I have been scribbling a lot of notes to myself on post-its lately, to the extent that someone in a workshop today commented on the lack of sophistication of my record-keeping and communication system. (The image below is this morning’s efforts). This post is going to read something like a collection of post-it notes on things I have been thinking about lately.

1. Universities as non-places

(This is adapted from an old post on a previous blog, a post-it note of sorts).

I reread Toope’s Universities in the Era of ‘Non-Lieux’ — on the work of French philosopher Marc Augé on“places” and “non-places” — in light of a train station built in Nairobi with Chinese funding:

The train was impressive … but very little of it conjured an image of Kenya, he said, except maybe for the landscape. “It needs to look like it’s ours,” he said. “After all, we’re going to pay for it through our noses, aren’t we?”

Non-lieux are spaces that are essentially interchangeable, without distinctiveness. They tend to render humans anonymous … In such a place you could be anywhere, or no-where. Think shopping centres, airports, large hotels, refugee camps suggests Augé.

Your university is heading the same way, according to Toope, the victim of global rankings, government intervention and online learning.

A constellation of trends is pushing universities in the same direction – toward a homogenization that undermines our ability to fulfill the mission that has shaped our evolution over centuries. If universities cease to be highly differentiated, specific places with distinctive personalities, we will undermine the intellectual diversity needed to produce the catalysis that ignites new ideas, new discoveries and healthy social, cultural and economic innovation … If universities lose sight of where they are grounded, if they succumb to the uniformity encouraged by global rankings, government attempts to promote generic economic strategies, and “applied” research at the expense of free and disruptive inquiry, and by the siren call of anonymous on-line learning, then universities are at risk of turning into the “non-lieux” that Augé descries.

2. Wild places

Feminist philosopher Julia Kristeva begins her book New Maladies of the Soul (1995) with a single, provocative question: “These days, who has a soul?” Non-places are bad for the soul. What feeds that part of me I might call a soul? Sometimes it is not people, but their absence. It’s being in the bush or at the beach. Wild places. Even at the university, there are remnants of turpentine ironbark forest that cling to the edge of campus. I am going to take a walk here.

3. Rethinking writing

While I am walking, I will be thinking. Having previously posted my strategies for writing, I must confess that none have worked recently. I’ve been struggling to write, so I created deadlines by writing abstracts and submitting proposals; I pulled in co-authors and made promises; and I scheduled regular brief writing periods. In the past, this combination has been enjoyable and successful. This time, I felt more pressured and less productive.

I realised I was trying to do new work with different bodies of literature, ideas not yet connected, thinking that stretched my knowledge. I needed longer stretches of time. A weekend writing retreat gave me a chance to play catch up, but I am looking for some new writing techniques. These ideas for mindful writing, reading and listening are a great starting point. (Thanks for sharing @BLASST).