From info at edu-factory.org  Thu Dec 18 12:08:52 2008
From: info at edu-factory.org (info at edu-factory.org)
Date: Thu, 18 Dec 2008 12:08:52 +0100
Subject: <agu> editorial board list opening
Message-ID: <494a2f44.1d3.49a8.1523179016@webmaildh6.aruba.it>

Dear all,

Thanks for agreeing to participate in the editorial board of
the new journal stemming from the edu-factory project. We
have added you to this mailing list, which we hope to use to
discuss the directions of the journal as well as the
practical concerns involved in its production. Please let us
know if you would prefer to communicate with the other
members of the editorial board in another way.

After a round of invitations sent to various participants of
the edu-factory network, we have arrived at a provisional
list of editorial board members:

Marco Baravalle; Claudia Bernardi; Marc Bousquet; George
Caffentzis; Simone Capra; Sandro Chignola; Anna Curcio;
Alberto De Nicola; Paolo Do; Ludovica Fales; Silvia
Federici; Gabriela Garcia; Ezequiel Gatto; Andrea Ghelfi;
Gary Hall; Michael Hardt; Stefano Harney; Avinash Jha;
Camillo Imperore; Augusto Illuminati; Gasper Kralj; Geert
Lovink; Federico Marini; Randy Martin; Miguel Mellino;
Sandro Mezzadra; Eli Meyerhoff; Brett Neilson; Aihwa Ong;
Matteo Pasquinelli; Bojana Piskur; Carlos Prieto del Campo;
Nirmal Puwar; Gerald Raunig; Gigi Roggero; Andrew Ross; Ned
Rossiter; Davide Sacco; Ranabir Samaddar; Florian Scheinder;
Jon Solomon; Tiziana Terranova; Carlo Vercellone; Xiang
Biao.

There are also a number of network participants who have
agreed to be part of the wider scientific committee for the
journal.

At present discussion on this list will be confined to
editorial board members only. If you have recently consulted
the edu-factory website you will be aware that there has
been quite a bit of activity in the network recently. Some
of this has been associated with the publication of the
edu-factory book in Italian and the ?anomalous wave?
movement against the Berlusconi government?s reforms to
the Italian education system. But the scope of the
edu-factory project has always been transnational. Part of
the purpose of starting a journal is to reconfirm the
project?s engagement with political concerns that extend
beyond those of the ESC Social Center in Rome where
edu-factory was begun. We are hoping you can contribute to
this process of opening, which should eventually see a
recomposition of the edu-factory collective. Other steps in
this process will be the English language publication of the
edu-factory book by Autonomedia in 2009, the participation
of edu-factory in the Winter Camp event organized by the
Institute of Network Cultures in Amsterdam (2-8 March 2009),
and the reopening of the edu-factory mailing list.

In this email we outline five issues on which we would like
to seek your advice and ideas:

1.	Title of journal
2.	Structure
3.	Software
4.	Zero issue
5.	Quality control


1. There has already been some discussion in the edu-factory
collective regarding the title of the journal. We thought it
would be good to stick with a relatively neutral name that
recalls the edu-factory project and to give a sense of the
political orientation of the journal in the subtitle. The
current proposal is:


Edu-Notes: Universities, Conflicts, and the Production of
Knowledge

We invite your discussion of this title and welcome any
suggestions you may have for alternative names for the
journal.


2. We suggest a three fold structure for each issue of the
journal:

i)	Theoretical materials: these will be scientific articles
of 5000-7000 words in length
ii)	Political materials: these will be shorter reports
analyzing conflicts in the production of knowledge and
university transformations in various global contexts
iii)	Book reviews: a reviews editor will be appointed to
manage liaison between authors, publishers, and reviewers

Please let us know what you think. We imagine that the
journal would produce two issues a year, although some
members of the editorial board have already suggested we
should not follow the classical model of issues but have a
rolling structure where materials are published as they
become available. 

3. We suggest to proceed with a web journal reserving the
possibility to periodically publish some chosen
contributions in a hard copy reader (the contacts
established during the publication of the edu-factory book
can prove useful in this regard). Clearly there needs to be
some central management system to organize the process and
avoid the generation of massive amounts of email. Perhaps
some of you are able to make suggestions about open source
software, servers, etc. that could be used for this purpose.
We will need a CMS flexible enough to handle the review
process we propose to discuss below.

4. To begin the journal we propose to proceed with the
production of a zero issue to be published in the northern
hemisphere summer of 2009. The suggested theme for this
issue is ?The Double Crisis of the University and the
Financial System?. Please let us know if you have
suggestions for people who could make contributions on this
theme. We also welcome your input to the drafting of a call
for papers.

5. Given the political orientation of the edu-factory
project there has been rigorous debate about quality control
for the journal. We propose to separate the issue of quality
from the system of measure established through the
conventional academic system of anonymous peer review. There
have been a number of suggestions about how this might be
achieved: from having a peer review system that is not
anonymous to utilizing the edu-factory list. In any case,
the journal should have a strong quality control system.
This is an issue that open access publishing projects have
handled in different ways. For us the challenge is to invent
a new system of review that opens conflict over the meanings
and hierarchies established by the usual system.

We invite you to share your ideas about these matters with
the other members of the editorial board on this list.

Edu-factory collective




From info at edu-factory.org  Sun Dec 21 17:49:25 2008
From: info at edu-factory.org (info at edu-factory.org)
Date: Sun, 21 Dec 2008 17:49:25 +0100
Subject: <agu> Fwd: Re:  editorial board list opening
Message-ID: <494e7395.39c.24f0.669235644@webmaildh6.aruba.it>


----- Messaggio Inoltrato  -----
Da : Augusto Illuminati <augusto.illuminati at fastwebnet.it>
A : "info at edu-factory.org" <info at edu-factory.org>
Oggetto : Re: <agu> editorial board list opening
Data : Sun, 21 Dec 2008 15:17:27 +0100


1, I agree
2. I agree, suggesting a rolling structure
3. Ok
4. Ok, but why crisis only of the Financial System? I would
prefer a  more extensive definition, perhaps economic crisis
or world crisis 5. A not-anonymous peer review system

