Ruth Rikowski's 56th News Update

Education Crisis

This newsletter is short. My health is still suffering, following on from the fracture of my wrist in the summer. Unfortunately, the injury has had various knock-on effects on other parts of my body, which I am still trying to recover from. Hopefully, will get there in the end! A shortened version of this newsletter will now be distributed 3 times a year. Meanwhile, here a few short news items.

1. ‘POSTMODERN DERELICTION IN THE FACE OF NEOLIBERAL EDUCATION POLICY’ BY GLENN RIKOWKS REPUBLISHED IN HEATHWOOD PRESS WEBSITE 

The Heathwood Institute & Press has re-published Glenn’s Postmodern Dereliction in the Face of Neoliberal Education Policy, as advertised previously at ‘All that is Solid for Glenn Rikowski’: http://rikowski.wordpress.com/2013/09/11/postmodern-dereliction-in-the-face-of-neoliberal-education-policy/ 

The original Heathwood link is: http://www.heathwoodpress.com/postmodern-dereliction-face-neoliberal-education-policy/ - where you can also read some other interesting articles posted to Heathwood: http://www.heathwoodpress.com

2. SCHOOL OF SUCCESS REPRODUCING SOME OF GLENN RIKOWSKI’S MATERIAL The School of Success website has reproduced some of Glenn’s articles. For more details see: http://rikowski.wordpress.com/2013/07/12/school-of-success/ 

3. VANESSA'S WEBSITE - 'JUST VANESSA' A friend of mine, told me recently about her lovely artistic website ‘Just Vanessa’. Some of Vanessa’s material is also available for sale. See: http://www.justvanessa.com/ 

4. ELSEVIER ACQUIRED WOODHEAD PUBLISHING LTD, INCLUDING THE CHANDOS IMPRINT IN AUGUST 2013 There have been more changes afoot for Chandos Publishing, with Elsevier acquiring both Woodhead and Chandos. See: http://store.elsevier.com/Chandos-Publishing/IMP_207/?mckv=sIA7ikQYv_dc&pcrid=37935166152&plid=&kword=chandos%20publishing&match=b&gclid=COKF07O407sCFTHLtAodikoAzw 

My next newsletter will be distributed at the end of April 2014. Happy New Year. Best wishes, Ruth

Ruth Rikowski's 55th News Update

My husband, Dr Glenn Rikowksi, has resigned from his position as ‘Senior Lecturer in Education Studies’ at the University of Northampton, and his last day working there will be 31^st October 2013.

So, there is much change afoot and I will not be sending out my usual newsletter this quarter (other than the item below about the new additions to my ‘Serendipitous Moments’ blog).

All being well, I will send out my next newsletter, as usual, on 31^st December 2013.

I hope you all had a good summer.

3 new items up on my ‘Serendipitous Moments’ blog

http://ruthrikowskiim.blogspot.co.uk/

I have inserted 3 new items up on my ‘Serendipitous Moments’ blog. These are: ‘Andy Murray Wins Wimbledon’, ‘4 Ramadan’ and ‘ 4 years later’.

Best wishes

Ruth

NB: At the end of August we went on holiday, and within the hour of arriving at our destination Ruth fractured the radius bone in her left arm on Stiffkey Marshes, north Norfolk. She has suffered a lot of pain and it has been very debilitating. Her arm is still in plaster, and will take several more weeks yet. Therefore, I am sending this Newsletter out on her behalf.

Glenn Rikowski

All that is Solid for Glenn Rikowski: http://rikowski.wordpress.com

Ruth Rikowski's 54th News Update

                                                   
 'Memento Mori' by Neil Whitehead


Below is some of the latest from me.


1. GLENN RIKOWSKI WRITING A FOREWORD FOR DAVE HILL’S SINGLE-AUTHORED BOOK ‘MARXIST ESSAYS ON NEOLIBERALISM, CLASS, ‘RACE’, CAPITALISM AND EDUCATION, BRIGHTON, THE INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION POLICY STUDIES, 2013

Glenn Rikowski is writing a Foreword for his writing colleague and friend, Dave Hill, for his forthcoming single-authored book on ‘Marxist essays on neoliberalism, class, ‘race’, capitalism and education’. The book will comprise a selection of Dave’s essays and articles on these topics.




