Today, I am scheduled to give an invited lecture at LSe's Political Theory Graduate Conference. I am very proud to be invited to talk to graduate students in my new, adopted discipline (political theory). Unfortunately, A bad flu is preventing my presence.* I am very sad I can't make it because I had been eager to learn from the conference participants about their research; and I was curious to see how young theorists meet the challenge(s) of our age and, perhaps, spot new trends. I also feel bad for the conference hosts, who have to deal with an extra last minute head-ache (pun unintended).
As many of my regular readers probably know, this week happens to coincide with a strike of my British colleagues. For details, just go read Mike Otsuka's essays (which also cover the technical issues quite nicely). On the surface this strike is about protecting pensions -- no small matter given how badly British academics are paid and given the meagerness of the British welfare state-- , but it's also clearly turning into a much larger protest against the ways UK institutions have enriched rent-seeking management at the expense not just of staff and students, but of a corporate (in the traditional sense) and scholarly ethos that had survived centuries. Margaret Heffernan puts the point succinctly in the Financial Times:
Lecturers have accepted relatively low pay and pretty poor working conditions in exchange for significant autonomy and relatively secure jobs and pensions. But, over the past decade, without negotiation, every aspect of that deal has been eroded. Autonomy has given way to increased teaching responsibilities, larger classes, more time spent grading and heavier management duties. Job security has been reduced by eliminating departments and cutting research funding. Pensions are failing to deliver on their promise. While university leaders have awarded themselves huge pay increases, they allowed academic pay and standards of living to decline steadily. Nobody should be surprised that trust has broken down. [HT Chris Bertram]
So, as I followed the pictures of my friends and colleagues on picket lines last week on social media, I started to wonder, if my presence at the LSE conference wouldn't be a form of strike-breaking. After some discussion on social media (you know who you are), I was encouraged to contact the local union shop and ask for guidance. That turned out to be easy, and I received courteous and helpful responses to all my inquiries (and repeated follow up questions) from the sociologist, Fran Tonkiss, the University and College Union (UCU), branch chair. She explained to me that the LSE branch is not taking part in the national action, so I would not be crossing a picket-line. After some back and forth,I agreed I should express my solidarity to the strikers at the start of my lecture (and perhaps post something on my blog).+
Nineteen months ago, my family moved to London. (I commute to Amsterdam.) Amsterdam is not a cheap place, but consumer prices (including rent) in London are 9.74% higher than in Amsterdam. While median salaries are just a bit higher in London (inflated by the financial markets), it's pretty clear its citizens receive unimpressive public services in return. (We love living in London, but my son reminded me the other day that it's actually pretty difficult to find a place to kick a football unless one is willing to head to one of the parks.) I mention this because I have wondered how British academics survive in London (and the area of the country with similar price structure). For, British academic salaries are not especially impressive and have had trouble keeping up with inflation during the last decade (I quote THE): "The average pay for all academic staff dropped in real terms by 2.8 per cent from 2010-11 to 2015-16 and by 3.1 per cent for professors. And while average professorial pay has actually kept slightly ahead of inflation over the past two years, the pay of academic staff as a whole saw a real-terms fall in every year from 2010-11 to 2015-16." While the British pound has recovered a bit from the lows of last August, over a two year period it is down considerably making it unlikely that the loss of purchasing power will be reversed soon.
That British academic institutions punch above their financial weight is undoubtedly a mixture of historical path dependency (and luck that after loss of Empire English became the lingua franca of modern science). But it is primarily the consequence of a great academic ethos (which has revealed itself to be open to foreign talent). I am constantly amazed by how much more work it is to be a British academic (leaving aside the research fellows): from all the extra marking to the additional self-reporting. Yes, at some of the more elite places there are fantastic non-financial compensating factors (high table, prestige, great students, etc.), but on the whole you have to be amazingly dedicated -- to students, to research, to academic values, to love of learning -- to be a British academic. It is clear that in quite a few places, management has not nurtured this ethos, but taken advantage of it. And so today, this post is my small gesture at symbolic solidarity with the strike for USS.
*Against the example of the patron saint of all philosophical bloggers, Montaigne, I have come to think my readers should be spared reports of my bowel movements and physical ailments.
+I also thank Amia Srinivasan, who helped me think through all the issues.
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