Augusto Illuminati


>Dear all,
>
>Thanks for agreeing to participate in the editorial board
of >the new journal stemming from the edu-factory project.
We >have added you to this mailing list, which we hope to
use to >discuss the directions of the journal as well as the
>practical concerns involved in its production. Please let
us >know if you would prefer to communicate with the other
>members of the editorial board in another way.
>
>After a round of invitations sent to various participants
of >the edu-factory network, we have arrived at a
provisional >list of editorial board members:
>
>Marco Baravalle; Claudia Bernardi; Marc Bousquet; George
>Caffentzis; Simone Capra; Sandro Chignola; Anna Curcio;
>Alberto De Nicola; Paolo Do; Ludovica Fales; Silvia
>Federici; Gabriela Garcia; Ezequiel Gatto; Andrea Ghelfi;
>Gary Hall; Michael Hardt; Stefano Harney; Avinash Jha;
>Camillo Imperore; Augusto Illuminati; Gasper Kralj; Geert
>Lovink; Federico Marini; Randy Martin; Miguel Mellino;
>Sandro Mezzadra; Eli Meyerhoff; Brett Neilson; Aihwa Ong;
>Matteo Pasquinelli; Bojana Piskur; Carlos Prieto del Campo;
>Nirmal Puwar; Gerald Raunig; Gigi Roggero; Andrew Ross; Ned
>Rossiter; Davide Sacco; Ranabir Samaddar; Florian Scheinder
; >Jon Solomon; Tiziana Terranova; Carlo Vercellone; Xiang
>Biao.
>
>There are also a number of network participants who have
>agreed to be part of the wider scientific committee for the
>journal.
>
>At present discussion on this list will be confined to
>editorial board members only. If you have recently
consulted >the edu-factory website you will be aware that
there has >been quite a bit of activity in the network
recently. Some >of this has been associated with the
publication of the >edu-factory book in Italian and the
?anomalous wave? >movement against the Berlusconi
government?s reforms to >the Italian education system. But
the scope of the >edu-factory project has always been
transnational. Part of >the purpose of starting a journal is
to reconfirm the >project?s engagement with political
concerns that extend >beyond those of the ESC Social Center
in Rome where >edu-factory was begun. We are hoping you can
contribute to >this process of opening, which should
eventually see a >recomposition of the edu-factory
collective. Other steps in >this process will be the English
language publication of the >edu-factory book by Autonomedia
in 2009, the participation >of edu-factory in the Winter
Camp event organized by the >Institute of Network Cultures
in Amsterdam (2-8 March 2009), >and the reopening of the
edu-factory mailing list. >
>In this email we outline five issues on which we would like
>to seek your advice and ideas:
>
>1.    Title of journal
>2.    Structure
>3.    Software
>4.    Zero issue
>5.    Quality control
>
>
>1. There has already been some discussion in the
edu-factory >collective regarding the title of the journal.
We thought it >would be good to stick with a relatively
neutral name that >recalls the edu-factory project and to
give a sense of the >political orientation of the journal in
the subtitle. The >current proposal is:
>
>
>Edu-Notes: Universities, Conflicts, and the Production of
>Knowledge
>
>We invite your discussion of this title and welcome any
>suggestions you may have for alternative names for the
>journal.
>
>
>2. We suggest a three fold structure for each issue of the
>journal:
>
>i)    Theoretical materials: these will be scientific
articles >of 5000-7000 words in length
>ii)    Political materials: these will be shorter reports
>analyzing conflicts in the production of knowledge and
>university transformations in various global contexts
>iii)    Book reviews: a reviews editor will be appointed to
>manage liaison between authors, publishers, and reviewers
>
>Please let us know what you think. We imagine that the
>journal would produce two issues a year, although some
>members of the editorial board have already suggested we
>should not follow the classical model of issues but have a
>rolling structure where materials are published as they
>become available.
>
>3. We suggest to proceed with a web journal reserving the
>possibility to periodically publish some chosen
>contributions in a hard copy reader (the contacts
>established during the publication of the edu-factory book
>can prove useful in this regard). Clearly there needs to be
>some central management system to organize the process and
>avoid the generation of massive amounts of email. Perhaps
>some of you are able to make suggestions about open source
>software, servers, etc. that could be used for this
purpose. >We will need a CMS flexible enough to handle the
review >process we propose to discuss below.
>
>4. To begin the journal we propose to proceed with the
>production of a zero issue to be published in the northern
>hemisphere summer of 2009. The suggested theme for this
>issue is ?The Double Crisis of the University and the
>Financial System?. Please let us know if you have
>suggestions for people who could make contributions on this
>theme. We also welcome your input to the drafting of a call
>for papers.
>
>5. Given the political orientation of the edu-factory
>project there has been rigorous debate about quality
control >for the journal. We propose to separate the issue
of quality >from the system of measure established through
the >conventional academic system of anonymous peer review.
There >have been a number of suggestions about how this
might be >achieved: from having a peer review system that is
not >anonymous to utilizing the edu-factory list. In any
case, >the journal should have a strong quality control
system. >This is an issue that open access publishing
projects have >handled in different ways. For us the
challenge is to invent >a new system of review that opens
conflict over the meanings >and hierarchies established by
the usual system. >
>We invite you to share your ideas about these matters with
>the other members of the editorial board on this list.
>
>Edu-factory collective
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>agu mailing list
>agu at listcultures.org
>http://listcultures.org/mailman/listinfo/agu_listcultures.o
rg

-- 
Augusto Illuminati
v. Appennini 53, 00198 Roma
cell. 335-5621228       tel. 06-8415494



From info at edu-factory.org  Mon Dec 22 11:40:27 2008
From: info at edu-factory.org (info at edu-factory.org)
Date: Mon, 22 Dec 2008 11:40:27 +0100
Subject: <agu> Fwd: Re:  Fwd: Re:  editorial board list opening
Message-ID: <494f6e9b.123.4f11.1113898663@webmaildh4.aruba.it>


----- Messaggio Inoltrato  -----
Da : "Nirmal Puwar" <n.puwar at gold.ac.uk>
A : "info at edu-factory.org" <info at edu-factory.org>
Oggetto : Re: <agu> Fwd: Re:  editorial board list opening
Data : Sun, 21 Dec 2008 21:30:11 -0000 (GMT)

perhaps book reviews could be reviews, this would allow it
to include review of other media too, such as films and
exhibitions.

zero issue - the theme proposed is quite a specific
theoretical/political position. Is this the best theme for
capturing attention?

best
nirmal



On Sun, December 21, 2008 4:49 pm, info at edu-factory.org
wrote: >

> ----- Messaggio Inoltrato  -----
> Da : Augusto Illuminati <augusto.illuminati at fastwebnet.it>
> A : "info at edu-factory.org" <info at edu-factory.org>
> Oggetto : Re: <agu> editorial board list opening
> Data : Sun, 21 Dec 2008 15:17:27 +0100
>
>
>
> 1, I agree
> 2. I agree, suggesting a rolling structure
> 3. Ok
> 4. Ok, but why crisis only of the Financial System? I
would > prefer a  more extensive definition, perhaps
economic crisis or world > crisis 5. A not-anonymous peer
review system >
> Augusto Illuminati
>
>
>
>> Dear all,
>>
>>
>> Thanks for agreeing to participate in the editorial board
>>
> of >the new journal stemming from the edu-factory project.
We >have added > you to this mailing list, which we hope to
use to >discuss the directions > of the journal as well as
the >> practical concerns involved in its production. Please
let > us >know if you would prefer to communicate with the
other >> members of the editorial board in another way.
>>
>> After a round of invitations sent to various participants
>>
> of >the edu-factory network, we have arrived at a
provisional >list of > editorial board members:
>>
>> Marco Baravalle; Claudia Bernardi; Marc Bousquet; George
>> Caffentzis; Simone Capra; Sandro Chignola; Anna Curcio;
>> Alberto De Nicola; Paolo Do; Ludovica Fales; Silvia
>> Federici; Gabriela Garcia; Ezequiel Gatto; Andrea Ghelfi;
>> Gary Hall; Michael Hardt; Stefano Harney; Avinash Jha;
>> Camillo Imperore; Augusto Illuminati; Gasper Kralj; Geert
>> Lovink; Federico Marini; Randy Martin; Miguel Mellino;
>> Sandro Mezzadra; Eli Meyerhoff; Brett Neilson; Aihwa Ong;
>> Matteo Pasquinelli; Bojana Piskur; Carlos Prieto del
Campo; >> Nirmal Puwar; Gerald Raunig; Gigi Roggero; Andrew
Ross; Ned >> Rossiter; Davide Sacco; Ranabir Samaddar;
Florian Scheinder >>
> ; >Jon Solomon; Tiziana Terranova; Carlo Vercellone; Xiang
>
>> Biao.
>>
>>
>> There are also a number of network participants who have
>> agreed to be part of the wider scientific committee for
the journal. >>
>> At present discussion on this list will be confined to
>> editorial board members only. If you have recently
> consulted >the edu-factory website you will be aware that
there has >been > quite a bit of activity in the network
recently. Some >of this has been > associated with the
publication of the >edu-factory book in Italian and > the
?anomalous wave? >movement against the Berlusconi >
government?s reforms to >the Italian education system. But
the scope of the > >edu-factory project has always been
transnational. Part of >the purpose > of starting a journal
is to reconfirm the >project?s engagement with > political
concerns that extend >beyond those of the ESC Social Center
in > Rome where >edu-factory was begun. We are hoping you
can > contribute to >this process of opening, which should
eventually see a > >recomposition of the edu-factory
collective. Other steps in >this process > will be the
English language publication of the >edu-factory book by >
Autonomedia > in 2009, the participation >of edu-factory in
the Winter Camp event > organized by the >Institute of
Network Cultures in Amsterdam (2-8 March > 2009), >and the
reopening of the > edu-factory mailing list. >
>> In this email we outline five issues on which we would
like >> to seek your advice and ideas:
>>
>> 1.    Title of journal
>> 2.    Structure
>> 3.    Software
>> 4.    Zero issue
>> 5.    Quality control
>>
>>
>>
>> 1. There has already been some discussion in the
>>
> edu-factory >collective regarding the title of the
journal. We thought it > >would be good to stick with a
relatively neutral name that >recalls the > edu-factory
project and to give a sense of the >political orientation of
> the journal in the subtitle. The >current proposal is: >>
>>
>> Edu-Notes: Universities, Conflicts, and the Production of
>> Knowledge
>>
>>
>> We invite your discussion of this title and welcome any
>> suggestions you may have for alternative names for the
journal. >>
>>
>> 2. We suggest a three fold structure for each issue of
the >> journal:
>>
>>
>> i)    Theoretical materials: these will be scientific
> articles >of 5000-7000 words in length
>> ii)    Political materials: these will be shorter reports
analyzing >> conflicts in the production of knowledge and
university transformations >> in various global contexts
iii)    Book reviews: a reviews editor will >> be appointed
to manage liaison between authors, publishers, and >>
reviewers >>
>> Please let us know what you think. We imagine that the
>> journal would produce two issues a year, although some
members of the >> editorial board have already suggested we
should not follow the >> classical model of issues but have
a rolling structure where materials >> are published as they
become available. >>
>> 3. We suggest to proceed with a web journal reserving the
>> possibility to periodically publish some chosen
contributions in a hard >> copy reader (the contacts
established during the publication of the >> edu-factory
book can prove useful in this regard). Clearly there needs
>> to be some central management system to organize the
process and avoid >> the generation of massive amounts of
email. Perhaps some of you are able >> to make suggestions
about open source software, servers, etc. that could >> be
used for this > purpose. >We will need a CMS flexible enough
to handle the review >process > we propose to discuss below.
>>
>> 4. To begin the journal we propose to proceed with the
>> production of a zero issue to be published in the
northern hemisphere >> summer of 2009. The suggested theme
for this issue is ?The Double Crisis >> of the University
and the Financial System?. Please let us know if you >>
have
suggestions for people who could make contributions on this
theme. >> We also welcome your input to the drafting of a
call >> for papers.
>>
>> 5. Given the political orientation of the edu-factory
>> project there has been rigorous debate about quality
> control >for the journal. We propose to separate the issue
of quality > >from the system of measure established through
the >conventional academic > system of anonymous peer
review. There >have been a number of suggestions > about how
this might be >achieved: from having a peer review system
that > is not >anonymous to utilizing the edu-factory list.
In any case, >the > journal should have a strong quality
control system. >This is an issue > that open access
publishing projects have >handled in different ways. For >
us the challenge is to invent >a new system of review that
opens conflict > over the meanings >and hierarchies
established by the usual system. > >> We invite you to share
your ideas about these matters with >> the other members of
the editorial board on this list. >>
>> Edu-factory collective
>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> agu mailing list agu at listcultures.org
>>
http://listcultures.org/mailman/listinfo/agu_listcultures.o
>> > rg
>
> --
> Augusto Illuminati
> v. Appennini 53, 00198 Roma cell. 335-5621228       tel.
06-8415494 >
> _______________________________________________
> agu mailing list agu at listcultures.org
>
http://listcultures.org/mailman/listinfo/agu_listcultures.org
>
>


