On 24th June I turned 52 and, having been in the academic
world for just over 25 years, I am probably about half way through my academic
career (which is clearly not the same as any career I may have in full time
employment). I am also at something of a cross roads in terms of the direction
of my current role within the University here in Birmingham. This is, perhaps a
good time to come back to this blog and to try once again to see what I must do
to make it work, both for myself but also, and equally importantly, to provide
something that others might want to read and to follow.
I will continue to maintain the fourfold structure that I
began the blog with, the 'Quartet' of the title. That is still relevant, but I
may aim to be more flexible in the way I engage with the different strands. I
need to allow more interweaving, but also more opportunity to talk about things
that are happening around me that may not fit neatly into that particular
categorisation. I may also, over time, add further strands, more strings to my
bow if you like. I will, however, continue to make connections and try to
construct the blog in a way that allows the reader to follow the different
threads.
One of the things that I have done much more of since last
posting to this blog is to look at, and follow, a number of other newsfeeds and
blogs. It strikes me that there are essentially two types of blog. In the first
it is the topic that is of most importance. Either an individual is recognised
as a leading expert in a particular field, or they are able to draw together material and links that
provide an authoritative commentary on a particular topic (whether academic,
political, cultural or whatever), or the individual has their own obsession
(whether short or long term) that they wish to share with others. The other
form is based much more around the individual, a particular personality, or
somebody who has an interesting job or role that others wish to follow for
whatever reason. The best blogs, of course, combine these, a clear focus on a
topic and an interesting and well-informed personality providing the
commentary. I know from the start, therefore, that this blog is never going to
meet either of those criteria. My interests are far too varied to keep any
single interest, and I am sure my style and personality is not going to set the
world on fire. I will, however, aim to focus more on the second than the first.
I want to provide an opportunity to chat, to explore, and to engage on a whole
range of issues that will come up as I struggle with various intellectual and
academic issues that engage me.
The other question I have considered is whether Twitter might be a more
sensible approach. I am told that blogs are on their way out, declining in
number, not being followed, and giving way to more immediate and interactive
forms such as Twitter. That is all very well, I fully understand the reasons
for this, both from the point of view of the authors and the readers. This does
not, however, fit with my own needs, or really my own personality.
At the beginning of the week I attended the first half of a
conference on Superdiversity run by the Institute for Research intoSuperdiversity (IRiS) here in Birmingham. This was a really great
conference that brought together a truly interdisciplinary crowd to discuss a
very wide range of issues around the theme of superdiversity. I will no doubt
come back to some of the content from the papers over the next few
weeks. The point I want to make here, however, is something about the way in
which I tend to engage with conferences in general and how that relates to the question of Twitter
or blog.
It may be a consequence of my dyslexia, but I find while I
enjoy listening to the papers, I can never think of an appropriate question to
ask immediately after any particular presentation. At one level I need to go back, in my
own mind, over the argument, the illustrations, the issues raised etc. and to
process the information much more slowly (which is also why I find conferences
that are too crowded in terms of papers very difficult and why I also prefer to
get out after a really interesting paper to be on my own rather than chatting
inanely over coffee or lunch, but that is another matter). Secondly, I always
find myself wanting to bring ideas from one paper into conversation with those
of another, and both into dialogue with something that I have been reading recently, or something that I vaguely remember from last month, last year or whenever. My response to the issues would never by a single statement or a
straight forward question. I need the time and the space to work through the
ideas, to explain the connections, to try out possibilities and to see what
happens when the theory from one paper is matched against the data or examples
from another, and so on. I cannot say what I want to say in a limited number of
characters, it just would not make sense. In those terms, a blog -a chance to
work through in a reasonable length of text a series of related ideas - is probably
the ideal medium. That then, is what I aim to do as I begin, once again, to get
this blog up and running.
My aim, therefore, is to write something each week, drawing
on issues, reading, conferences, thinking, etc. that have happened that week
and to upload the blog first thing each Monday morning. Last time I managed to
keep going for 10 posts. I am fully committed this time, to doing better than
that and, hopefully, getting into a routine that will see me through the next
25 years of my academic career…
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