2. GLENN RIKOWSKI ENDORSING FAITH AGOSTINONE WILSON’S FORTHCOMING ‘DIALECTICAL RESEARCH METHODS IN THE CLASSICAL MARXIST TRADITION (Critical Qualitative Research)’, PETER LANG PUBLISHING INC., 2013
ISBN: 10 1433117134; 13 978 1433117138

Glenn has endorsed Faith Agostinone Wilson’s forthcoming book, ’Dialectical Research Methods in the Classical Marxist Tradition’. Faith is an Associate Professor of Education at Aurora University, USA.

Glenn thought the book was fantastic, and breaks through many barriers. This is how his endorsement reads:

“In the last several decades, Marxist educational theorists and researchers have pinpointed particular deficiencies and shortcomings in mainstream educational and social research and its postmodern pretenders. However, until now, there has never been a systematic and sustained critique of capitalist realism, pragmatism, and postmodernism as limiting and constraining forces for educational researchers. Faith Agostinone-Wilson has produced such a book, and furthermore offers an alternative vision for education research that challenges the legitimacy, efficacy, ethical validity, and sustainability of capitalist society and capitalist forms of education and education research.”

We wish Faith Wilson every success with her new book.



3. ‘CAPITORG: EDUCATION AND THE CONDITION OF THE HUMAN IN CONTEMPORARY SOCIETY’ – BY GLENN RIKOWSKI, REPUBLISHED WITH HEATHCOTE PRESS.

Robert C. Smith of Heathwood Press asked Glenn if he could republish his article on the ‘Capitorg: education and the condition of the human in contemporary society’ and he very happily agreed.

The republished article can be found at:
http://www.heathwoodpress.com/capitorg-education-and-the-constitution-of-the-human-in-contemporary-society/



4. HEATHWOOD PRESS’S NEW WEBSITE
http://www.heathwoodpress.com/

Heathwood Press (who originally contacted us, saying that they would like to re-publish one of Glenn’s articles) has just launched their new website. Heathwood Press is an ‘independent organisation for social progress’.

Its ambition is “… to break down the barriers separating critical theoretical discourse and ‘the everyday practise of social and individual life’ “

One of the new features on the new website includes the organisations GlobalVoice project. This acts as centralised hub or platform for the publication of non-profit research and reports. There is also a new on-site comments system, for the purpose of generating fruitful discussion.

In addition, they are developing a series of critical theory eGuides, ranging on subjects from alternative education and epistemology to alternative economics and ideology critique.

Furthermore, they are also working towards publishing a range of infographics, interactive media, videos and datablogs to further support their present research activity and public engagement campaigns. There are also several new publications in the pipeline.

We wish Heathwood Press every success with their new website, and with their enterprise, with its sound goals and principles in general.



5. ALLISON LITTLEJOHN AND CHRIS PEGLER’S BOOK ‘PREPARNG FOR BLENDED E-LEARNING: understanding blended and online learning (connecting with e-learning) NOW IN ARABIC:

We were delighted when our friend Chris Pegler made contact with us, informing us that one of her books, ‘Preparing for blended e-learning’ (that includes a page about Glenn Rikowski and social networking) had been translated into Arabic. She gave us a copy of the book. The book, as it is in Arabic, reads from back to front and from right to left of course.

The ISBN of the book in Arabic is ISBN – 978 9960 55 948 3 and the website for the publisher is www.ksu.edu.sa

Glenn’s page is about an advertisement that he put on his MySpace page. Glenn was chosen as he was an academic that was very much at the forefront, at the time, when it came to using social networking tools. The page in the book shows Glenn advertising one of the seminars that he organised on ‘Marxism and Education’ at the Institute of Education, University of London. It was ‘Marxism and Education: Renewing Dialogues: IX’ and was advertised on MySpace September 2006 for a One Day Seminar at the Institute of Education, held on 25th October 2006

We hope that Allison Littlejohn and Chris Pegler’s book sells well in the Arabic countries, and we wish them all the very best with it.




6. ISC NEW WEBSITE - http://libr.org/isc/

Information for Social Change has migrated its website to Word Press and now has a new Open Access Policy – see http://libr.org/isc/information-for-social-change-new-open-access-policy/

Hopefully, this will provide new and exciting opportunities for ISC.