Dr Nirmal Puwar
Department of Sociology
Goldsmiths, London University.
Co-organiser of Methods Lab
http://www.goldsmiths.ac.uk/methods-lab/







From ned at nedrossiter.org  Tue Dec 23 06:49:35 2008
From: ned at nedrossiter.org (Ned Rossiter)
Date: Tue, 23 Dec 2008 13:49:35 +0800
Subject: <agu> editorial board list opening
In-Reply-To: <494a2f44.1d3.49a8.1523179016@webmaildh6.aruba.it>
References: <494a2f44.1d3.49a8.1523179016@webmaildh6.aruba.it>
Message-ID: <BE3704A3-C626-4019-A29B-77D20DBC0FEB@nedrossiter.org>

Scanning through the editorial board members, I see impressive names  
situated for the most part within university settings (some even in  
very prestigious institutions).  Non-university affiliated board  
members that I recognise are renowned for their symbolic power within  
the institution of activism. Like many journals, the list of  
editorial board members lends a discursive/symbolic/institutional  
legitimacy to the journal.  One of the key mechanisms through which  
such legitimacy is obtained for individual board members, which then  
flows over to the edu-factory journal, is blind peer review. Herein  
lies a contradiction between the assembly of authority registered in  
the list of editorial members and the journal's desire to 'to invent  
a new system of review that opens conflict over the meanings and  
hierarchies established by the usual system'.  The edu-collective's  
reference to 'scientific articles' further signals this condition of  
contradiction and problematic of translation.

My experience with new systems of review is that they might be  
situated within national academic systems/frames that do not  
translate terribly well into a global / universal context -- e.g. an  
open review process on a mailing list might work in one national  
context that requires 'conference proceedings' to be peer reviewed,  
but does not specify they are blind peer reviewed; this then enables  
mostly academic contributors to get their brownie points while  
allowing a new form -- a hack -- to proceed on the other.  Such forms  
of 'open review'/intervention are fine if the majority of  
contributors within a particular national setting are able to claim  
their texts as legitimate academic publications (and in so doing,  
shore up protection of their academic positions and livelihoods), but  
it's a pain in the arse for those academics not able to claim the  
publication as 'legitimate' (and also the editors who have to put up  
with repeated emails requesting clarification, support,  
verification,etc.) Such tensions in translation underscore part of  
the interests, as I see them, of this new journal. But I don't think  
it's in the interests of the journal to have an uneven process of  
review, however it's done.

As for quality control -- open reviewing does not, in my experience,  
result in particularly strong critique. There's a tendency for  
reviewers to be excessively polite and critically timid - most likely  
because their cover is blown - or to treat the review with as much  
attention as a regular pithy reply to an email.  On the whole, I'd  
have to say that the more scholarly/academic texts I've written or co- 
written have improved considerably when they've been subject to  
strong critique. But I would distinguish two forms of critique here:  
critique on mailing lists has proved enormously helpful to the  
process of producing a text, but it has tended to be blind review  
that has provided the deep critique of a 'final version' that has  
then lifted the text to another level of 'completion'.

So, I'd be inclined to run a kind of dual or parallel system --  
encourage potential journal contributors to post drafts to the list  
for initial critique & open lines of debate, formation &  
investigation for the network, then subject final texts to blind  
review.  An 'open' system of publishing texts without blind review  
could work through the format of the 'shorter reports'/political  
commentary suggested in the 'three-fold structure'.

There are a number of examples of open content publishing that adopt  
blind review and publish excellent work: ephemera, culture-machine,  
fibreculture journal. All of these journals, in my view, could  
benefit from a more 2.0 style of publishing, where a continuum of  
feedback flows back into constitution of their networks.

At the level of 'intervention', I think it's examples such as the  
journals listed above that challenge practices of publishing in  
higher-ed. There are other examples of publishing with no peer review  
-- the annual anthologies of Sarai come to mind -- that produce  
fascinating/interesting compilations of texts (some of which are  
previously published), but are largely considered thoroughly  
'outside' the 'usual system'. In other words, a publishing venture  
that seeks to disrupt the usual system needs to be partially  
recognised by the usual system, otherwise it is destined to remain on  
the 'outside' and is in danger of self-ghettoization and self- 
affirmation.  There is no 'conflict' without an adversary (though  
there is plenty of space for self-agonising).

I also think the edu-factory/journal needs to elaborate more clearly  
its predisposition toward conflictual constitution. These are terms  
that again are part of a self-referential intellectual/political  
idiom, and don't translate very well beyond those already  
participating in such practices/discourses -- i.e. the question of  
intervention reappears when the terms of engagement are not  
recognised by others.  Some kind of mission statement or glossary of  
terms (which could be interesting to collectively produce in an open  
fashion) might be useful here on the history and trajectories of  
conflictual constitution.

