Beyond Public and Private: A Framework for Co-operative Higher Education

Framework for Co-operative Higher Education (click to enlarge)

SSC members, Mike Neary and Joss Winn have a new journal article out in the Open Library of the Humanities. It is a longer companion piece to their article in LATISS. The original research was funded by the Independent Social Research Foundation and is now being further developed by funding from the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education, where the framework is being explored in the context of four case studies. 

Here’s the abstract:

Universities in the UK are increasingly adopting corporate governance structures, a consumerist model of teaching and learning, and have the most expensive tuition fees in the world (McGettigan, 2013; OECD, 2015). This paper discusses collaborative research that aimed to develop and define a conceptual framework of knowledge production grounded in co-operative values and principles. The main findings are outlined relating to the key themes of our research: knowledge, democracy, bureaucracy, livelihood, and solidarity. We consider how these five ‘catalytic principles’ relate to three identified routes to co-operative higher education (conversion, dissolution, or creation) and argue that such work must be grounded in an adequate critique of labour and property i.e. the capital relation. We identify both the possible opportunities that the latest higher education reform in the UK affords the co-operative movement as well as the issues that arise from a more marketised and financialised approach to the production of knowledge (HEFCE, 2015). Finally, we suggest ways that the co-operative movement might respond with democratic alternatives that go beyond the distinction of public and private education.

Read the article online or download from OLH.

SSC AGM Planning Meeting, 25th June

 

Venue: Angel Cafe

Time: 11am

Present: Laura, Meredith, Sarah, Mike

Online publicity

A short piece setting out details about the SSC  AGM has been posted on Lincolnite website

Posters/flyers

Delivery of posters/flyers from printer to be confirmed 26th June.

Distribution of flyers

Members to distribute flyers to residents across the city on dates set out below. Please let us know when/if you able to do this:

West End, Tues 27th 7pm. Meet 252 West Parade.

St Giles, Weds 28th June 7pm. Meeting place tba.

St Georges and Long Leys, Thurs 29th June 7pm. Meeting place tba.

Burton Road, Thurs 29th June 7pm. Meeting place tba

Monks Road, Fri 30th June 7pm. Meeting place tba.

City Centre, library and cafes, Sat 1st July. Meeting place and time tba

School and Childrens’ Centres. Days and times tba.

Arrangements for the event

Arrangements for the event were discussed, including need for graffiti and scribble paper for ideas for future learning, artefacts to show history of SSC and provision for children. At the start of the event members to say why they are involved with SSC and ask those attending to suggest ideas for the event. Organising group suggested running the Money workshop presented at the first SSC AGM.

Business of AGM

Agenda for AGM to be drafted and sent out for comment ( MN)

Treasurer’s Report to be prepared (LS)

 

Meeting ended 12 noon.

 

Social Science Centre AGM Planning Meeting, 17th June

Venue: Angel Cafe, Lincoln

Date and Time :11 am, 17th June, 2017

Present

Laura, David, Sarah, Meredith, Mike,

Apologies

Lucy, Bradley

Publicity

Agreed to deliver flyers to local residents. Decide which streets at next meeting. Also deliver posters/flyers to Labour Party HQ, cafes etc.Send short article to Lincolnite about AGM.

Children and Young People

Need to ensure activities for children and young people.

Possible Sessions

The afternoon session will be flexible enough to arrange sessions based on what participants are interested in. We will be ready to run the session on Money that was presented at the first AGM in 2011.

Next meeting: Sunday, 25th June, 11 am, Angel Cafe

Social Science Centre, Annual General Meeting, Saturday 8th July

The Social Science Centre will be having its Annual General Meeting for 2017 on 8th July at The Collection, Lincoln, from 11 am – 4 pm.

Agenda for the AGM

11am- 12 noon: Official business

12 – 12.30 pm: Lunch – bring and share food

12:30 – 1pm: Introductions

1pm – 1.45: General discussion to formulate discussion group topics

2pm – 3pm: Discussion groups

3pm – 3.15pm: Break

3.15pm – 4.00pm:  General discussion about workshops and how to take the discussion forward

 

 

AGM Planning Meeting, 24th May, Angel Cafe

24th May 1.30 Angel Café

Present: Bradley, Laura and Mike. Apologies from Lucy.