7. BIENNIAL CONFERENCE OF THE INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY FOR KNOWLEDGE ORGANIZATION (ISKO UK), 8th – 9th JULY 2013. TO BE HELD AT UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON
http://www.iskouk.org/conf2013/index.htm

Bob Bater, who I have known for many years now (he was one of my book reviewers for ‘Managing Information’ and he contributed a chapter to my Knowledge Management book with Chandos Publishing) informed me about this very interesting conference that he is involved with organising.

This is the Biennial Conference of the International Society for Knowledge Organization (ISKO UK) that is to be held on 8th – 9th July 2013 at University College London.

This will be the 3rd biennial conference of ISKO UK.

As it says on the website:

“ISKO is a not-for-profit scientific/professional association with the objective of promoting research and communication in the domain of knowledge organization, within the broad field of information science and related disciplines. The emphasis in our UK Chapter is to build bridges between the research and practitioner communities….”

The following themes will be included in the conference:

1. The dividing line between research and practical implementation and how to achieve better synergy
2. Language boundaries in knowledge organization schemes
3. The power of metadata to bring networked resources together

The papers submitted will be peer-reviewed and published electronically.

Past and future events can be found at http://www.iskouk.org/events.htm

The conference is a packed 2-day programme with many interesting speakers on a variety of themes. Sessions include (amongst others): ‘Ontologies combine with other tools’, ‘Overcoming boundaries in Knowledge Organization Development’ and ‘Boundary Objects and Philosophies’

I was particularly delighted to see Danny Budzak on the programme talking on ‘The Knowledge Organization of Organizational Knowledge’. Danny is an ex-colleague of mine (when we both worked in Newham Libraries) and politically-speaking we are very like-minded.



8. THE SKINTS

Victor Rikowski discovered that some of his school mates from Woodbridge High School that formed a band a few years ago are now very successful and have recently been on tour. They are called ‘The Skints’. Victor saw them live in London and was very excited about it all.

Here are links to a couple of their songs on YouTube:

‘Rub-a-Dub’
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtN0CKtX9-s

and

‘Rise Up’
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NgOTFQHh8s


Here is some information about them on Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Skints



9. NEIL’S WHITEHEAD’S PHOTO EXHIBIT - 'MEMENTO MORI'
My second cousin, Neil Whitehead, who also designed our ‘Flow of Ideas’ website, is currently completing his degree in Photography at Southampton University. The work of the 3rd years was exhibited recently at PrintSpace, London, E2 and we went along to the exhibition and met up with Neil and his family.

Neil’s photograph was entitled ‘Memento Mori’ and it is, indeed, a highly original and creative piece of work.

It was a very eventful and memorable day. If you would like to know more about Neil’s work, then do get in touch.




10. 9 NEW ITEMS UP ON MY SERENDIPITOUS MOMENTS BLOG

There are 9 new items up on my Serendipitous Moments blog. These are: ‘Glenda Jackson’s speech on Margaret Thatcher’, ‘The Grieving Process, Thatcher and All That’, ‘The Never Ending Story’ (also now on our website), ‘Radical Book Fair, Conway Hall, London’, ’Memento Mori exhibit by Neil Whitehead at PrintSpace, London’, ‘’May Day Manifesto Relaunch Seminar at Marx Memorial Library’, ‘Thinking Through Spinoza’, ‘Art Tank’ and ‘Ayn Rand’.


Best wishes,

Ruth


N.B. Many thanks to Chris Pegler and Bob Bater for providing information for items for 5 and 7 respectively.


30th June 2013

Ruth Rikowski's 53rd News Update

A selection of news items from me are listed below.

1. GLENN RIKOWSKI TALKING and PARTICIPATING IN A DEBATE ON ‘EDUCATION FOR SALE?’ HELD AT UNIVERSITY OF EAST LONDON,

FEB 2013

Glenn took part in a debate on the privatisation of education, which was held at the University of East London, Cass School of Education & Communities on February 13^th 2013.

The debate was on the theme ‘Education for Sale?’, on the privatisation of education.

The Panellists were:

Dr Glenn Rikowski (University of Northampton)

Professor John Schostak (Manchester Metropolitan University)

Professor James Tooley (University of Newcastle)

Dr Patricia Walker (University of East London and Labour Councillor for Action).

