Reclaiming failure in geography: academic honesty in a neoliberal world

Thom  Davies; Tom Disney; Elly Harrowell

doi:10.1016/j.emospa.2021.100769

Reclaiming failure in geography: academic honesty in a neoliberal world

Thom Davies, Tom Disney, Elly Harrowell

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26 Citations (Scopus)

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Abstract

Failure is a pervasive yet rarely articulated reality of being an academic. From grant rejections to fieldwork mistakes, this editorial introduces a special issue that engages with the notion of ‘failure’ within the neoliberal university. Highlighting the uncomfortable impacts of ‘failure’ across contrasting spaces and career stages, the authors explore its politics, power, and emotional resonance, as well as raising crucial questions of resistance, hope, and refusal within geography and its allied disciplines. Three key themes emerged from these 16 papers: (i) failure is embedded in the structures of the academy; (ii) failure is an inherent part of academic knowledge production; and (iii) failure is an experience that is not equally felt, but is contingent upon uneven power relations and positionalities. We situate the special issue within the context of the coronavirus pandemic and suggest that the failure of the university sector to cope with this existential threat has exposed the very worst characteristics of market-driven education. Ultimately, this special issue aims to push back against the fear and loneliness that ‘failure’ can create, in order to confront the neoliberal university. In troubling conventional models of ‘success’ and ‘failure’ in academia, we conclude that refusing to accept the unrealistic expectations, impositions, and demands of the University-Industrial Complex is not a failure at all.

Original language	English
Article number	100769
Number of pages	6
Journal	Emotion, Space and Society
Volume	38
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.emospa.2021.100769
Publication status	Published - 3 Feb 2021

Bibliographical note

© 2021, Elsevier. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Copyright © and Moral Rights are retained by the author(s) and/ or other copyright owners. A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This item cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the copyright holder(s). The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.

This document is the author’s post-print version, incorporating any revisions agreed during the peer-review process. Some differences between the published version and this version may remain and you are advised to consult the published version if you wish to cite from it.

Keywords

Covid-19
Failure
Geography
Neoliberalism
Refusal
University-Industrial complex

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Social Psychology
Experimental and Cognitive Psychology

Themes

Equality and Inclusion

Access to Document

10.1016/j.emospa.2021.100769

Post-PrintAccepted author manuscript, 1.33 MBLicence: CC BY-NC-ND

Cite this

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title = "Reclaiming failure in geography: academic honesty in a neoliberal world",

abstract = "Failure is a pervasive yet rarely articulated reality of being an academic. From grant rejections to fieldwork mistakes, this editorial introduces a special issue that engages with the notion of {\textquoteleft}failure{\textquoteright} within the neoliberal university. Highlighting the uncomfortable impacts of {\textquoteleft}failure{\textquoteright} across contrasting spaces and career stages, the authors explore its politics, power, and emotional resonance, as well as raising crucial questions of resistance, hope, and refusal within geography and its allied disciplines. Three key themes emerged from these 16 papers: (i) failure is embedded in the structures of the academy; (ii) failure is an inherent part of academic knowledge production; and (iii) failure is an experience that is not equally felt, but is contingent upon uneven power relations and positionalities. We situate the special issue within the context of the coronavirus pandemic and suggest that the failure of the university sector to cope with this existential threat has exposed the very worst characteristics of market-driven education. Ultimately, this special issue aims to push back against the fear and loneliness that {\textquoteleft}failure{\textquoteright} can create, in order to confront the neoliberal university. In troubling conventional models of {\textquoteleft}success{\textquoteright} and {\textquoteleft}failure{\textquoteright} in academia, we conclude that refusing to accept the unrealistic expectations, impositions, and demands of the University-Industrial Complex is not a failure at all.",

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Reclaiming failure in geography: academic honesty in a neoliberal world

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Themes

Access to Document

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