Ned


On 18 Dec 2008, at 19:08, info at edu-factory.org wrote:

> Dear all,
>
> Thanks for agreeing to participate in the editorial board of
> the new journal stemming from the edu-factory project. We
> have added you to this mailing list, which we hope to use to
> discuss the directions of the journal as well as the
> practical concerns involved in its production. Please let us
> know if you would prefer to communicate with the other
> members of the editorial board in another way.
>
> After a round of invitations sent to various participants of
> the edu-factory network, we have arrived at a provisional
> list of editorial board members:
>
> Marco Baravalle; Claudia Bernardi; Marc Bousquet; George
> Caffentzis; Simone Capra; Sandro Chignola; Anna Curcio;
> Alberto De Nicola; Paolo Do; Ludovica Fales; Silvia
> Federici; Gabriela Garcia; Ezequiel Gatto; Andrea Ghelfi;
> Gary Hall; Michael Hardt; Stefano Harney; Avinash Jha;
> Camillo Imperore; Augusto Illuminati; Gasper Kralj; Geert
> Lovink; Federico Marini; Randy Martin; Miguel Mellino;
> Sandro Mezzadra; Eli Meyerhoff; Brett Neilson; Aihwa Ong;
> Matteo Pasquinelli; Bojana Piskur; Carlos Prieto del Campo;
> Nirmal Puwar; Gerald Raunig; Gigi Roggero; Andrew Ross; Ned
> Rossiter; Davide Sacco; Ranabir Samaddar; Florian Scheinder;
> Jon Solomon; Tiziana Terranova; Carlo Vercellone; Xiang
> Biao.
>
> There are also a number of network participants who have
> agreed to be part of the wider scientific committee for the
> journal.
>
> At present discussion on this list will be confined to
> editorial board members only. If you have recently consulted
> the edu-factory website you will be aware that there has
> been quite a bit of activity in the network recently. Some
> of this has been associated with the publication of the
> edu-factory book in Italian and the ?anomalous wave?
> movement against the Berlusconi government?s reforms to
> the Italian education system. But the scope of the
> edu-factory project has always been transnational. Part of
> the purpose of starting a journal is to reconfirm the
> project?s engagement with political concerns that extend
> beyond those of the ESC Social Center in Rome where
> edu-factory was begun. We are hoping you can contribute to
> this process of opening, which should eventually see a
> recomposition of the edu-factory collective. Other steps in
> this process will be the English language publication of the
> edu-factory book by Autonomedia in 2009, the participation
> of edu-factory in the Winter Camp event organized by the
> Institute of Network Cultures in Amsterdam (2-8 March 2009),
> and the reopening of the edu-factory mailing list.
>
> In this email we outline five issues on which we would like
> to seek your advice and ideas:
>
> 1.	Title of journal
> 2.	Structure
> 3.	Software
> 4.	Zero issue
> 5.	Quality control
>
>
> 1. There has already been some discussion in the edu-factory
> collective regarding the title of the journal. We thought it
> would be good to stick with a relatively neutral name that
> recalls the edu-factory project and to give a sense of the
> political orientation of the journal in the subtitle. The
> current proposal is:
>
>
> Edu-Notes: Universities, Conflicts, and the Production of
> Knowledge
>
> We invite your discussion of this title and welcome any
> suggestions you may have for alternative names for the
> journal.
>
>
> 2. We suggest a three fold structure for each issue of the
> journal:
>
> i)	Theoretical materials: these will be scientific articles
> of 5000-7000 words in length
> ii)	Political materials: these will be shorter reports
> analyzing conflicts in the production of knowledge and
> university transformations in various global contexts
> iii)	Book reviews: a reviews editor will be appointed to
> manage liaison between authors, publishers, and reviewers
>
> Please let us know what you think. We imagine that the
> journal would produce two issues a year, although some
> members of the editorial board have already suggested we
> should not follow the classical model of issues but have a
> rolling structure where materials are published as they
> become available.
>
> 3. We suggest to proceed with a web journal reserving the
> possibility to periodically publish some chosen
> contributions in a hard copy reader (the contacts
> established during the publication of the edu-factory book
> can prove useful in this regard). Clearly there needs to be
> some central management system to organize the process and
> avoid the generation of massive amounts of email. Perhaps
> some of you are able to make suggestions about open source
> software, servers, etc. that could be used for this purpose.
> We will need a CMS flexible enough to handle the review
> process we propose to discuss below.
>
> 4. To begin the journal we propose to proceed with the
> production of a zero issue to be published in the northern
> hemisphere summer of 2009. The suggested theme for this
> issue is ?The Double Crisis of the University and the
> Financial System?. Please let us know if you have
> suggestions for people who could make contributions on this
> theme. We also welcome your input to the drafting of a call
> for papers.
>
> 5. Given the political orientation of the edu-factory
> project there has been rigorous debate about quality control
> for the journal. We propose to separate the issue of quality
> from the system of measure established through the
> conventional academic system of anonymous peer review. There
> have been a number of suggestions about how this might be
> achieved: from having a peer review system that is not
> anonymous to utilizing the edu-factory list. In any case,
> the journal should have a strong quality control system.
> This is an issue that open access publishing projects have
> handled in different ways. For us the challenge is to invent
> a new system of review that opens conflict over the meanings
> and hierarchies established by the usual system.
>
> We invite you to share your ideas about these matters with
> the other members of the editorial board on this list.
>
> Edu-factory collective
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> agu mailing list
> agu at listcultures.org
> http://listcultures.org/mailman/listinfo/agu_listcultures.org




From info at edu-factory.org  Tue Dec 23 23:56:46 2008
From: info at edu-factory.org (info at edu-factory.org)
Date: Tue, 23 Dec 2008 23:56:46 +0100
Subject: <agu> The Double Crisis of the University and the Global Economy
Message-ID: <49516cae.54.1375.62539790@webmaildh4.aruba.it>

The following are some brief notes to initiate discussion on
the proposed theme for a zero issue of the edu-factory
journal. After some off-list discussion, it has been
suggested that the journal should be titled Edu-Notes:
Conflicts and Transformations of the University.

We would like to thank Augusto Illuminati and Nirmal Puwar
for their insightful contributions. The first point below is
an attempt to address the important comment made by Augusto
regarding the term financial crisis. We would also like to
open discussion regarding Nirmal?s concern about the
possible narrowness of the proposed theme. By putting
forward the following points for discussion we hope that
other members of the editorial board can intervene regarding
the appropriateness of the suggested theme for the zero
issue.

Ned Rossiter has also made a key intervention regarding the
tricky question of peer review and quality control.
Hopefully Ned?s provocation can attract some serious
discussion of this matter on the list. We do not expect this
is a question we will resolve quickly but it is a crucial
one to confront.

In this message, however, we restrict ourselves to the
question of the zero issue, since the preparation of a call
for papers, which should be briefer than what is outlined
below, is perhaps the most urgent issue to confront. 

  

As starting point, the zero issue would investigate the
characteristics of the global crisis. In mainstream
analysis, the current economic situation is described as
financial crisis. This idea is based on the classical
division between finance and real economy, which we want to
question. From this point of view, it is better to talk of a
global economic crisis.

We would base this analysis of the crisis on the
investigation of material changes. What are the nature and
the roots of the crisis? How is the crisis likely to affect
the production of knowledge and the organization of such
production around innovation?

What does it mean to refer to the crisis as a global crisis?
What are the different forms of translation of the crisis in
various transnational contexts? How are academic employment,
higher education export, higher degree research recruitment
or other aspects affected?

The focal point of the issue should be the nexus between the
global economic crisis and the crisis of the university. By
the latter, we refer to the end of the modern concept of the
university and the permanent crisis of its transition into
the new framework.

With regard to the university, this double crisis highlights
the difficulty of conducting an analysis in the classical
terms of the dialectic between public and private. The
corporatization of the university is not its privatization,
but indicates that its new form ? that is, the form of the
crisis ? must be thought beyond the state/private sector
distinction.
 
For instance, some articles could focus on the student debt
system as one of the roots of the contemporary crisis. Such
an investigation might approach the operations of the
student debt system as paradigmatic for a sort of
financialization of the welfare system.