It was Chaired by Claire Fox, Director, Institute of Ideas – http://www.instituteofideas.com

Glenn argued that:

“As long as capitalist society exists, representatives of capital will try to ‘find a way’ to capitalise educational institutions. It’s a never-ending struggle in capitalism.”

It proved to be a very successful event. There were some 90 people there and there was a good discussion. The event was recorded and photos were taken.

The event was also reported in the ‘Time Higher Education Supplement’, by David Matthews, on 19^th February 2013. The piece was entitled: ‘Beware the student employability agenda, debate hears’ and Glenn was quoted in it. Here is the link:

http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/beware-the-student-employability-agenda-debate-hears/2001677.article

2. GLENN RIKOWSKI AND HIS RE-INVIGORATION OF ‘MARXISM AND EDUCATION’ REVISITED

This has been a topic in some previous newsletters of mine. I want to continue the theme here and highlight some of the other ways in which Glenn Rikowski has really helped to put ‘Marxism and Education’ on the map, and indeed, changed the landscape for ever in various ways and made it all far more respectable. Many people are now proud to hold their heads up high and call themselves ‘Marxist Educators’ ; there is now a firmly established network and much really valuable material out there now on the subject.

So, what were some of the other things that Glenn Rikowski did then, to help to put Marxist Educators on the map in this way?

Well, it was whilst he was working as a Researcher at Birmingham University (1994-1999) that he built up a large Marxist Educators network. Glenn built this up through his hard work, enthusiasm, determination and willingness to take the necessary risks.

The network continues to grow and there must now be a few hundred people around the globe. These include, for example, Sarah Amsler, Joyce Canann, Sarah Carpenter, Mike Cole, Helen Colley, David Harvie, Dave Hill, Peter McLaren, Greg Martin, Alpesh Maisuria, Curry Malott, Peter Mayo, Shahrzad Mojab, Mike Neary, Helen Raduntz, Spyros Themilis … to name but a very small handful.

Leading on from this, Glenn helped Dave Hill in the early stages to set up his free ejournal, ‘Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies’, http://www.jceps.com/ back in March 2003, as many of the people from the Marxist Educators network went on to go on the Editorial Board of Dave’s journal. So, he has been very much at the forefront here, when it comes to Open Access. And of course, this is the direction that the academic writing world is going anyway; with the government now stipulating that all academic publications must be freely and openly available online.

Glenn also had a big influence on Peter McLaren’s thinking and helped to bring Peter back from Postmoderism to Marxism in the mid to late 1990s.

Glenn also personally helped some left/Marxist people to get Professorships;
this included Shahrzad Mojab and Peter Mayo. Also through his contact
with Paula Allman, Sarah Carpenter, Helen Colley, Rachel Gorman and
Shahrzad Mojab he played some small part in assisting with the Marxist
Feminist cause.


Indeed, it was wonderful to see that many people on the left in
Education in general, as well as Marxist Educators specifically,
went on to get Professorships. These people include: Dave Hill,
Mike Cole, Pat Ainley, Joyce Canaan and Richard Hatcher, to
name but a few. In fact, virtually all the members of the Hilcole
Group (the group of radical left eductors) now have Professorships.

However, since the death of his father (in early 2009) Glenn has not been
able to work much in this area. But he is still playing a part in helping to

keep things moving through his ‘All that is Solid for Glenn Rikowski’ blog –
see  http://rikowski.wordpress.com.

Glenn has also been very much about developing Marxist Educational theory

and indeed, he will be developing this further in future years.

         

3.         ‘GENDER AND EMPLOYMENT IN TIMES OF ECONOMIC CRISIS’ – EDITED BY DIONYSIOS GOUVIAS

An important issue on the topic of ‘Gender and Employment in Times of Economic Crisis’ (with a theoretical and empirical perspective) edited by Dionysios Gouvias was published in the Journal of Critical Studies in Business and Society (http://journal.euc.ac.cy./) in 2012 (Vol 3, No 1). ISSN 1986 1575.

The journal is published by the European University of Cyprus (http://www.euc.ac.cy/).

