix.org] On Behalf Of Amsler, Sarah
Sent: 02 January 2012 01:12
To: ssc at lists.aktivix.org
Subject: [SSC] SSC Digest - Quality and Peer Review working group

Dear all,

We have been thinking about how to develop the workers' enquiry group to
explore issues around 'quality and peer review', and would like to start
working on this collectively at our upcoming meeting. We have pulled out
what we feel to be some important themes and concepts from our initial
paper (attached), and that have been emerging in some of the SSC
discussions, and suggest that we dedicate part of the meeting to
discussing these and mapping out some directions for deeper enquiry. Our
proposed themes for discussion are quality (including judgement and
value), non-hierarchical principles and non-hierarchical practices. If
you have any other suggestions or points that you feel it is important
to discuss, please do bring them along. We're looking forward to the
meeting.

Best,

Sara and Sarah

Dr Sarah S Amsler
Lecturer in Sociology
Aston University
Birmingham, B4 7ET, UK
+44 (0) 121 204 3072
s.s.amsler at aston.ac.uk

Campaign for the Public University: http://publicuniversity.org.uk
________________________________________
From: ssc-bounces at lists.aktivix.org [ssc-bounces at lists.aktivix.org] on
behalf of ssc-request at lists.aktivix.org [ssc-request at lists.aktivix.org]
Sent: Monday, December 19, 2011 12:00 PM
To: ssc at lists.aktivix.org
Subject: SSC Digest, Vol 12, Issue 4

Send SSC mailing list submissions to
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When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than
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Today's Topics:

   1. Next meeting (Joss Winn)

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Message: 1
Date: Mon, 19 Dec 2011 08:47:08 +0000
From: Joss Winn <joss at josswinn.org>
To: "ssc at lists.aktivix.org ssc at lists.aktivix.org"
        <ssc at lists.aktivix.org>
Subject: [SSC] Next meeting
Message-ID: <48C9CA43-991A-4DBD-BC9F-AC30C26891E5 at josswinn.org>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

Dear all,

Just a reminder that our next meeting is on January 5th 7.30-9.30pm.

It will be at the Involvement Centre on Mint Lane, Lincoln (where we've
met several times before). This time we will have the main, central
room. Please note that it will not be at Croft Street, as previously
advertised.

We'll also have some guests who have offered to help with the design
work we've been discussing and I'd like to discuss the curriculum
further and start to plan student recruitment.

If there's anything you'd like to add to the agenda, please let the
mailing list know.

Best wishes

Joss

------------------------------

_______________________________________________
SSC mailing list
SSC at lists.aktivix.org
https://lists.aktivix.org/mailman/listinfo/ssc

End of SSC Digest, Vol 12, Issue 4
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Message: 4
Date: Thu, 5 Jan 2012 00:45:58 +0000
From: "Amsler, Sarah" <S.S.AMSLER at aston.ac.uk>
To: "ssc at lists.aktivix.org" <ssc at lists.aktivix.org>
Subject: [SSC] SSC meeting, 5/1/12 - for mention/discussion
Message-ID:
        <9774754FC22DE74C9E03756E9706CD440D6C4A at exch-mb-g50-02.campus.aston.ac.uk>

Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Hello all,

If we are still making suggestions for agenda items, I'd like to pick up a topic that we intended to discuss at our last meeting but didn't get to -- linking with other projects -- and make mention of a meeting to develop a National Free University in Birmingham on February 25th.

People may also be interested in a discussion thread on the forum for that group which deals with formulating a statement of purpose (http://forum.freeuniversity.org.uk/viewthread.php?tid=6), with an interestingly similar discussion around the conceptualisation of 'free' and etc. as we have also begun to have with Richard and John's useful suggestions.

Best,
Sarah

________________________________________
From: ssc-bounces at lists.aktivix.org [ssc-bounces at lists.aktivix.org] on behalf of ssc-request at lists.aktivix.org [ssc-request at lists.aktivix.org]
Sent: Monday, December 19, 2011 12:00 PM
To: ssc at lists.aktivix.org
Subject: SSC Digest, Vol 12, Issue 4

Send SSC mailing list submissions to
        ssc at lists.aktivix.org

To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit
        https://lists.aktivix.org/mailman/listinfo/ssc
or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to
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You can reach the person managing the list at
        ssc-owner at lists.aktivix.org

When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific
than "Re: Contents of SSC digest..."

Today's Topics:

   1. Next meeting (Joss Winn)

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Message: 1
Date: Mon, 19 Dec 2011 08:47:08 +0000
From: Joss Winn <joss at josswinn.org>
To: "ssc at lists.aktivix.org ssc at lists.aktivix.org"
        <ssc at lists.aktivix.org>
Subject: [SSC] Next meeting
Message-ID: <48C9CA43-991A-4DBD-BC9F-AC30C26891E5 at josswinn.org>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

Dear all,

Just a reminder that our next meeting is on January 5th 7.30-9.30pm.

It will be at the Involvement Centre on Mint Lane, Lincoln (where we've met several times before). This time we will have the main, central room. Please note that it will not be at Croft Street, as previously advertised.

We'll also have some guests who have offered to help with the design work we've been discussing and I'd like to discuss the curriculum further and start to plan student recruitment.

If there's anything you'd like to add to the agenda, please let the mailing list know.

Best wishes

Joss

------------------------------

_______________________________________________
SSC mailing list
SSC at lists.aktivix.org
https://lists.aktivix.org/mailman/listinfo/ssc

End of SSC Digest, Vol 12, Issue 4
**********************************

------------------------------

_______________________________________________
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SSC at lists.aktivix.org
https://lists.aktivix.org/mailman/listinfo/ssc

End of SSC Digest, Vol 13, Issue 2
**********************************