-
The Sussex campus ‘Forever Strike’: estrangement, resistance and utopian temporality
- Author(s):
- Heather McKnight (see profile)
- Date:
- 2019
- Group(s):
- Utopian Studies
- Subject(s):
- Education, Higher, Labor, Protest literature, Rhetoric, Student movements, Utopias
- Item Type:
- Article
- Tag(s):
- heterotopia, Higher education, Labour, Rhetorics of political protest, Student activism, Utopian literature
- Permanent URL:
- http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/ptp9-5d40
- Abstract:
- The 2018 strike undertaken by academics working in the UK was the largest called in University and College Union history, lasting for fourteen days over 4 weeks, with 88% of members voting for strike action across 64 universities.[1] This article explores how the campus at the University of Sussex during the time of this strike became a strange, conflicted and transformative space; both a heterotopia and a site for a critical utopian process, where norms can be bent and broken, where people can function outside of the normal rules and disciplinary technologies of contemporary academia.[2] The picket lines were supplemented by strike supporting events, teach-ins, teach-outs, occupations, marches, workshops and socials; linking it with debates on the public university, decolonizing the curriculum. The strike action reached beyond the pensions debate and demonstrated radical utopian potential. [1] “UCU Announces 14 Strike Dates at 61 Universities in Pensions Row.” [2] Foucault, “Of Other Spaces: Utopias and Heterotopias, ‘Des Espace Autres.’” 2
- Metadata:
- xml
- Published as:
- Journal article
- Status:
- Published
- Last Updated:
- 4 years ago
- License:
- All Rights Reserved
- Share this:
An online community for ASEEES members
166-605-1-pb.pdf