Josephine and Claire engage the idea that "the personal is political": after going through these exercises what new dimensions of this phrase have jumped out to you?
After watching the workshop I was thinking about my career trajectory - and to what extent I have over the years increasingly channeled my activist aims through institutional contexts in the hope of making structural change... though this has not been linear. I have always been engaged in my community in one way or another alongside work, and now research. Before entering academia I had felt a bit dissatisfied with what the third sector could achieve at a structural level, although it achieved so much for individuals and communities, I hoped I could contribute to bigger picture change by working in the academy... a few years on and I see more of the challenges of being based
within academia! I am once again finding more meaning through participating in my community to make local change, alongside more realistic expectations of what sort of change university based research can make.
Ohh - yes - I think that this is really interesting - structural change through academia (although, how much change can be made through academia?). But, then perhaps personal-level change in academia is also important? E.g. through our research practices/teaching methods/collaboration with colleagues/community building?
@Ellie Armstrong [mod] hard agree Ellie! I feel so much more focussed on interpersonal/relationships level change nowadays, through meaningful interactions and collaborations rather than publishing things 'at' people (though of course this has an important role)
Taking Chair's perogative, I was really thinking about the inverse of how I normally think about the phrase: that also the complicity in the "worse" parts of the political system too - like the personal of *not* making change is also political?
@Ellie Armstrong [mod] There are limits to how much an individual can do and it is a case of picking our battles. "If we try to do everything we will achieve nothing." But I completely agree that those choices we make are political and constructed by our positionality and life experiences.
@Ellie Armstrong [mod] love this perspective - reminds me of Friere (mentioned in the workshop) quote 'Washing one's hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral.'
I loved how the Workshop opened saying, "PAR is personal - it is about a call to action for tackling inequality towards social justice" (paraphrased (!)) This really spoke to me. I have often felt like my research is a calling but been unable to find a way to express it articulately (and convincingly) to colleagues to lobby for more ethical practices in research. I think that PAR is going to offer a great way for me to think about how to frame my research practice and I am super excited about this workshop series.
I've put up the final prompts for questions today over on a new post; so we can move over there for the last ten minutes!
After watching the workshop I was thinking about my career trajectory - and to what extent I have over the years increasingly channeled my activist aims through institutional contexts in the hope of making structural change... though this has not been linear. I have always been engaged in my community in one way or another alongside work, and now research. Before entering academia I had felt a bit dissatisfied with what the third sector could achieve at a structural level, although it achieved so much for individuals and communities, I hoped I could contribute to bigger picture change by working in the academy... a few years on and I see more of the challenges of being based
within academia! I am once again finding more meaning through participating in my community to make local change, alongside more realistic expectations of what sort of change university based research can make.
Taking Chair's perogative, I was really thinking about the inverse of how I normally think about the phrase: that also the complicity in the "worse" parts of the political system too - like the personal of *not* making change is also political?
Great to connect with like-minded people too!!
I loved how the Workshop opened saying, "PAR is personal - it is about a call to action for tackling inequality towards social justice" (paraphrased (!)) This really spoke to me. I have often felt like my research is a calling but been unable to find a way to express it articulately (and convincingly) to colleagues to lobby for more ethical practices in research. I think that PAR is going to offer a great way for me to think about how to frame my research practice and I am super excited about this workshop series.