2011: A Year in Review – Crisis & Positive Change

As I get older and a new year approaches, I am struck by both how little has changed, fundamentally, in the past 12 months and how this year seems to have gone faster than the last.  At every turn there has been conflict and challenges to society, to education and to my own life.  I am left feeling that these are not easy times we are living through but crisis has led to positive change. 

This year is often seen as a year of crisis with the political and economic scenes having worsened, particularly in the Euro zone.  With countries arguing over who is in and out of Europe or certain sections of Europe, we have some of the fiercest political debate on our relationships in Europe that we have had in a generation.  It is splitting UK politics, it is splitting various members of Europe from each other and it is indeed splitting the EU from the rest of the world who look on, somewhat in horror, at what their “cultured” and “historic” friends are doing.  At home, the Unions have been protesting, anti-capitalists have been camping, the coalition has been divided, revelations have been made about phones that were hacked (or at least thought to have been) and sections of society have been out rioting and looting.  These are not easy times that we are living through. 

Within my own sector of Higher Education, departments are being cut, student numbers are not clear in the post-fees era and the economic outlook is far from sure.  The future of Universities has never been less clear and the role of institutions is not clear.  I was at a Christmas drinks event recently where people were trying to argue that universities were not producing graduates that were right for the work place.  My feeling is that their expectations of what education can do is false and that it is not simply about skills but about developing the mind, too.  In the economic rush for up-skilling individuals, the role of educating can be lost.  And the role of research has been challenged and its independence questioned.  These are not easy times that we are living through. 

Even at a personal level, it has been a year of huge change.  The issues around the separation of my old tutor and allocation of a new one have been challenging.  The slow progress I have been making with my own research has been disheartening.  The loss of my mother has been sad and heart-breaking.  These are not easy times we are living through. 

And yet, during my travels across Europe in the early autumn, it was clear that the European Union was here to stay in the close relationships shown between nations and the personal welcome and empathy shown to me.  There was a feeling that the EU has to work – for us the people – despite our politicians.  And similarly after the riots or realisation that the press were behaving badly, it was realised that this was our society.  The scenes of mass-clean-ups or wider-scale debate about individual freedoms were built on this.  There is some evidence of a higher level of debate and civic engagement than before.  Crisis has led to positive change. 

In Higher Education, you are seeing programmes for change management, academics taking things into their own hands and forming new colleges and more discussion about industry in the corridors.  Some of this may have already been happening already, some of it may only be transitory but, in the short term, a year of turmoil has made discussion wider.  Now don’t get me wrong, life is hard for the millions unemployed, for the graduates without jobs and for the individuals hurting from the evils in our lives so I do not want to paint an easy, perfect life but, in certain areas, crisis has led to positive change.  

And the change of tutor has driven me on and I feel I am working harder to finish the PhD and chapters are being written, revised, dismissed and accepted at a faster rate than ever in the three years of this project.  At home, the personal kindness I have been privileged to receive, the relationships which have matured within the family and the hope of future blessings have all meant that out of loss has come at least something positive.  Crisis has led to positive change. 

So, in the end, 2011 has been a year which has whizzed by with challenges witnessed at national and individual level but as we go towards 2012, I have to be hopeful that many good things can come out of this time.  These are not easy times we are living through but crisis has led to positive change.  

Europe – In, Out or Just Shaken All About?

There’s the old children’s game of hokey-cokey where various limbs are put in and out of a circle and then shaken all about.  And really the entire thing is a good metaphor for what has been happening in Brussels and in the UK over the last few weeks. 

It’s rather easy (and simplistic) to reduce the arguments in Brussels over the future of the European Union to a child’s game but in many ways the showing off, the whole “whose my friend” and, at times, down right bullying does have resonances with the playground.  Politics has often been like this but when the stakes are so high it becomes even more incongruous with the issues being discussed.  Britain has thrown its weight around in the past – like when Thatcher renegotiated how much we got back – so none of this is new.  Yet we live in very different times and although the City is 10% or so of the UK’s economy, there is much discussion on the extent to which the proposed treaty would have endangered London’s financial operation.  But still the UK’s presence in Europe is desired and various leaders have been emphasising this since the conference.  Perhaps the UK is not whole-heartedly “in” Europe but certainly a major player and economic power aligned to it. 

What this whole spat comes down to is Britain’s position on the edge of Europe – as has been said before the geography is reflective of a mind-set.  Our political parties are divided and, indeed, as is our government.  There is no real political refuge in the UK for those in favour of closer ties with Europe so those in favour of closer ties to Europe are very much “out” of things. 

The UK is often portrayed as the only country to have these issues but remember that the Czech Republic and Hungary wavered over the idea of a treaty, Sweden has deliberately kept itself outside the Euro and Iceland is heavily divided on whether it should join in. Divisions are not uncommon across Europe and Ireland, the Netherlands and France have all wobbled at times. 

But at a time when everything is being shaken all about so much through the economic crisis many see it as necessary to lean together and support each other.  And this is the fundamental problem that with much of UK politics (of all colours) and international relations, individuals are too focussed on themselves and forget neighbours (be they actual people or other nation states).  The lack of commitment to a wider society with responsibilities to each other is one of the reasons that policies from the Big Society to European Relations stumble.  Until all groups are committed to greater, communal projects and not just looking to national leaders or, more specifically, Germany to fund the European Union then this crisis is going to continue.  The social divisions at neighbourhood level are just magnified at national level. 

This is of fundamental importance to my research: I am assessing one of the education policies of the European Union and seeing if its social intentions are working.  When I started the research the future of the Euro and the EU seemed clear and certain; today it seems less so.   Yet, the European Union should not be assessed simply on the economic decisions it makes but also on the social and cultural impacts that it has.  In many ways whether certain groups or nations are “in or out” does not matter as with all the shaking all about due to a lack of hard commitment the entire Union may not exist in the same way for too much longer. 

Revising Research Questions: Academically not Personally Challenging

I spend a lot of my time revising research proposals, making sure that questions are realistic and correctly framed.  I find myself regularly saying they are too large or too grand or too many.  Questions need to be realistic, acheivable and engaging.  So, I can hand out the advice but when it comes to my own for the PhD it has not been as easy. 

I had 6 of them which included reviewing far too much literature and to be frank were full or jargon.  Leading by example, as you can see. 

And yet, we had a very painful tutorial back in November on how they need reframing and I have spend a lot of time revising them.  I also added some definitions of the terms which I am using.  All good but I found the whole thing incredably personal and challenging: I now know how my academics feel but I need to learn that it is my argument being attacked and not me.