Keynote presentation : Radical uncertainty and anticipatory practices in the Pandemic University
Start Date
13-11-2020 5:00 PM
End Date
13-11-2020 5:45 PM
Description
University structures, processes and practices are often characterised as glacial in their pace of change. Yet COVID-19 has radically changed all this. In many parts of the world badly affected by the effects of the global pandemic, the socio-temporal dynamics of life within the academy have been profoundly ruptured. Universities are now faced with the prospect of ongoing radical uncertainty, whilst the range of anticipatory practices that have been used to govern uncertainty and risk within the academy have been found wanting. The pandemic was on no-one’s risk register! In this keynote address, I explore the ways in which three temporal horizons; (i) the moment by moment anticipations, (ii) actor’s trajectories through the academy over time, and the (iii) plans and temporal landscapes of universities have all fractured. Whilst there are clearly major challenges facing academics, administrators and students as they navigate these temporal horizons, there are also new possibilities which have emerged which will likely change the higher education sector into the future.
Recommended Citation
Robertson, S. (2020, November). Keynote presentation: Radical uncertainty and anticipatory practices in the Pandemic University. Presented at the Conference for Higher Education Research (CHER) - Hong Kong 2020. Lingnan University, Hong Kong.
Keynote presentation : Radical uncertainty and anticipatory practices in the Pandemic University
University structures, processes and practices are often characterised as glacial in their pace of change. Yet COVID-19 has radically changed all this. In many parts of the world badly affected by the effects of the global pandemic, the socio-temporal dynamics of life within the academy have been profoundly ruptured. Universities are now faced with the prospect of ongoing radical uncertainty, whilst the range of anticipatory practices that have been used to govern uncertainty and risk within the academy have been found wanting. The pandemic was on no-one’s risk register! In this keynote address, I explore the ways in which three temporal horizons; (i) the moment by moment anticipations, (ii) actor’s trajectories through the academy over time, and the (iii) plans and temporal landscapes of universities have all fractured. Whilst there are clearly major challenges facing academics, administrators and students as they navigate these temporal horizons, there are also new possibilities which have emerged which will likely change the higher education sector into the future.
Speaker
Susan Robertson
Susan Robertson is a Professor of Sociology of Education, the Faculty of Education, at the University of Cambridge. Prior to this, Professor Robertson was the Professor at the University of Bristol. Her area of expertise is on transformations of the state, education policy, region building and global processes. Professor Robertson is the Founding Editor of the journal, Globalisation, Societies and Education, and currently Convenor of the research cluster, Culture, Politics and Global Justice at Cambridge. Professor Robertson’s recent publications include work on platform capitalism and higher education, market-making and trade agreements and their relationship to education governance.