economy
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My dissertation research focused on the obstacles that young aspiring musicians faced as the labor market shifted away from formal institutions toward contingent and freelance action supported by emergent technology. As a former adjunct, labor sociologist, and faculty support professional, I have become obsessed with the parallel forces I’m observing in higher education and how…
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Check out this Google Doc where adjuncts across the US are compiling data on what they make, whether they have contracts, and whether they have benefits and retirement. Super creative use of digital media to gather important data cheaply and quickly. Kudos and thanks to Copy-Paste for building our knowledge of the labor conditions adjuncts…
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The Guardian just ran an article on a study designed to understand the barriers that academics face in contributing their knowledge to Wikipedia. According to the article, academics are more inclined to use the crowd-sourced encyclopedia as a starting point of inquiry, but, like their students, they remain consumers rather than producers of the knowledge…
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Today at my university, the Scholar’s Lab held a talk on Open Access with Madelyn Wessel, Associate General Counsel and Dr. Brian Pusser, Curry School of Education. The talk was in celebration of Open Access Week (Oct 18-24), and served as a follow up conversation to the open access resolution passed by our Faculty Senate.…
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The Coalition on the Academic Workforce is an organization that seeks to understand and address problems related to contingent labor in higher education. They are currently conducting a survey that will provide better, more nuanced data on working conditions and benefits. As the AAUP newsletter describes: Most of the data on the working conditions of…
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Today in my Social Movements class Kevin Simowtiz of Virginia Organizing shared his experiences as a student organizer of the Living Wage Campaign. He also facilitated a useful discussion with the class on the obstacles and resources for student led movements. Here are the highlights of their conversation: What are the obstacles to student* involvement…
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Today’s Congressional hearing on for-profit educational institutions is raising questions of finance, accountability, and technology. The most unethical for-profits, who Sen. Franken has dubbed “bad actors,” show us the worst-case scenario of our times. The bad actors have capitalized on trends of joblessness, educational expansion, on-line learning, and easy access to student loans. A lack…
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This is a re-post from a blog I keep with my mom about family genealogy called social genealogy. It’s a historical look at the problem of education in a changing economy. — Willis Blaisdell was my great-grandfather. Before he passed when I was 5, he left me a number of neat and thoughtful tokens of…
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Higheredjobs.com recently posted an interview with Cathee Johnson Phillips of the National Postdoctoral Association (NPA) about the current state of post-doctoral researchers. Postdoctoral positions have been increasing since the 1970s (though Phillips predicts a dip in 2011 due to the recession) and post-docs have struggled to gain recognition as a class of workers. Post-doc positions…
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Today in my Social Problems class I let students choose a topic for me to discuss. They chose drug abuse. Since drug abuse is not really an area I study, I was at a loss for a good hook that could get me interested in the topic. I found that hook when I caught the…
jacob alden sargent 