16.1.2016
30 years ago a young person, that is, everyone under 40, had no say and could not be valued professionally. You did not get a doctorate before 30. You did not speak up in public media under 40. You did not become titular professor under 50. It was people (well) over 50 who ruled.
Now it is the opposite: only people under 40 have a say and are considered competent professionals and members of society.
Which means: we have succeeded in achieving a huge change. My generation has failed in many other respects, such as shaping a sustainable and just economy, but it has broken a longstanding social barrier.
Lets us now break another one and bring back the over--50s into society. Not as a hegemonic stratum as they used to be but as equal and valuable members. Not just professionally but also as human beings: beauty and talent over 50 is as lovely as under. And we shall make a place for over-50 women as well, which will be a true novelty, useful and necessary.
13.1.2016
When you're in between steps, waiting for something to happen - presumably bad, but maybe, just maybe, redemption, it has a name. The Catholics call it purgatory. Limbo. The first circle of Hell.
But what do you call it when it's good, out of place? Good, but you know it's not The Big Happy End, not there to last, you did not go to heaven because you were good. You do not deserve it, you have not earned it and you're not lucky.
It just happens and it will pass. Everyone is so good to you. You are overwhelmed with kindness you do not deserve.
The world around you is falling apart.
You're standing there, smiling like an idiot.
What do you call it, does it even have a name.
7.1. 2016
In my lifetime, I've seen the mega growth of the business school from nothing to world empire. Now my dream is to see its fall. Make it big, dear Archangel M.
(Clear and striking insight after having sat on plane in adjacent seat to two businessmen chatting, full Caligulan blast)
27.12.2015
Historia Polskiego Zarządzania. odc. 6
W drugiej połowie lat 90tych rolę przyjezdnych "misjonarzy" menedżerystycznego zarządzania przejęli polscy wykładowcy. Media mówiły monogłosem TINy, zarządzanie coraz bardziej zaczynało kojarzyć się w naszym kraju wyłącznie z jednym nurtem i jedną ideologią - ekonomistyczną i neoliberalną. W okolicach przełomu wieku stało się właściwie synonimem tej wersji. Natomiast zaczęły sie pojawiać tak w praktyce, jak w mediach jaskółki ról profesjonalnych szefa, szczególnie szefa kobiety. Zdecydowanie dominowała tradycyjna rola kobiera połączona z hierarchiczną rangą, jednak na obrzeżach zaczęły funkcjonować własne interpretacje tej roli. Piszę o tym w tym tekście:
Kostera, M. (2003) Reflections of the Other: Images of women in the Polish business press, Human Resources Development International 6/ 3, p. 325 - 342.
26.12.2015
Krótka Historia Polskiego Post-transformacyjnego Zarządzania, odc. 5
W latach 1990tych, zwłaszcza w pierwszej połowie, przyjeżdżali do Polski liczni konsultanci i doradcy z Zachodu. Organizowane było szkolenia i seminaria, podczas których wyjaśniali "zasady zarządzania", czyli neoliberalny mendżeryzm, bez żadnego związku z kontekstem, wiedzą czy doświadczeniem słuchaczy. Polscy szefowie, w tym mój teren badawczy, podświewali się na przerwach z tego, co było tam wykładane, ale nie protestowali ani nie zabierali głosu. Byli przekonani, że to po prostu "jeszcze jedna szopka", jakich już wiele w życiu mieli okazję spotkać. Myśleli, że trzeba to cierpliwie przetrzymać, robić swoje - w dłuższym okresie ideologie opadną, a wyniki pracy pozostaną. Nikt z nas wówczas nie przypuszczał, że wykładana wersja świata okaże się wkrótce nie tylko "najlepszą", ale wręcz "jedyną" - there is no alternative (TINA). Miałam jednak wrażenie w trakcie obserwacji, że te wykłady to nie zwykła "szopka", lecz coś znacznie więcej. Ten tekst traktuje o tym:
Kostera, M. (1995) "The modern crusade: Missionaries of management come to Eastern Europe", Management Learning, 26/3, p. 331-352.
25.12,. 2015
Krótka Historia Polskiego Post-transformacyjnego Zarządzania, odc. 4.
