A question of time – or academic subjectivity?

Abstract

A bit over 30 years ago an electronic band Depeche Mode released a single A Question of Time, written by one of the band members Martin Gore (1986). The lyrics speak terrifically well to the present academic life. Time, indeed, seems to be in question as we lead our lives, simultaneously carrying out research and applying funding for it, providing teaching and supervision, taking care of administrative duties, participating in scientific meetings and events, acting in positions of trust, taking up editorships and peer reviewing, organizing conferences, seminars, workshops, sessions and panels, giving back to individuals and communities engaged in our research projects, taking stands in academic and popular debates, circulating research results to different audiences -and living our personal lives somewhere in between. 'Finding the time' is what academics often struggle with, when considering interesting new projects and activities as well as apologizing for not being able to fulfil commitments in due course.Yet the mentioned piece of music is not concerned of time as something we may run out of or have hard time finding. Rather, the song is about subject formation. It talks about the haunting, corrupt forces that seek to mould us to meet their own ends and turn promising young subjects into bulk.

Lessons in the art of scientific editing

“…This short commemoration piece wishes to highlight positive dimensions in scientific publishing. While I have directed much of my recent attention to the oppositeto the criticism of the current development in market-driven academic publishing (see Kallio, 2017;Kallio & Hyvärinen, 2017;Kallio & Metzger, 2018;Kallio & Riding, 2019;Riding et al, 2020) here I share my experiences from working with Ronan Paddison for over 10 years, while he was the editor-in-chief of Space and Polity, to argue for what should be preserved and further developed in academic journals, be they commercial or nonprofit. During my academic career I have learned that the quality of editorial work does not depend on such matters, any more than it has to do with the indexing or impact factor of the journal, rather editorial attitude and understanding are decisive.…”

R.I.P. Resilience

“…I blame both issues on the neoliberal agenda that is seeping into the veins of universities causing a societal embolism. As has been pointed out in editorials in Fennia before (Kallio 2017;Kallio & Riding 2018), the neoliberal agenda has reduced knowledge and dissemination to profit for market-driven publishing corporates, where the hours spent doing academic housekeeping (Lund 2018) is not even acknowledged.…”

Six sideways reflections on academic publishing

“…Editorial: Reflections editorial of this issue, Kallio & Hyvärinen 2017). Fennia has a specific and radical publication policy.…”