It could be interesting to analyze the relationship between
universities and collateralised debt obligations.
Institutional investors such as pension funds, insurance
houses and university endowment funds were among the most
important purchasers of these and other securitized
financial products. But they were also among the first to
become wary of such investments and thus their financial
decisions contributed to the onset of the crisis.

Another question concerns the role of ranking systems in the
determination and evolution of the double crisis. The
continued high ranking of securitized debt products by bond
rating houses like Moodys and Standard and Poors contributed
to the onset of the economic crisis. The global ranking of
universities by institutions such as Shanghai Jiao Tong and
Times Higher has become an obsession in higher education.
What are the relations and complicities between such ranking
systems? 

In this framework, there emerge two important questions. On
one hand, it is necessary to ask how the global economic
crisis redefines the crisis of the university. On the other
hand, there is a need to inquire into the place and role of
conflicts in the nexus of this double crisis.

Finally, it would be interesting to discuss the temporality
of the crisis in relation to the temporality of the
production of knowledge. Does the traditional cycle outline,
which poses financialization as a final stage that follows
an expansion of material production, still apply? Or do we
have to investigate a new temporality of the crisis? What
does this mean for the temporality of conflicts, which have
been understood to follow a cycle of struggles?




From info at edu-factory.org  Wed Dec 24 09:50:03 2008
From: info at edu-factory.org (info at edu-factory.org)
Date: Wed, 24 Dec 2008 09:50:03 +0100
Subject: <agu> Fwd: Re: The Double Crisis of the University and the Global
	Economy
Message-ID: <4951f7bb.30a.18ef.618448378@webmaildh2.aruba.it>


----- Messaggio Inoltrato  -----
Da : "Dr. Ranabir Samaddar" <ranabir at mcrg.ac.in>
A : <info at edu-factory.org>
Oggetto : Re: <agu> The Double Crisis of the University and
the Global Economy
Data : Wed, 24 Dec 2008 11:32:46 +0530

"Edu-factory" was so inspiring, "edu-notes" is boring! Why
not, "Edu-Factory - Conflicts of the Other Kind"?


----- Original Message ----- 
From: <info at edu-factory.org>
To: <agu at listcultures.org>
Sent: Wednesday, December 24, 2008 4:26 AM
Subject: <agu> The Double Crisis of the University and the
Global Economy


The following are some brief notes to initiate discussion on
the proposed theme for a zero issue of the edu-factory
journal. After some off-list discussion, it has been
suggested that the journal should be titled Edu-Notes:
Conflicts and Transformations of the University.

We would like to thank Augusto Illuminati and Nirmal Puwar
for their insightful contributions. The first point below is
an attempt to address the important comment made by Augusto
regarding the term financial crisis. We would also like to
open discussion regarding Nirmal's concern about the
possible narrowness of the proposed theme. By putting
forward the following points for discussion we hope that
other members of the editorial board can intervene regarding
the appropriateness of the suggested theme for the zero
issue.

Ned Rossiter has also made a key intervention regarding the
tricky question of peer review and quality control.
Hopefully Ned's provocation can attract some serious
discussion of this matter on the list. We do not expect this
is a question we will resolve quickly but it is a crucial
one to confront.

In this message, however, we restrict ourselves to the
question of the zero issue, since the preparation of a call
for papers, which should be briefer than what is outlined
below, is perhaps the most urgent issue to confront. 

  

As starting point, the zero issue would investigate the
characteristics of the global crisis. In mainstream
analysis, the current economic situation is described as
financial crisis. This idea is based on the classical
division between finance and real economy, which we want to
question. From this point of view, it is better to talk of a
global economic crisis.

We would base this analysis of the crisis on the
investigation of material changes. What are the nature and
the roots of the crisis? How is the crisis likely to affect
the production of knowledge and the organization of such
production around innovation?

What does it mean to refer to the crisis as a global crisis?
What are the different forms of translation of the crisis in
various transnational contexts? How are academic employment,
higher education export, higher degree research recruitment
or other aspects affected?

The focal point of the issue should be the nexus between the
global economic crisis and the crisis of the university. By
the latter, we refer to the end of the modern concept of the
university and the permanent crisis of its transition into
the new framework.

With regard to the university, this double crisis highlights
the difficulty of conducting an analysis in the classical
terms of the dialectic between public and private. The
corporatization of the university is not its privatization,
but indicates that its new form - that is, the form of the
crisis - must be thought beyond the state/private sector
distinction.
 
For instance, some articles could focus on the student debt
system as one of the roots of the contemporary crisis. Such
an investigation might approach the operations of the
student debt system as paradigmatic for a sort of
financialization of the welfare system.

It could be interesting to analyze the relationship between
universities and collateralised debt obligations.
Institutional investors such as pension funds, insurance
houses and university endowment funds were among the most
important purchasers of these and other securitized
financial products. But they were also among the first to
become wary of such investments and thus their financial
decisions contributed to the onset of the crisis.

Another question concerns the role of ranking systems in the
determination and evolution of the double crisis. The
continued high ranking of securitized debt products by bond
rating houses like Moodys and Standard and Poors contributed
to the onset of the economic crisis. The global ranking of
universities by institutions such as Shanghai Jiao Tong and
Times Higher has become an obsession in higher education.
What are the relations and complicities between such ranking
systems? 

In this framework, there emerge two important questions. On
one hand, it is necessary to ask how the global economic
crisis redefines the crisis of the university. On the other
hand, there is a need to inquire into the place and role of
conflicts in the nexus of this double crisis.

Finally, it would be interesting to discuss the temporality
of the crisis in relation to the temporality of the
production of knowledge. Does the traditional cycle outline,
which poses financialization as a final stage that follows
an expansion of material production, still apply? Or do we
have to investigate a new temporality of the crisis? What
does this mean for the temporality of conflicts, which have
been understood to follow a cycle of struggles?


_______________________________________________
agu mailing list
agu at listcultures.org
http://listcultures.org/mailman/listinfo/agu_listcultures.org



From n.puwar at gold.ac.uk  Wed Dec 24 14:11:12 2008
From: n.puwar at gold.ac.uk (Nirmal Puwar)
Date: Wed, 24 Dec 2008 13:11:12 -0000 (GMT)
Subject: <editorial board> <agu> The Double Crisis of the University and
 the Global Economy
In-Reply-To: <49516cae.54.1375.62539790@webmaildh4.aruba.it>
References: <49516cae.54.1375.62539790@webmaildh4.aruba.it>
Message-ID: <56631.213.249.221.34.1230124272.squirrel@secure2.gold.ac.uk>

thanks for this

i have just one  minor concern of a linguistic nature  -

does the continual use of the word crisis risk losing any sense for the
word crisis

there of course other words - cycle, process, phase...