Polscy szefowie z początku lat 90tych mieli wiele pomysłów, nadziei i doświadczeń, na których chcieli budować nowe wzorce zarządzania. O wiele mniej różnorodny był świat kobiet-menedżerów. Wywiady etnograficzne z szefowymi pokazały ogromną presję, jaka była na nie wywierana przez oczekiwania społeczne skierowane z różnych stron i dążące do narzucenia bardzo tradycyjnej roli kobiety, nie zawierającej przestrzeni na interpretacje, ani nawet bardzo podsatwową różnorodność. Kobiety wykorzystywały strategię, która do dziś jest wśród polskich kobiet menedżerów często spotykana - traktowania swojej roli profesjonalnej jako tarczy, za którą mogą się schować. Jest to strategia całkowicie defensywna i indywidualna, tarcza wymierzona jest także przeciwko innym kobietom i oparta jest głównie na randze.
Kostera, M. , M. Proppe and M. Szatkowski (1994) "Beyond the social role: the case of polish female professionals", Scandinavian Journal of Management 2 (10): 99-116.
23.12.2015
Historia Polskiego Post-Transformacyjnego Zarządzania, odc. 2.
Napisałam książkę o moich etnograficznych badaniach polskich szefów z wczesnych lat 1990tych, której nikt nie przeczytał, pewnie z powodu "modnego" tytułu jaki nadało jej wydawnictwo (OK, zaproponowany przeze mnie nie był bardziej rynkowy, ale przynajmniej odpowiadał treści :-) - Metamorfozy polskiego przedsiębiorstwa). Z perspektywy czasu jest to książka o tym, że inne zarządzanie jets możliwe. Jeśli popatrzeć wstecz z punktu widzenia czasu mesjańskiego Waltera Benjamina, czyli czasu poza historią pisaną przez zwyciezców, w którym kryja się otwarcia w inne światy poprzez momenty doświadczane, to okazuje się, że nie musimy kurczowo trzymać się tak niepodzielnie obecnie panującej wersji ekonomii i zarządzania. Możliwości odnowy, szanse na znalezienie innych dróg, sa nie tylko za granicą (gdzie wcale nie jest tak cudownie, jak nam się wydaje), w nieodgadnionych "mózgach wielkich" lub cudach, na które wiele osób zdaje się czekać, ale w nas, między nami, w naszych własnych doświadczeniach. To tym właśnie jest wyobraźnia organizacyjna - umiejętnością przemieszczania sie poza tym, co Benjamin nazywał czasem pustym, liniowym.
Kostera, M. (1996) Postmodernizm w zarządzaniu. Warszawa: PWE.
22.12.2015
Krótka Historia Transformacyjnego Zarządzania, odc. 2.
"Moi" szefowie (z którymi robiłam wywiady etnograficzne na początku lat 1990tych i którym etnograficznie przesiadywałam na zebraniach) dość szybko zaczęli mi też opowiadać o teraźniejszości, choć na ogół z odniesieniami do przeszłości. Przeszłość była stale żywa w ich świecie, nawet taka przeszłość, której niektórzy z nich nie mogli pamiętać jako aktywni kierownicy (lata 1950te), a więc także duchy. Mówili o swoich różnych postawach i pomysłach na to, jak zarządzać i po co, o tym jak chcą wykorzystać swoje doświadczenie (i duchy) do tego, by robić nowe rzeczy. Było jasne, że istnieje wiele strategii i pomysłów na transformację, nie ma "jedynie słusznej drogi", a już na pewno nie było tak, że nie istniały alternatywy.
Napisałam o tym przydługawy tekst po polsku i wysłałam do polskiego pisma, ale tekst został odrzucony. Poprosiłam o radę Barbara Czarniawska i ona zaproponowała, bym pocięła go na dwoje, przetłumaczyła na angielski i wysłała do dwóch pism: Journal of Organizational Behavior i Organization Studies. Artykuły przeszły przez wiele (5 i 7) tur recenzji i zmian, podczas których niesamowicie dużo sie nauczyłam i zostały opublikowane jako (jeden z moimi dwoma studentami, którzy robili surwej):
Kostera,M. M. Proppe i M. Szatkowski (1995) Staging the new romantic hero in the old cynical theater” Journal of Organizational Behavior 16/6, p. 631-646.
Kostera, M. (1995) "Differing managerial responses to change in Poland.” Organization Studies 16/4, p. 673-697.
21. 12. 2015
Krótka i raczej smutna historia polskiego post-transformacyjnego zarządzania, odcinek 1, czyli czyli KRSHPPZ 1.