Venue – two rooms booked at The Collection for 8th of July, Education room and the Arts and Crafting room in the Art Gallery

Website –  post meetings and other relevant stuff as well as AGM publicity

Publicity – Use SSC logo for poster/flyer design with text and pursue other publicity ideas

Date of next meeting: Saturday 17th of June at the Angel Café. To invite all regular members/attenders to discuss division of labour for the AGM event, including the facilitation of  workshops.

Annual General Meeting, Planning Meeting Notes, 9th May, Angel Cafe

SSC AGM Planning meeting notes

Tuesday 9th May, 1pm Angel café

Present: Mike Laura, Bradley

· We decided the date for the AGM will be Saturday 8th July (a change from June 24th due to some members having commitments that had arose since).

· Venue to be booked, either The Collection Museum or Croft Street Community Centre, depending on availability.

· We also agreed it would be good to invite SSC Manchester to the event.

· We talked about how to advertise the event and  talked to a friend about designing a poster and flyer with upcoming events of the SSC on the reverse side (this could also be a graphic to share on social media). It was suggested we do some guerrilla marketing, maybe  in the high street with a sandwich board in the likeness of a social science book with the SSC logo, advertising the event. It was suggested  we set up a Facebook page to publicae the event (to be done once venue confirmed) and that we could contact the student newspaper to aid in promotion.

· We agreed then that we need to perhaps have a few future dates in the calendar before the AGM.

Agenda for the AGM

· Official business 11am- 12pm- this is the housekeeping/official stuff. Current members will be encouraged to come to this earlier bit, whereas the main advertising for new members will be for lunch onwards.

· Lunch 12PM- bring and share food

· Kick off properly 12:30pm with intros from everyone present- why here, what are you hoping to get out of it?

· The some short talks from current members on SSC, what we do, what we’ve gotten out of it etc.

· Then breaking out into smaller discussion groups.

Next meeting- 1:30pm Angel café, Monday 22nd May to continue planning the AGM.

The Social Science Imagination Course, January – April 2017

The Social Science Centre created the space for another course of the Social Science Imagination that ran from mid January to the beginning of April 2017, on Wednesday evenings. 7-9 at the Improvement Centre in Lincoln.

This Social Science Imagination programme has been the main teaching and learning event since the Social Science Centre was established in 2011. A defining feature of this course is that although it is based on the work on CW Mills it is designed and facilitated by the scholars who make up the learning group. This time the group comprised of  Sarah, Jade, Joe, Bradley, Sarah and Mike as well as others who joined us for some sessions, including friends of Bradley and Jade. The group asked that the sessions be facilitated, initially, by Mike and Sarah. The first session covered the main points of the first chapter of Mills’ book, looking at what constitutes the Social Science imagination.  A point was made  that the Sociological Imagination has little to do with imagination and a lot to do with social science method. The social science imagination is made of the way in which public and private issues and troubles are framed, an awareness of the historical context and trajectory in which those issues are taking place, the need for empirical research to support what is being imagined, and that the starting point is the personal experience of the person who is doing the imagining. A key question for Mills and for the group was how can people have an impact on major events that are taking place in the world.

An important issue for our discussions was the process of learning itself. We discussed this in relation to the work of Paulo Freire, who has written about learning as a process of collaboration between the teacher and the student. We read some chapters from Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed and talked about what the reading meant for us.

The group thought about how the framework established by Mills a might be used to help us to consider contemporary political developments, for example, the rise of Donald Trump and Brexit: the vote by the British electorate to leave the European Union.

A point that emerged from the discussions was that in order to understand contemporary issues it is important to start from some fundamental understandings of what we are talking about. So, in order to understand Brexit and to use the logic of Mill’s framing, it is necessary to have an historical understanding of the development of the nation state. These discussions were supported by reading the work of Ellen Meiskins Wood who has written about the origins of capitalism with particular reference to the origins of nation-states. Most of the sessions for the rest of the course were taken up with a reading of Meiksins Wood’s book The Origins of Capitalism

In the final session we were joined by Laura and her new baby, Meredith, giving us a real sense of new life and renewal. We said we would write up our impressions of the course and meet again in May to plan future work, including the Social Science Centre’s  Annual General Meeting.

Meeting Notes – October 1st 2016

Notes from SSC meeting, 1st of October, 12 Mint Lane, Lincoln

Present;  Andrew, Laura, Ana, Magda, Callum, Bradley, Sarah, Mike

As there were people present who had not attended SSC meetings before, the meeting began with a discussion about the nature and purpose of the SSC.  An important part of SSC’s current activity is to attract new members so it was encouraging to see new people at this meeting.