nirmal

 2008 10:56 pm, info at edu-factory.org wrote:
> The following are some brief notes to initiate discussion on
> the proposed theme for a zero issue of the edu-factory journal. After some
> off-list discussion, it has been suggested that the journal should be
> titled Edu-Notes: Conflicts and Transformations of the University.
>
>
> We would like to thank Augusto Illuminati and Nirmal Puwar
> for their insightful contributions. The first point below is an attempt to
> address the important comment made by Augusto regarding the term financial
> crisis. We would also like to open discussion regarding Nirmal?s concern
> about the possible narrowness of the proposed theme. By putting forward the
> following points for discussion we hope that other members of the
> editorial board can intervene regarding the appropriateness of the
> suggested theme for the zero issue.
>
> Ned Rossiter has also made a key intervention regarding the
> tricky question of peer review and quality control. Hopefully Ned?s
> provocation can attract some serious discussion of this matter on the
> list. We do not expect this is a question we will resolve quickly but it
> is a crucial one to confront.
>
> In this message, however, we restrict ourselves to the
> question of the zero issue, since the preparation of a call for papers,
> which should be briefer than what is outlined below, is perhaps the most
> urgent issue to confront.
>
>
>
> As starting point, the zero issue would investigate the
> characteristics of the global crisis. In mainstream analysis, the current
> economic situation is described as financial crisis. This idea is based on
> the classical division between finance and real economy, which we want to
> question. From this point of view, it is better to talk of a global
> economic crisis.
>
> We would base this analysis of the crisis on the
> investigation of material changes. What are the nature and the roots of the
> crisis? How is the crisis likely to affect the production of knowledge and
> the organization of such production around innovation?
>
> What does it mean to refer to the crisis as a global crisis?
> What are the different forms of translation of the crisis in
> various transnational contexts? How are academic employment, higher
> education export, higher degree research recruitment or other aspects
> affected?
>
> The focal point of the issue should be the nexus between the
> global economic crisis and the crisis of the university. By the latter, we
> refer to the end of the modern concept of the university and the permanent
> crisis of its transition into the new framework.
>
> With regard to the university, this double crisis highlights
> the difficulty of conducting an analysis in the classical terms of the
> dialectic between public and private. The corporatization of the
> university is not its privatization, but indicates that its new form ?
> that is, the form of the crisis ? must be thought beyond the state/private
> sector distinction.
>
> For instance, some articles could focus on the student debt
> system as one of the roots of the contemporary crisis. Such an
> investigation might approach the operations of the student debt system as
> paradigmatic for a sort of financialization of the welfare system.
>
> It could be interesting to analyze the relationship between
> universities and collateralised debt obligations. Institutional investors
> such as pension funds, insurance houses and university endowment funds
> were among the most important purchasers of these and other securitized
> financial products. But they were also among the first to become wary of
> such investments and thus their financial decisions contributed to the
> onset of the crisis.
>
> Another question concerns the role of ranking systems in the
> determination and evolution of the double crisis. The continued high
> ranking of securitized debt products by bond rating houses like Moodys and
> Standard and Poors contributed
> to the onset of the economic crisis. The global ranking of universities by
> institutions such as Shanghai Jiao Tong and Times Higher has become an
> obsession in higher education. What are the relations and complicities
> between such ranking systems?
>
> In this framework, there emerge two important questions. On
> one hand, it is necessary to ask how the global economic crisis redefines
> the crisis of the university. On the other hand, there is a need to
> inquire into the place and role of conflicts in the nexus of this double
> crisis.
>
> Finally, it would be interesting to discuss the temporality
> of the crisis in relation to the temporality of the production of
> knowledge. Does the traditional cycle outline, which poses
> financialization as a final stage that follows an expansion of material
> production, still apply? Or do we have to investigate a new temporality of
> the crisis? What does this mean for the temporality of conflicts, which
> have been understood to follow a cycle of struggles?
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> agu mailing list agu at listcultures.org
> http://listcultures.org/mailman/listinfo/agu_listcultures.org
>
>


Dr Nirmal Puwar
Department of Sociology
Goldsmiths, London University.
Co-organiser of Methods Lab
http://www.goldsmiths.ac.uk/methods-lab/






From raunig at eipcp.net  Wed Dec 24 15:35:15 2008
From: raunig at eipcp.net (gerald raunig)
Date: Wed, 24 Dec 2008 15:35:15 +0100
Subject: <editorial board> <agu> The Double Crisis of the University and
	the Global Economy
In-Reply-To: <49516cae.54.1375.62539790@webmaildh4.aruba.it>
References: <49516cae.54.1375.62539790@webmaildh4.aruba.it>
Message-ID: <495248A3.4090402@eipcp.net>

hi, some thoughts on ...
- title
edu-notes is indeed a bit cautious. i also like the idea of just using 
the concept of edu-factory as it is, as it both has a general critical 
undertone and a specific echo of fabbrica diffusa / the issue of 
immaterial labor. but maybe there are even further ideas for a 
linguistically neutral concept not only connected to one language.
subtitle: reference to the university might be too narrow, as it does 
not cover issues of self-education and the relations between educational 
institutions and their outside/alternatives. so maybe a subtitle like: 
transformations and struggles of knowledge production?
- is there a chance for multilinguality?
i liked the idea to publish the edu-factory-book in some three or four 
languages. so when the journal will be published on the web, in a medium 
that is even more suitable for multilingual publishing, why not try to 
organize it in a multilingual fashion and break away from that boring 
usage of one hegemonial language? from my perspective a debate on how to 
make this possible could also be more fruitful than questions like which 
kind of a state apparatus one could put up for "quality control" ;)
by the way, one more issue will be: how to avoid the restriction of 
access and how to implement the most suitable version of copyleft.
- structure
reagarding the political materials i would propose two main lines: 1. 
reports on political struggles like the onda anomala, 2. practice 
examples of self-education and self-organization inside and outside the 
university etc.
- zero-issue
connecting to the mail below and the question "How is the crisis likely 
to affect the production of knowledge and the organization of such 
production around innovation?", i would be interested in the specific 
effects of this crisis, be it financial or economic or whatever, not 
only on the practice of knowledge production, but also on the theory of 
cognitive capitalism.
also during the last few months i see a problem coming up in (radical) 
leftist circles: because of the crisis supposed as purely economic you 
can find quite many traces of a proliferation of vulgar marxist 
thinking, and even the return of a main antagonism. of course, its great 
that many start reading das kapital for the first time in their lives, 
but i think, its worth while reflecting the re-appearance of simplifying 
theoretical approaches and contextualizing them in the complex 
arrangement of transversal struggles against sexism and heteronormative 
orders, racism, eurocentrism, islamophobia, antisemtism, neo-colonialism 
...
best,
g.

info at edu-factory.org schrieb:
> The following are some brief notes to initiate discussion on
> the proposed theme for a zero issue of the edu-factory
> journal. After some off-list discussion, it has been
> suggested that the journal should be titled Edu-Notes:
> Conflicts and Transformations of the University.
>
> We would like to thank Augusto Illuminati and Nirmal Puwar
> for their insightful contributions. The first point below is
> an attempt to address the important comment made by Augusto
> regarding the term financial crisis. We would also like to
> open discussion regarding Nirmal?s concern about the
> possible narrowness of the proposed theme. By putting
> forward the following points for discussion we hope that
> other members of the editorial board can intervene regarding
> the appropriateness of the suggested theme for the zero
> issue.
>
> Ned Rossiter has also made a key intervention regarding the
> tricky question of peer review and quality control.
> Hopefully Ned?s provocation can attract some serious
> discussion of this matter on the list. We do not expect this
> is a question we will resolve quickly but it is a crucial
> one to confront.
>
> In this message, however, we restrict ourselves to the
> question of the zero issue, since the preparation of a call
> for papers, which should be briefer than what is outlined
> below, is perhaps the most urgent issue to confront. 
>
>   
>
> As starting point, the zero issue would investigate the
> characteristics of the global crisis. In mainstream
> analysis, the current economic situation is described as
> financial crisis. This idea is based on the classical
> division between finance and real economy, which we want to
> question. From this point of view, it is better to talk of a
> global economic crisis.
>
> We would base this analysis of the crisis on the
> investigation of material changes. What are the nature and
> the roots of the crisis? How is the crisis likely to affect
> the production of knowledge and the organization of such
> production around innovation?
>
> What does it mean to refer to the crisis as a global crisis?
> What are the different forms of translation of the crisis in
> various transnational contexts? How are academic employment,
> higher education export, higher degree research recruitment
> or other aspects affected?
>
> The focal point of the issue should be the nexus between the
> global economic crisis and the crisis of the university. By
> the latter, we refer to the end of the modern concept of the
> university and the permanent crisis of its transition into
> the new framework.
>
> With regard to the university, this double crisis highlights
> the difficulty of conducting an analysis in the classical
> terms of the dialectic between public and private. The
> corporatization of the university is not its privatization,
> but indicates that its new form ? that is, the form of the
> crisis ? must be thought beyond the state/private sector
> distinction.
>  
> For instance, some articles could focus on the student debt
> system as one of the roots of the contemporary crisis. Such
> an investigation might approach the operations of the
> student debt system as paradigmatic for a sort of
> financialization of the welfare system.
>
> It could be interesting to analyze the relationship between
> universities and collateralised debt obligations.
> Institutional investors such as pension funds, insurance
> houses and university endowment funds were among the most
> important purchasers of these and other securitized
> financial products. But they were also among the first to
> become wary of such investments and thus their financial
> decisions contributed to the onset of the crisis.
>
> Another question concerns the role of ranking systems in the
> determination and evolution of the double crisis. The
> continued high ranking of securitized debt products by bond
> rating houses like Moodys and Standard and Poors contributed
> to the onset of the economic crisis. The global ranking of
> universities by institutions such as Shanghai Jiao Tong and
> Times Higher has become an obsession in higher education.
> What are the relations and complicities between such ranking
> systems? 
>
> In this framework, there emerge two important questions. On
> one hand, it is necessary to ask how the global economic
> crisis redefines the crisis of the university. On the other
> hand, there is a need to inquire into the place and role of
> conflicts in the nexus of this double crisis.
>
> Finally, it would be interesting to discuss the temporality
> of the crisis in relation to the temporality of the
> production of knowledge. Does the traditional cycle outline,
> which poses financialization as a final stage that follows
> an expansion of material production, still apply? Or do we
> have to investigate a new temporality of the crisis? What
> does this mean for the temporality of conflicts, which have
> been understood to follow a cycle of struggles?
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> agu mailing list
> agu at listcultures.org
> http://listcultures.org/mailman/listinfo/agu_listcultures.org
>
>   