Na początku lat 1990tych prowadziłam badania (najpierw surwej i wywiady, potem etnografia, gdy dowiedziałam się, że istnieje z książki Barbara Czarniawska (1992) Exploring Complex Organizations) wśród polskich szefów. Myślałam, że będzie to badanie wśród osób o usposobieniu raczej biurokratycznym, bez szczególnego zapału do zarządzania. Spotkałam ludzi z ogromnym doświadczeniem menedżerskim, pełnych energii i pomysłów i całkiem odmienną perspektywą, niż zachodni menedżerowie, których znałam z książek i wcześniejszych kontaktów, praktyk studenckich z czasów szwedzkich studiów i badań do doktoratu. Prosiłam ich, by mi opowiedzieli o przyszłości, ale oni nie chcieli. Zamiast tego opowiadali o przeszłości. Barbara Czarniawska poradziła mi, by prowadzić porządne badania etnograficzne i słuchac tego, co oni chcą mi mówić. Tak też zaczęłam robić. Zaprosiłam na kawałek drogi wówczas studenta, Maćka Wichę, bo smutno jest podróżować samemu, a on interesował sie Goffmanem. Wyszła opowieść o różnych rolach, jakie grali polscy szefowie sprzed 1989 roku, od najbardziej walecznego Aktywisty, poprzez zdyscyplinowanego Biurokratę, do ulubionej przez polskich szefów roli z lat Gierkowskich, którą nazwyaliśmy Dygnitarz. Potem przyszedł schyłek i nie było już tak pięknie ani ciekawie być kierownikiem przedsiębiorstwa. Wlaściwie nie kierownicy wtedy szefowali, lecz system padał, był niesterowny. Nazwaliśmy szefa z tego okresu Zmiennikiem.
Kostera & Wicha (1995) "The Symbolism of the Communist Manager Roles: A study of scenarios", Scandinavian Journal of Management ,11/2, p. 138-158
19.12. 2015
In 1990 I was homeless in Copenhagen for a few days. I traveled back and forth on the S-train (the metro was not yet there) and on the bus. I was here on an exchange between universities for 6 months and I was living with a family that had a fantasy of me abusing their phone and toilet paper (I did not). One day, in December, just before I was to go back to Warsaw, they locked me out. Perhaps by mistake, perhaps not. They were paid by the University for giving me a place to stay and feeding me. I stopped eating with them quite soon after it turned out that they were desperate about saving as much as they could on my food. I was penniless but I could afford to buy an apple and bread for myself. The day I was going back I was able to get into the house and get my stuff. The people weren't there. I spent my last (I think) 5 krone to buy them a Christmas plant. I didn't do it because I was a good person - I am not, and I was not forgiving them, I just was (still am) rather seriously mad and imagined that there is a kindness virus (I still do), and if you are a carrier, you can spread it around and inflict on people, like a plague rat.
10.12.2015
Zygmunt Bauman once said that genius means being one and only, unlike any other (jednokrotny). Not: better, brighter, gifted. Just - different.
Genius is certianly not about the production of superior outcomes.
No, I think that genius only produces such things that are generously given, she or he only receives them, garecfully, does not stand in the way (nor lets anything stand in the way, such as the ego, the most powerful obstacle).
Not so strange, then, that all true geniuses are modest.
Genius works by substraction, not by addition, and certainly not by multiplication.
24.11.2015
I am often walking in Dream in places that are yet not much frequented, I have been seeing the darkness of universities since 1998. Today I've been to new places and I've seen the spaces of the new university for the first time. I loved them.
In my first dream my doctoral student Joanna was reciting her thesis to me. It was written in hexameter and was sublimely beautiful. I wanted to listen and focus, but could not, because the space we in was used by some people having their conference lunch. I hoped that they would go away but they didn't. Instead, they offered us food and drink which was all very nice but I wanted to listen to her. So we went out into the courtyard and it turned out to be a stunning summer day, more than plus 30 C, honey coloured sunshine, even though it was late November. We needed to find another space and we started to look for one. It was a huge old castle, and the weather was amazing, but all the businesslike people kept assembling in dark rooms with shutters tightly shut, darkened and cold. They were nice and kind. maybe they'd open the windows one day. Joanna and I kept walking and looking for a space and she was reciting to me.
In the second dream, I was showing a picture of Zygmunt Bauman's window that I once took, for my friend Grażyna (who is writing courageous, beautiful and highly critical texts about universities) - below. She said she liked it but nowadays everyone is building universities just like this. Even if they don't have any natural growing ivy, they'd just plant it and find some old bricks to build they walls.
