Post ASPczp3wbgaHq5jXSC by elotroalex@hcommons.social
(DIR) More posts by elotroalex@hcommons.social
(DIR) Post #ASPczn5zv52Rjsg9NQ by elotroalex@hcommons.social
2023-02-06T16:53:19Z
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Woke up thinking about social relations again. It always struck me that in traditional Marxism you must adjust the underlying structure, the base, before you see any changes in the superstructure. Social relations belong to the base, and those are determined in capitalism by, well, capital and production. Like most things though, once you accept you can't get everything by radical revolution, can't we think of some social relations that can change without a total transformation of the base? Take DH within universities. Let's look at 2 of the relevant roles here: faculty and service staff. Now we are told in DH that collaboration is key. I agree, of course. But collaborating as faculty is weird. There are no incentives, not any real ones anyway. That's maybe because the university already baked in a social relation of service in the service staff. They get paid to be the FT collaborators. What if though we could change that social relation?
(DIR) Post #ASPczncFz8qJLvlueu by elotroalex@hcommons.social
2023-02-06T16:54:39Z
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To be fair, what I describe sounds like a big revolution relative to the way things can change around here. It's not even what I had in mind when I said radical revolution, which involved overthrowing capitalism. 🤣
(DIR) Post #ASPczo8W3CeAxyrfwO by jose_eduardo@mastodon.social
2023-02-06T17:36:00Z
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@elotroalex well, there are different types of Marxisms and not all of them agree with one-way causality idea....but, more importantly, what do you mean that there is no incentive for faculty to collaborate? Whats the incentive for not collaborating?
(DIR) Post #ASPczp3wbgaHq5jXSC by elotroalex@hcommons.social
2023-02-06T18:29:35Z
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@jose_eduardo I should be more specific. At the "elite" universities faculy get rewarded for books... with "good" presses. That's the reward. Solitary work. That's how you achieve Full Professor. There is no other way. At least in the humanities.
(DIR) Post #ASPczpbyZ9o3XdeiUy by TedUnderwood@sigmoid.social
2023-02-06T19:26:17Z
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@elotroalex @jose_eduardo Fwiw, completely different in an iSchool. The incentives for collaboration are very clear; single-authored books are not privileged. It's an entirely different social structure, and people are mostly not even aware of the Harvard / Yale English dept way of thinking
(DIR) Post #ASPczq9IZGSfCzFKRE by elotroalex@hcommons.social
2023-02-06T18:30:15Z
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@jose_eduardo to be even more clear: books are a lot of work. A lot. There's hardly any time left to do anything else besides teaching and service to the department.
(DIR) Post #ASPd6RArozjjmI7rAO by elotroalex@hcommons.social
2023-02-06T19:27:30Z
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@TedUnderwood @jose_eduardo if only you moved closer to the east coast... ðŸ˜ðŸ˜ðŸ˜