From augusto.illuminati at fastwebnet.it  Wed Dec 24 17:59:10 2008
From: augusto.illuminati at fastwebnet.it (Augusto Illuminati)
Date: Wed, 24 Dec 2008 17:59:10 +0100
Subject: <editorial board> <agu> The Double Crisis of the University and
 the Global Economy
In-Reply-To: <56631.213.249.221.34.1230124272.squirrel@secure2.gold.ac.uk>
References: <49516cae.54.1375.62539790@webmaildh4.aruba.it>
	<56631.213.249.221.34.1230124272.squirrel@secure2.gold.ac.uk>
Message-ID: <a05210600c57819c17e49@[23.251.66.177]>

>thanks for this
>
>i have just one  minor concern of a linguistic nature  -
>
>does the continual use of the word crisis risk losing any sense for the
>word crisis
>
>there of course other words - cycle, process, phase...
>
>nirmal
>
>  2008 10:56 pm, info at edu-factory.org wrote:
>>  The following are some brief notes to initiate discussion on
>>  the proposed theme for a zero issue of the edu-factory journal. After some
>>  off-list discussion, it has been suggested that the journal should be
>>  titled Edu-Notes: Conflicts and Transformations of the University.
>>
>>
>>  We would like to thank Augusto Illuminati and Nirmal Puwar
>>  for their insightful contributions. The first point below is an attempt to
>>  address the important comment made by Augusto regarding the term financial
>>  crisis. We would also like to open discussion regarding Nirmal?s concern
>>  about the possible narrowness of the proposed theme. By putting forward the
>>  following points for discussion we hope that other members of the
>>  editorial board can intervene regarding the appropriateness of the
>>  suggested theme for the zero issue.
>>
>>  Ned Rossiter has also made a key intervention regarding the
>>  tricky question of peer review and quality control. Hopefully Ned?s
>>  provocation can attract some serious discussion of this matter on the
>>  list. We do not expect this is a question we will resolve quickly but it
>>  is a crucial one to confront.
>>
>>  In this message, however, we restrict ourselves to the
>>  question of the zero issue, since the preparation of a call for papers,
>>  which should be briefer than what is outlined below, is perhaps the most
>>  urgent issue to confront.
>>
>>
>>
>>  As starting point, the zero issue would investigate the
>>  characteristics of the global crisis. In mainstream analysis, the current
>>  economic situation is described as financial crisis. This idea is based on
>>  the classical division between finance and real economy, which we want to
>>  question. From this point of view, it is better to talk of a global
>>  economic crisis.
>>
>>  We would base this analysis of the crisis on the
>>  investigation of material changes. What are the nature and the roots of the
>>  crisis? How is the crisis likely to affect the production of knowledge and
>>  the organization of such production around innovation?
>>
>>  What does it mean to refer to the crisis as a global crisis?
>>  What are the different forms of translation of the crisis in
>>  various transnational contexts? How are academic employment, higher
>>  education export, higher degree research recruitment or other aspects
>>  affected?
>>
>>  The focal point of the issue should be the nexus between the
>>  global economic crisis and the crisis of the university. By the latter, we
>>  refer to the end of the modern concept of the university and the permanent
>>  crisis of its transition into the new framework.
>>
>>  With regard to the university, this double crisis highlights
>>  the difficulty of conducting an analysis in the classical terms of the
>>  dialectic between public and private. The corporatization of the
>>  university is not its privatization, but indicates that its new form ?
>>  that is, the form of the crisis ? must be thought beyond the state/private
>>  sector distinction.
>>
>>  For instance, some articles could focus on the student debt
>>  system as one of the roots of the contemporary crisis. Such an
>>  investigation might approach the operations of the student debt system as
>>  paradigmatic for a sort of financialization of the welfare system.
>>
>>  It could be interesting to analyze the relationship between
>>  universities and collateralised debt obligations. Institutional investors
>>  such as pension funds, insurance houses and university endowment funds
>>  were among the most important purchasers of these and other securitized
>>  financial products. But they were also among the first to become wary of
>  > such investments and thus their financial decisions contributed to the
>>  onset of the crisis.
>>
>>  Another question concerns the role of ranking systems in the
>>  determination and evolution of the double crisis. The continued high
>>  ranking of securitized debt products by bond rating houses like Moodys and
>>  Standard and Poors contributed
>>  to the onset of the economic crisis. The global ranking of universities by
>>  institutions such as Shanghai Jiao Tong and Times Higher has become an
>>  obsession in higher education. What are the relations and complicities
>>  between such ranking systems?
>>
>>  In this framework, there emerge two important questions. On
>>  one hand, it is necessary to ask how the global economic crisis redefines
>>  the crisis of the university. On the other hand, there is a need to
>>  inquire into the place and role of conflicts in the nexus of this double
>>  crisis.
>>
>>  Finally, it would be interesting to discuss the temporality
>>  of the crisis in relation to the temporality of the production of
>>  knowledge. Does the traditional cycle outline, which poses
>>  financialization as a final stage that follows an expansion of material
>>  production, still apply? Or do we have to investigate a new temporality of
>>  the crisis? What does this mean for the temporality of conflicts, which
>>  have been understood to follow a cycle of struggles?
>>
>>
>>  _______________________________________________
>>  agu mailing list agu at listcultures.org
>>  http://listcultures.org/mailman/listinfo/agu_listcultures.org
>>
>>
>
>
>Dr Nirmal Puwar
>Department of Sociology
>Goldsmiths, London University.
>Co-organiser of Methods Lab
>http://www.goldsmiths.ac.uk/methods-lab/
>
>
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>agu mailing list
>agu at listcultures.org
>http://listcultures.org/mailman/listinfo/agu_listcultures.org

Really, edu-notes is a little boring; may I suggest: 
Edu-factory-tools or Edu-factory, a tool-box?
Augusto Illuminati
-- 
Augusto Illuminati
v. Appennini 53, 00198 Roma
cell. 335-5621228       tel. 06-8415494



From gary at garyhall.info  Fri Dec 26 12:30:05 2008
From: gary at garyhall.info (Gary Hall)
Date: Fri, 26 Dec 2008 11:30:05 +0000
Subject: <editorial board> <agu> The Double Crisis of the University and
 the Global Economy
In-Reply-To: <56631.213.249.221.34.1230124272.squirrel@secure2.gold.ac.uk>
References: <49516cae.54.1375.62539790@webmaildh4.aruba.it>
	<56631.213.249.221.34.1230124272.squirrel@secure2.gold.ac.uk>
Message-ID: <4954C03D.3000004@garyhall.info>

I like the the idea of just using the concept of edu-factory as it is, too.

As well as taking care over the language we use to describe and think 
about the 'crisis', shouldn't we also interrogate the very idea of their 
being a crisis? (It always make my cautious when I find myself adopting 
the same discourse as The New York Times, the BBC, CNN and so on.) Is 
there a crisis? In what sense? Who says so? What is their interest in 
doing so? I'm just very wary of what Merleau-Ponty called the 'trap of 
the event'.