13.10.2015
I don't believe in economy in art. Art is abundance, even in these cases when what it reveals is less than what it hides. There was never anything economical about Hokusai. I believe in Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, Joakim Thaström.
Decoration is economical. Art never is. It is sometimes good, many times - bad. But it is never safe. Art is risky, it is about sharing what never should be shared. It is not about careful selection and choice. Usually there is no choice to be made. Easy. The economy of being there.
16.09.2015
Times are changing, winds are beginning to blow in new directions, lots of people and ideas silent until now finding a strong voice.
The establishment is terrified. Oh let them. They've had their 5 minutes, it lasted over 30 years. They almost destroyed the planet and turned most enjoyable things into lies and nightmare prisons.
But many ordinary people are disoriented. They will come around. Most people will, give it a few years and we will be all busy building something new and beautiful. There will, however, be some people who, like me for the last 30 years, will not go with the new river but hang on to their own thing. To them I want to say: enjoy. Whatever doesn't kill us, makes us stranger.
12.9.2015
The thing about hope is one has first to see that the box is empty.
Only then it appears.
We human beings may survive some time without food or water but meaning is like air.
Seeing the emptiness of Pandora's box is not bearable.
And yet... one, two, three...
11.9.2015
Jak przeżyć niezły odjazd? naczytaj się poezji. Potem niepostrzeżenie weź do ręki tekst naukowy i zacznij czytać, nie kojarząc przejścia...
21.8. 2015
Dawno, dawno temu, na początku lat 1980tych, gdy studiowałąm zarządzanie w Lund, w ogóle nie uczyliśmy się o małym biznesie, bo to nie było zarządzanie. Mały biznes miał tendencję do kompromisów na jakości, wykorzystywania pracowników, nierespektowania związków zawodowych (głównego partnera dla zarządzania) i, powiedzmy sobie szczerze, do chytrości raczej niż charakterystycznej dla prawdziwych firm hojności. Zarządzanie to były wielkie wizje, rozmach, system i metoda.Oszczędzać na kliencie? Nie do pomyślenia, już w średnim okresie takie działąnie obróci się przeciwko firmie. Oszczędzać na pracownikach? Kompletny nonsens, przecież inwestycje w ludzi to podstawa wszelkiego naukowego podejścia do zarządzania.
Kto by wtedy pomyślał, że kapitalizm rozwinie się w takim kierunku, że zarządzanie korporacją upodobni się do tego, co wtedy nazywało się sklepikarstwem i będzie polegało na skąpieniu klientowi tego kawałka cukru, tego mydełka, na podawaniu niepełnych opakowań, produkcji z coraz bardziej nietrwałych materiałów. Że będzie polegało na zagananiu pracowników do pracy na zasadach które wtedy określało się mianem "na lewo", "na czarno" albo w najlepszym razie "na szaro". Że właściwie wszystko co wtedy uważaliśmy za naukę zarządzania zostanie zastąpione przez coś, co uznawane było za barbarzyństwo, z którego nauka nas właśnie skutecznie wyprowadza.
19.8. 2015
Greece is such an abundance of dreams, stories, myths. The Muses walk the same roads as humans, they drink the same water. They can speak to anyone, no matter what language or expectations. Everything is suffused with meaning. Everything is inspiration.
Will it be suppressed?
Like it happened to London? once so vibrant with stories and dreams. Remember Gaiman's Neverwhere? Remember all the music, the poems, the feeling of meaningful and slightly uncanny presence in the underground, in the backyards? I saw all that 20 years ago and then observed it slowly running dry, like a huge river dying. Today's London is something very different. It's a city where you can speak mainly in numbers.
Cities without stories are a particularly dark kind of poverty. It's worse than material deprivation.
So will the same thing happen to Greece? Is it at all possible?
I don't know... Maybe...
What I do know is that stories and dreams are rhizomatic. One may think one has uprooted and banished them but there will always be fragments left in the ground, waiting
8.8. 2015
Some time ago I listened to a lecture by a historian claiming that Rome fell because people ceased to have the drive to _do_ Rome.
Aegean airlines and the best meal I've had on board a plane since the 1990s: lovely fresh food, good coffee, good wine - yes, this was in economy class ... Hotel in Athens, basic, but hey, the cheese is sliced as thickly as my working class grandmother would have cut it for the guests... and there is real, good art hanging on the walls... Last year in Albania, a non-English speaking bartender, someone I didn't even know, sharing his lunch with me, for free... (free lunch, yes it was) Lots of people and organizations in Poland and in Sheffield so happy and confident to be generous.