There was a discussion about how to take the work of the SSC forward this term. It was agreed that we should run the Sociological Imagination course, but that is should be publicised with specific reference to topics that are of real interest and concern to people’s everyday lives. This would include Brexit, unemployment, the concerns of rural communities and the government’s campaign against radical extremism.

The point was made that in order to achieve the aims of the SSC we need to find ways of gaining the trust of local groups in the community.

It was suggested that the SSC has more of a social media profile, particularly on Facebook. Mike will contact Joss to fix up a meeting with  those at the meeting who are interested in working on this.

Mike and Laura are to arrange to contact and visit a local secondary school to talk to Six Form pupils and their teachers about higher education and what is offered by the SSC.

Magda said she would invite members of the local migrant communities to our next event.

It was agreed that we all meet up again on the 5th of November at Mint Lane, hopefully with some new members present from the publicity and new contacts made. One purpose of that meeting would be to agree how to take the SSI course forward this term. An important principle of the SSC is that courses are designed with the participants, teachers and students, in the tradition of popular education.

 

 

REVIEWING OUR HISTORY AND MAKING PLANS

27th August 2016, 10am-4pm
Croft Street Community Centre, Lincoln LN2 5AZ

Please join us at this event to look back at our activities
since 2011 and make plans for our future.

MORNING SESSION (SSC MEMBERS ONLY)

10:00–12:00 – SSC on reflection

A chance for all past and present members of the Social Science Centre to reflect on their experiences in the Centre, our activities, roads we have not taken, changes we should make and hopes for the future. Highlights to be shared with others later in the day.

LUNCH (public, everyone welcome)

12:30–1:30

AFTERNOON SESSION (public, all welcome)

1:30–4:00 – Co-operative Higher Education in Lincoln

Ideas and making plans for the term/year. It has already been suggested we run courses on Brexit, women political writers, ‘where is capitalism going next?’ and the co-operative movement in Lincoln and the UK.

What is the SSC?

We practice a kind of higher education that explores the everyday experiences of our members – who are both students and teachers – through concepts and ideas developed in the social sciences. This includes making critical sense of social problems (like ‘austerity’, racism and nationalism or the privatisation of schools) and important local and global events like ‘Brexit’, learning how they affect us and how we might have an effect on them. Our past courses – The Social Science Imagination, Co-operation and Education, and Know How: Do-It-Ourselves Higher Education – all used different approaches for this learning.

We are a co-operative organisation owned and run by our members. This means that we not only experience higher education, but decide together what this learning should be, how it works and why it matters. All our members can help run the Centre by taking part in democratic decision-making processes and collective ownership and responsibility. No one pays for learning or gets paid for teaching at the SSC because we do not believe knowledge should be for sale. Members with financial means make small monthly contributions to the co-operative to pay for room hire and other running costs. For more information about the SSC, visit our website: socialsciencecentre.org.uk.

Why do we need co-operative higher education?

The Social Science Centre, Lincoln was established in 2011 when the UK Government stopped funding the teaching of social science and other subjects that were deemed ‘non-essential’ in English universities, and raised student tuition fees at the same time. It was also born out of a deeper worry that as universities transform themselves into businesses and focus more on satisfying the short-term, competitive, profit-driven demands of the capitalist market, people are denied opportunities for higher learning and critical and creative thinking (and opportunities for any higher learning not linked to enormous amounts of personal debt).

The state of higher education in England has not improved since that time. Policies to raise student tuition fees were followed by policies to reduce need-based educational grants, and then by policies that changed remaining grants into more student loans. There is evidence that these fees deter people from state schools from applying to university. There is evidence that students are limiting their choices in study based on vocational and ’employability’ criteria which are based on flawed measurements of ‘return on investment’. There has been a very significant fall in the number of mature students applying to university.

At the SSC, we believe even more strongly today that higher learning oriented towards intellectual values of critical thinking, experimentation, sharing, peer review, co-operation, collaboration, openness, debate and constructive disagreement is an essential part of making a better future for us all. This is why we are working to create alternative spaces of higher education whose purpose, societal value and existence do not depend on the interests and decisions of the powerful, places where everyone can learn and everyone can teach.