The issue considered the impact of the global economic crisis, which started in the USA financial markets in 2008, on gender and employment. All the papers apart from one (which examined gender inequalities in academia in Australian and Swedish universities) focused on the situation in Greece. Many valuable lessons can be drawn. Dionysios Gouvias concludes his introduction saying that he hopes that the papers will provide:

“…a critical view of certain ‘orthodoxies’, in the sense that they are taken for granted and are ‘naturalised’ in public discourses in such a way as to start becoming a ‘non ideological common sense’ “.

Dionysios Gouvias, at the University of the Aegean, Greece, invited me to contribute to this issue, asking me if I would like to write something about the work of female IT professionals. However, although I thought that it sounded like a very interesting project, I had to decline, as I was heavily involved (and indeed, still am) in another project at the time.

It is good to see that the issue is now out and includes a variety of very interesting articles. These are listed below:

Introduction by Dionysios Gouvias

The Crisis and Women’s Economic Independence: some Warnings from Greece by Antigone Lyberaki

Women, Rights and the Crisis in Greece Today by Maria Gasouka

Female Unemployment in Greece, in times of crisis - the case of Rhodes and the subsidised placement schemes for unemployed women by Dionysios Gouvias and Eleftherios Michail

Horizontal and Vertical Gender Segregation in the ICT sector: a Greek Case Study by Ilias Efthymiou, Chryssi Vitsilakis and Dimitrios Gakis

Gender, social inequalities and the transition of graduates to the labour market under crisis conditions by Eleni Sianou-Kyrgiou

Gender Pay Equity Reviews in Australian and Swedish Universities: Are They an Impetus for Change? by Jan Currie

4. ‘HIGHER EDUCATION MANAGEMENT AND OPERATIONAL RESEARCH: demonstrating new practices and metaphors’ – edited by GARY BELL, JON WARWICK AND PETER GALBRAITH. SENSE PUBLISHERS: Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 2012.

ISBN: 978 94 6091 974 9 (pbk); 978 94 6091 975 6 (hdbk).

Part of Series: Educational Futures:

Rethinking Theory and Practice, Vol 55

https://www.sensepublishers.com/catalogs/bookseries/educational-futures-rethinking-theory-and-practice/higher-education-management-and-operational-research/

Another colleague of mine, Gary Bell, that I got to know at a one-day conference at London South Bank University a few years ago has recently now got his first book published. This all emanated from a conversation we had at the conference, after I saw Gary’s presentation and I could see that he was someone that was keen on research and writing. At the time, he was new to the publishing world, but he was keen to write and publish, so I put him in touch with some of my contacts.

The result of all of this was that he got a contract with Sense Publishing and the book (edited with 2 other academics, Jon Warwick and Peter Galbraith), ‘Higher Education Management and Operational Research’ was published last year.

As it says on the flyer for the book:

“The book aims to explore ‘new perspectives’ in HE management thinking and to describe and illustrate the use of OR methodologies, methods and techniques in helping HE managers to make informed management decisions.”

The books is divided into 4 parts: Part 1: Introduction; Part 2: The Context of the Evolving Higher Education Environment; Part 3: Managing Student Learning and Support and Part 4: Managing the Business of Higher Education.

I wish Gary, Jon and Peter all the very best with their book.

5. CURRENT STUDY SITUATION FOR GREGORY AND ALEXANDER RIKOWSKI

Gregory is now getting along well in his degree at the University of East Anglia. This has really been helped by the inclusion of some Philosophy in his degree, which he is really loving. He is currently studying a module on the  ‘Enlightenment period’. So the Philosophy will give some depth to his Film Studies degree and will help to provide a more holistic picture.

So, once again, where would we be without Philosophy: the bedrock, the grounding, the solid basis?

Also, UEA are being very supportive in general, and we are very appreciative of this.

Whereas, on the other hand, Alexander decided that Law definitely was not for him, so he has withdrawn from the course and will now be thinking again!

6. 4 NEW ITEMS UP ON MY ‘SERENDIPITOUS MOMENTS’ BLOG

http://ruthrikowskiim.blogspot.co.uk/

There are 4 new items up on my ‘Serendipitous Moments’ blog. These are:

‘Emotional Geology‘, ‘Education for Sale?’, ‘The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings (also on our website – see http://www.flowideas.co.uk/print.php?page=410&slink=yes) and ‘Fiction Write-Ups.

Happy Easter and Best Wishes from,

Ruth

28th March 2013