Has anyone ever written on the sociology of who *gets* to be radical in British academia (i.e., that people expressing radical political views are more likely to be deemed acceptable if coming from particular–usually elite–class backgrounds and having attended particular–usually elite–institutions)? - ThreadSky

jmharland.bsky.social • 28 days ago

Has anyone ever written on the sociology of who *gets* to be radical in British academia (i.e., that people expressing radical political views are more likely to be deemed acceptable if coming from particular–usually elite–class backgrounds and having attended particular–usually elite–institutions)?

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merleeisenberg.bsky.social•27 days ago

I guess I'd want to know: radical in what way? Expressing radical ideas through discourse? Radical in the academy itself? Radical outside the academy? There can be overlap. I find discourse separated from material realities as a huge overall problem (whatever people's backgrounds) in the US.

jmharland.bsky.social•27 days ago

A bit of all of the above, I suppose... (though primarily the former)

merleeisenberg.bsky.social•27 days ago

I've always found "being radical" in discourse alone a specialty of the academy (caveats with being in the academy, etc.). Discourse needs to work with attempts to improve material conditions, but I find the latter almost always lacking regardless of background.

merleeisenberg.bsky.social•27 days ago

I do think who gets negative push back regarding rhetoric likely has a slant based on class, race, etc. Your prior assumptions of why are probably right. I found this about the material problems convincing: https://newleftreview.org/sidecar/posts/the-sycophant. (Don't know the author but did write and say thanks.)

jmharland.bsky.social•27 days ago

I did not know this text. It looks interesting. Thank you!

shakenbeck.bsky.social•27 days ago

Flashback to one of our (many) strikes when we were picketing university entrances, including the building where colleagues were celebrating the new Centre for Ethics, Economy and Social Change with a champagne reception.

merleeisenberg.bsky.social•27 days ago

That's how it is done, but what other people were celebrating is part of the classic situation.

spoem.bsky.social•27 days ago

Pierre Bourdieu (1930-2002) and his followers have written extensively on the subjects you note above.

Among other work, #Bourdieu is known for "applying his theories of social practice and #habitus to the academic world."

Pierre Bourdieu - #Homo #Academicus (1984): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3o8MFzeYH1A

jmharland.bsky.social•27 days ago

Thanks! I'm familiar with Bourdieu but I suppose I was more curious as to whether anyone has described the present situation in a British context specifically...

realhistoryguy.bsky.social•27 days ago

Hollow laugh.
I think you need to have been to Marlborough

realhistoryguy.bsky.social•27 days ago

Anyway, I was certainly one of the ‘not allowed’. And fit the profile suggested elsewhere in the discussion

daveaddison.bsky.social•27 days ago

I have a pet theory that one of the big divides on the left in academia is between those who are upwardly mobile and those who are downwardly mobile. Not quite sure how to flesh it out.

daveaddison.bsky.social•27 days ago

But I think there is a quite distinct subjectivity to people from very elite backgrounds who end up in low paid academic jobs, but have all sorts of contacts outside the academics. And it's different to those who owe a lot to academia, in personal terms. The former are more "burn it down".

realhistoryguy.bsky.social•27 days ago

I do recall one tenured US prof tweeting about how it was right to ‘burn it all down’ when various UK academics were losing their jobs. Now grandstanding about Roman labour relations…

daveaddison.bsky.social•27 days ago

I take your point, re: Classics. But I think that the tough thing in very middle class, professional spaces is how to have disciplinary solidarity without it degenerating into mere chumminess. There's a vice of excessive mutual protection, too (see: the entire journalism profession).

historiantillo.bsky.social•27 days ago

And I have a pet theory of that pet theory about the condescending tone in several intra-left discussions.

daveaddison.bsky.social•27 days ago

Yes! I first formed this view when thinking about the UK Labour Party ...

jmharland.bsky.social•27 days ago

I have a strong suspicion that you're right.

jmharland.bsky.social•27 days ago

I think it partly frames who expresses which views but it also frames who is *allowed* to express which views (i.e., the upwardly mobile are also usually less allowed to have the 'burn it down' view without backlash).

jmharland.bsky.social•27 days ago

(Though that's part of a complex conditioning process which leads each of those groups to be more likely to lean toward one end of that spectrum of views than the other)

jonathanhsy.bsky.social•27 days ago

Genuinely interested in following this UK convo and seeing how some of this tracks in the US — with race clearly a factor that in the mix as much as class

jmharland.bsky.social•27 days ago

and an important one no less in the UK than the US...!

daveaddison.bsky.social•27 days ago

Agreed, though it's certainly much less discussed.

jonathanhsy.bsky.social•27 days ago

Yes to both

shakenbeck.bsky.social•27 days ago

Strong UCU Left vibes

samottewillsoulsby.bsky.social•27 days ago

Not British, but I remember reading that Marc Bloch’s career was repeatedly stymied because he couldn’t run for positions based on his radical academic achievements without being accused of being a noisy Jew. Non-Jewish rivals could flaunt their radical views in a way he couldn’t.

daveaddison.bsky.social•27 days ago

From Julia Smith's new piece on J.M. Wallace-Hadrill (among other things) https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/early-medieval-england-and-its-n/article/fifty-years-of-early-medieval-history/07B3FE7F71AB425FDDB0D5BD70B892C2::

jmharland.bsky.social•27 days ago

I'm asking this out of sincere curiosity, among other reasons because it'd be nice to confirm whether or not this is a real phenomenon rather than something my own biases lead me to see in everything.

bparsia.bsky.social•26 days ago

Just in my personal experience there’s no strong pattern I can discern other than general demographics. Marginalised groups might be a bit more represented in radical union circles but there’s more room for radicalism.

jmharland.bsky.social•27 days ago

Well, this got a bit more of a response than I was anticipating...

ntheowl.bsky.social•28 days ago

[Because everyone knows they're not really radical]

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