Minutes of 2016 Annual General Meeting

Social Science Centre Annual General Meeting

Croft Street Community Centre

7 May 2016, 11am-4pm.

Attending

Sarah Amsler, Steve Hanson, Clare Lynch, Andrew McCulloch, Carol MacRea, Mike Neary, Karolina Szynalska, Joss Winn

Apologies

David McAleavey, Laura Stratford, Lucy McGinty, Peaceful Warrior, Wendy Vause

Minutes from AGM of 16 May 2105

Approved

It was proposed that in the future, note-takers should summarise each section of the meetings, including actions, and read this out for approval from those in attendance on the day.

Action: trial this proposal in practice in forthcoming meetings

Matters arising from minutes of 2015 AGM

We reviewed the actions agreed at this meeting.

Completed actions:

• Met on 28 May 2015 to discuss the SSC [Independent Social Research Foundation] ‘co-operative university’ project; those attending were in favour of using this as a way to discuss governance issues in the SSC

• Mike circulated a description of the role of the Secretary.

• Andrew (again) circulated a proposed statement of values; however, it was not discussed.

• Lucy, Sarah and Andrea drew up plans for a new short course; however, they did not run it.

• Alex Dunedin from the Ragged University has agreed to work on the SSC website.

• Members discussed the possibility of paying a co-ordinator and decided against it.

Actions not completed:

• We did not organise a half-day workshop on decision-making and technologies for decision-making. Sarah did not bring a paper on democratic decision-making.

• We did not discuss the statement of values that Andrew circulated.

• We did not organise a year-long project using the constitution to develop meaningful definitions and practices of ‘democracy’, ‘non-hierarchical self-organisation’, ‘membership’ and ‘consensus’, with attention to issues of power and communication and with a view to revising the constitution, our ‘business plan’, statement of values if necessary and producing principles of organisation, teaching, and how to propose and run courses/activities (or whether the constitution should include a stronger statement of SSC values).

• Lucy, Sarah and Andrea did not produce principles for new short courses.

• We did not use some of our money to pay for training in decision-making and other relevant skills.

• We did not ask each member for 200 words about themselves to publish on the website.

Action: Sarah to organise a discussion for members to reflect on the above.

Election of officers

Mike was nominated, seconded and approved as Secretary for the coming year.

Laura was nominated, seconded and approved as Treasurer for the coming year.

Thanks to Stephen for his long service as Treasurer to this point.

Action: Laura to arrange transfer of signatures, documents, etc. from Stephen.

Financial report

Approved. It was noted that this year we spent more money than we earned from member contributions. Stephen had said that this might happen. We will need to monitor this in the coming year.

Action: Future accounting reports to include more details of expenditure and income (e.g., precise figures for member contributions)

Review of the Constitution

No amendments were deemed necessary.

Members attending the AGM reviewed the Constitution and raised the following points for discussion:

• Membership – did we make a decision about the definiton of ‘active membership’? Yes, and it remains broad to include a range of forms of participation and contribution.

We need to improve the process of ‘becoming a member’ to include face-to-face meetings and discussions, rather than only an online registration and email. It was acknowledged that meetings with new members have been offered and organised in the past, with little take-up.

• Quorum – it was suggested that we reconsider the number of members needed for quorum, to avoid a situation in which decisions cannot be made at meetings.

• Expulsion – it was suggested that the language defining grounds for expulsion from the SSC be revised to be more specifically related to violations of the values and principles.

New SSC Manchester

Steve Hanson introduced a new project, the Social Science Centre, Manchester. It grew out of the Manchester Left Writers project (which will continue), and aims to offer its first Sociological Imagination course in September 2016 at the Friends Meeting House. All agreed this is both an honour for the SSC, Lincoln and an exciting project that we are keen to learn from.

Action: Steve to write a brief blog about the SSC Manchester that we can publish on the SSC Lincoln website.

Other business (AOB)

It was noted that elements of SSC organisation have been adapted elsewhere; e.g., the Co-operative Institute for Transnational Studies, based in Greece. Several delegates from Mondragon University came to visit Joss and Mike recently to discuss co-operative education and student-as-producer pedagogy and curriculum.

Action: Mike to update the bibliography of SSC-related news, articles and publications on the website.

The AGM finished around 1pm and we had lunch, followed by a discussion about the research project: Beyond Public and Private.