In terms of thinking of it as a theme for the zero issue, we should also 
probably bear in mind that a lot of journal issues will be coming out 
over the next few months on the subject of the current crisis or some 
variation of it.

Gary







From andrew.ross at nyu.edu  Fri Dec 26 16:30:54 2008
From: andrew.ross at nyu.edu (Andrew Ross)
Date: Fri, 26 Dec 2008 10:30:54 -0500
Subject: <editorial board> <agu> The Double Crisis of the University and
 the Global Economy
In-Reply-To: <4954C03D.3000004@garyhall.info>
References: <49516cae.54.1375.62539790@webmaildh4.aruba.it>
	<56631.213.249.221.34.1230124272.squirrel@secure2.gold.ac.uk>
	<4954C03D.3000004@garyhall.info>
Message-ID: <f1fdbef739ef3.4954b25e@mail.nyu.edu>

Gary's caveats all make sense to me. The seasonal rallying cry of our ruling elites appears to be "Merry Crisis and a Happy New Fear"

ar/

Andrew Ross
Professor and Chair, Department of Social and Cultural Analysis
New York University

----- Original Message -----
From: Gary Hall <gary at garyhall.info>
Date: Friday, December 26, 2008 6:30 am
Subject: Re: <editorial board> <agu> The Double Crisis of the University and the Global Economy
To: Edu-Factory Editorial Board <agu at listcultures.org>


> I like the the idea of just using the concept of edu-factory as it is, 
> too.
> 
> As well as taking care over the language we use to describe and think 
> 
> about the 'crisis', shouldn't we also interrogate the very idea of 
> their 
> being a crisis? (It always make my cautious when I find myself 
> adopting 
> the same discourse as The New York Times, the BBC, CNN and so on.) Is 
> 
> there a crisis? In what sense? Who says so? What is their interest in 
> 
> doing so? I'm just very wary of what Merleau-Ponty called the 'trap of 
> 
> the event'.
> 
> In terms of thinking of it as a theme for the zero issue, we should 
> also 
> probably bear in mind that a lot of journal issues will be coming out 
> 
> over the next few months on the subject of the current crisis or some 
> 
> variation of it.
> 
> Gary
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> agu mailing list
> agu at listcultures.org
> http://listcultures.org/mailman/listinfo/agu_listcultures.org



From eli.meyerhoff at gmail.com  Fri Dec 26 19:00:23 2008
From: eli.meyerhoff at gmail.com (Eli Meyerhoff)
Date: Fri, 26 Dec 2008 12:00:23 -0600
Subject: <editorial board> <agu> The Double Crisis of the University and
	the Global Economy
In-Reply-To: <f1fdbef739ef3.4954b25e@mail.nyu.edu>
References: <49516cae.54.1375.62539790@webmaildh4.aruba.it>
	<56631.213.249.221.34.1230124272.squirrel@secure2.gold.ac.uk>
	<4954C03D.3000004@garyhall.info>
	<f1fdbef739ef3.4954b25e@mail.nyu.edu>
Message-ID: <705C8C22-390B-45AE-A20B-AF946F71709C@gmail.com>

With Gary and Andrew, I agree that the zero-issue should interrogate  
the construction of the "crises" both of the university and the  
economy.  Through particular crisis narratives, certain subjects are  
constituted as crisis managers and others as to-be-managed.  By  
posing questions about these constructions, we could then connect  
with the political materials that Gerald recommended.   We could ask  
about counter-narratives, such as the Anamolous Wave's "we won't pay  
for your crisis" and their pointing to other contradictions of  
capitalism as bases for alternative narratives of crisis, and then we  
could ask about how such movements are transforming the university.

-Eli Meyerhoff

On Dec 26, 2008, at 9:30 AM, Andrew Ross wrote:

> Gary's caveats all make sense to me. The seasonal rallying cry of  
> our ruling elites appears to be "Merry Crisis and a Happy New Fear"
>
> ar/
>
> Andrew Ross
> Professor and Chair, Department of Social and Cultural Analysis
> New York University
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Gary Hall <gary at garyhall.info>
> Date: Friday, December 26, 2008 6:30 am
> Subject: Re: <editorial board> <agu> The Double Crisis of the  
> University and the Global Economy
> To: Edu-Factory Editorial Board <agu at listcultures.org>
>
>
>> I like the the idea of just using the concept of edu-factory as it  
>> is,
>> too.
>>
>> As well as taking care over the language we use to describe and think
>>
>> about the 'crisis', shouldn't we also interrogate the very idea of
>> their
>> being a crisis? (It always make my cautious when I find myself
>> adopting
>> the same discourse as The New York Times, the BBC, CNN and so on.) Is
>>
>> there a crisis? In what sense? Who says so? What is their interest in
>>
>> doing so? I'm just very wary of what Merleau-Ponty called the  
>> 'trap of
>>
>> the event'.
>>
>> In terms of thinking of it as a theme for the zero issue, we should
>> also
>> probably bear in mind that a lot of journal issues will be coming out
>>
>> over the next few months on the subject of the current crisis or some
>>
>> variation of it.
>>
>> Gary
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> agu mailing list
>> agu at listcultures.org
>> http://listcultures.org/mailman/listinfo/agu_listcultures.org
>
> _______________________________________________
> agu mailing list
> agu at listcultures.org
> http://listcultures.org/mailman/listinfo/agu_listcultures.org




From conricerca at hotmail.com  Sat Dec 27 23:32:25 2008
From: conricerca at hotmail.com (Gigi Roggero)
Date: Sat, 27 Dec 2008 22:32:25 +0000
Subject: <editorial board> <agu> The Double Crisis of the University
	and	the Global Economy
In-Reply-To: <705C8C22-390B-45AE-A20B-AF946F71709C@gmail.com>
References: <49516cae.54.1375.62539790@webmaildh4.aruba.it>
	<56631.213.249.221.34.1230124272.squirrel@secure2.gold.ac.uk>
	<4954C03D.3000004@garyhall.info> <f1fdbef739ef3.4954b25e@mail.nyu.edu> 
	<705C8C22-390B-45AE-A20B-AF946F71709C@gmail.com>
Message-ID: <COL106-W252733D6C1335F19B69F89C0E80@phx.gbl>


Hi all, First of all I would like to say that the debate within the editorial board has started very well. The list is really becoming a work list, and this is a great starting point for the journal. Very briefly, I want to focus on two points. About the question of the title: following the suggestions by Ranabir, Gerald and Gary, maybe we could think something like "edu-factory notes" or "edu-factory journal", with a subtitle like "Conflicts and Transformations of the University" or "Conflicts and Transformations in Knowledge Production". In this way, we can maintain the edu-factory concept while marking the specificity of the new project. About the question of the crisis: It is true, we shouldn't follow the ruling narratives on the crisis. In other words, we have to develop a radical analysis of it. But I think that this doesn't mean to deny the crisis, or not so much to invent a new series of words. It means on one hand to identify the subjective roots and struggles that inform the double crisis. On the other hand it means focusing on the double crisis as a chance for radical transformation in a way that doesn't replicate the celebrations in The Economist magazine, which points out that the Chinese ideogram for crisis combines the symbols for risk and opportunity. This is a crisis of capitalism, and the contemporary university as one of its articulations: the importance of the movements of the last months (e.g. the anomalous wave in Italy, quoted by Eli) consists in the force to overthrow the double crisis in an alternative space of possibility: "this is their crisis, and we won't pay for it".  The slogan quoted by Andrew ("merry crisis and happy new fear") - which I think was a graffiti that appeared in Athens - also contains a central ambivalence: the fear is not only the fear of the workers, but the fear of the ruling class too. And in their fear there is our wish of a "merry crisis". In this political context and from this standpoint, we have to analyze the new elements of the contemporary (double) crisis. But we cannot rely on the tired images of Italy and Greece as political laboratories, weak links or slogan generating factories. What are the concepts and struggles being invented in and between other parts of the world? How do they cut across each other, involving extra-economic factors, contrasting imaginations, different languages and approaches to translation, varying rhythms and times of change? The edu-factory journal is an avenue through which these questions can be developed in a transnational vein. All the best, Gigi 
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