After the events at the University of Helsinki in 2015/16, one new role that I took on was shop steward (well, deputy) for my union. Like a few other professorial colleagues from other Faculties that I’ve met, I cut down on other ‘useless’ administrative work to devote time to union activities because I was shocked by how crudely the redundancies, as necessary as they may have been, were put into practice. The activities that this role involves have given me a vantage point from which to observe labour relations at the University. In addition, membership in the University’s Equality Committee complements these observations. Continue reading “Universities and managerialism”
Bits and bobs in a framework
So neither norm nor fact, neither law nor politics, but the tension between the two in an in-between zone. Continue reading “Bits and bobs in a framework”
An early attempt at consolidation
A month has passed, and my intentions of blogging on work have, perhaps, not borne all the fruit that I originally hoped for. I could bullet-point a long list of valid excuses but won’t. Continue reading “An early attempt at consolidation”
The photo
Too many questions about the default header image of this particular WordPress theme (the cactus-like plant). So I quickly found something presentable from my archives. The photo that’s there in place now was taken on the island of Atløy in Norway some two hours on a fast boat north of Bergen. Continue reading “The photo”
Postscript on equality
In between fiddling with the settings of this blog and completing the first entry, I attended the meeting of the University’s Equality Committee where we discussed the action plan for the Equality and Diversity Plan 2017–2018 (unfortunately not available in English yet) that the Rector had approved over the summer months. One thing that I brought up as something worth developing are the University’s recruitment practices. Continue reading “Postscript on equality”
Sort of a newbie
I can’t really claim to be a newbie to blogging. In addition to this personal site, I manage several others, as well. One is dedicated to my teaching, another to the research project that I co-direct with colleagues from Sweden. During the course of this year, I’ve opened two further WordPress sites. One marks the 60th anniversary of the publication of Roland Barthes’s Mythologies that I translated into Finnish quite some time ago, and the most recent one, still under construction, is an attempt to initiate a socio-legal agenda at the Faculty. In addition, I am webmaster for the site of the Finnish national section of the IVR. So plenty of sites, all on the WordPress platform (and a few dormant Tumblr sites, as well). Continue reading “Sort of a newbie”