Download The place of CSU and the purpose of the Professoriate

The place of CSU and the purpose of the Professoriate
Prepared as a discussion starter for the meeting of the professoriate by
Margaret Alston and Ben Bradley
This paper proceeds from the view that there is a moral vacuum amongst political and
corporate leaders in Australia and elsewhere. The demise of large corporations such
as HIH, the difficulties surrounding compensation to workers in certain corporate
bodies, the large salaries and retrenchment packages paid to (sometimes) failed
executives have resulted in a loss of faith in our business leaders. Meanwhile the
ongoing debate about ‘truth’ in Australian politics and the litany of issues that appear
to breach our International Human Rights agreements and our own Child Protection
laws (the treatment of asylum seekers and refugees, the ‘children overboard’ incident,
our incarceration of children) have also eroded faith in our political leaders and left a
significant scar on the consciousness of most Australians.
We could spend a deal of time debating the intellectual issue of how such a vacuum
occurs and we note that theorists such as Jan Fook (a former employee of CSU) argue
that postmodernism, in attending to fragmentation, has undermined social justice
creating this moral vacuum. Zygmunt Bauman, one of the leading sociologists of our
time, also argues that postmodernism (or as he prefers – ‘liquid modernism’)
highlights the decline of our traditional political institutions and the fragmentation of
our social connections leading to a focus on individualisation. He argues that this
pressure has significantly erodes society’s commitment to collective solutions leading
us away from a commitment to social justice. (This information is taken from an
interview with Bauman
(http://www.renewal.org.uk/issues/2002%20Volume%2010/No%201%20%20Winter/Bauman.htm)
Most famously Margaret Thatcher, the former British Prime Minister is reported as
saying that ‘there is no society, only individuals’.
Attendant in the movement to New Right values encompassed in economic
rationalism (Thatcherism with an Australian twang), has been a sometimes concerted
attack on professional values. The Social Work discipline, for example, has been
under attack on several fronts. New Right commentators (eg Murray and Marsland)
call for the dismantling of social rights and a return to the principle of self-help. To
these protagonists, because social workers pursue social justice goals and intensely
scrutinize the New Right agenda, they are viewed as something of a threat. Social
workers also find themselves policing policies of mutual obligation / asylum seeker
entry etc, policies that undermine their commitment to social justice. Notions of
professionalism are tested.
The point is that the moral vacuum has crept up on us. As a result there has been a
steady erosion of social justice initiatives, a demise of many organisations committed
to social justice, a gag placed on advocacy by charitable organisations etc etc.
What has this to do with CSU??
Several things actually. CSU is located in a regional area and has a commitment to
regional engagement through teaching, research and ongoing collaborations. Yet we
would assert that perhaps among the most vulnerable to the processes underway have
been rural and regional areas. The ongoing drought has exposed the rising levels of
rural poverty, the increasing numbers of socially excluded, and the declining levels of
representation. Given our commitment to regional engagement there would appear to
be a role for the university to play in challenging certain policy positions and in
providing leadership and intellectual vigour. This leads us into our promised
discussion of the role of the professoriate….
We would argue that our role encompasses the following:
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a need to foster emancipatory practice – that is we must examine the way we
prepare people to practice in our regions and practice from an emancipatory
perspective ourselves;
a need to train moral leaders – thus our graduates are prepared to practice from
positions of moral strength;
a need to provide moral leadership within the university;
a provision of the spaces from where moral issues can and will emerge;
a commitment to the role of public intellectual – taking the opportunity to
speak on issues of significance to our region;
a commitment to speak out against policies that attack human rights and social
justice;
a need to be driven by community concerns and embedded in issues of
significance to our region (examples that spring to mind are the debate around
water; the loss of professional positions from rural communities; the
educational needs of residents in our region etc);
a commitment to changing policy such that the human rights of the people in
our regions or served by our professions are not violated. Etc etc
Of course these issues may require us to move beyond our comfort zones and to ‘go
public’ when necessary. Indeed many of us may already feel we have made or are
making moves in this direction in our intellectual leadership, teaching, research,
community service or other aspects of our professorial roles.
Questions for discussion
Should the professoriate be prepared to step into the leadership moral vacuum?
Are we already doing so? If so, how?
What risks does this pose?
What are the significant issues for our region that are or should be the focus of our
attention?
What are the best means for developing CSU as a site for moral leadership?
Format of discussion
Having circulated this paper, we propose that professors respond in writing (by
circulated email) if they wish, prior to the next forum. And/or individuals come to the
next forum with brief examples of how their own work currently does, could or could
not fit within a “social justice/public intellectual” purview. The forum itself would
then be prefaced by a brief restatement of the case for an orientation to social justice
by Marg & Ben in the light of others’ emailed comments. The forum would then be
opened up to general discussion.