People not going entrepreneurial on each other.
I know it's marginal, the places and people I tend to meet these days, but I have a feeling that there is not much of a marginal identity to them, on the contrary, there is liberation and relief, quite often there is a sense that they are, indeed, breathing freely, in an "in-your-face" kind of way: So. I'm human. Deal with it.
People, perhaps increasingly often, lacking the drive to do capitalism.
5.8. 2015
We all know the fable of the lion, the fox and the donkey. It goes like this: The lion invites the fox and the donkey to go and hunt with him. Afterwards he asks the donkey to divide the prey. The donkey divides it equally, the lion gets angry, kills and eats the donkey, then asks the same thing of the fox. The fox gives the lion's share to the lion, and takes only some unappetizing scraps for himself. The lion is happy and asks the fox how she had learned to divide do fairly? The fox answers: the donkey’s predicament.
The way Aesop told the tale, however, was as it was told by the lion. Let me tell you how it was told by the other animals.
This is how the fox told it.
The lion invites the fox and the donkey to go and hunt with him. Afterwards he asks the donkey to divide the prey. The donkey divides it equally, the lion gets angry, kills and eats the donkey, then asks the fox the same thing. The fox gives the lion's share to the lion, and takes only some unappetizing scraps for himself. The lion is happy and asks the fox how she had learned to divide do fairly? The fox answers: the donkey’s predicament.
The lion sees that he can trust the fox's superior judgement and gets to depend on her more and more. Month after month, year after year, they hunt together, and the lion eats very well, and gets fatter and fatter. The fox always follows the lion into his secret lair and divides the prey. One day, when the lion had eaten very well and is soundly asleep, the fox comes back to his lair with her comrades. They attack the sleeping lion and kill him as easily as if he were a rabbit; then they eat him all up, leaving only the bones.
And this is how the donkey told it.
The lion invites the fox and the donkey to go and hunt with him. Afterwards he asks the donkey to divide the prey. The donkey divides it equally, the lion gets angry, kills and eats the donkey.
Well, the donkey knew from the very beginning how this would end for him. Being invited by a lion for a hunt never bodes well. After all, donkeys are vegetarians. So the figured out something else instead. He divided the prey equally to make a point for the fox to understand. Then, after the lion had eaten the donkey, every night, for the rest of his life, he dreamed he was a donkey. It was utterly unbearable, so he started to overeat in order to sleep more deeply, hoping the dreams would stop. But they didn't. So he began wishing he'd die. At very long last, the fox got the message...
How did the donkey go about all that, you wonder? Well... after all, once upon a time, he used to be friends with a certain queen of the fairies. Quite good friends, too.
26.7. 2015
In terms of good old systems theory, we just have been through a massive attempt at "cure" to the neoliberal system after the 2008 banking crisis. The crisis struck at its heart and every effort and remaining resource has been put into this attempt. It succeeded, the banking system has been made functional again, to a gigantic cost possible only because of the enormous wealth and development that has been developed the decades before. But the system got so weakened in the process and devoid itself of any slack in the margins, that now any, even small, disturbance will now be able put it out of its misery. It could be anything, it could be something as trivial as the common flu is for an exhausted organism. Why not the element that has until now been trivialized and so successfully crushed, vilified, infantilized and marginalized? i.e. people, human beings - not just greedy but also generous, not just individuals, but also collectives, not just jealous but also empathetic. The protests and movements that the 1980s thriving neoliberalism was able to crush with a finger, that the 1990s swept under the rug, and the naughties threatened and scared into submission. We, the humane flu.
10. VI. 2015
Please, don't call me madam. I am not a madam. People used to say Ms once, well, some said Mrs or Miss, but nobody said madam. May Vulcan blast neolibspeak to hell, this and other disrespectful expressions of the "service" society. Slavery is a language, too.
8. VI. 2015
Capitalism used to distribute opium to the people. However, it turned out not to be cost effective, so now it is dealing pure despair.
26.V.2015
In Sigmund Freud's times sexuality was the greatest taboo in the West and so it is quite probable (even though it seemed absurd to me when I first read him) that people indeed obsessively dreamed of it using all kinds of symbols and images. In today's hyperrational world it is imagination that is the greatest taboo. I wonder what people dream of, what a a modern Freud would record... I bet they are dreams of terrible things, of things out of control, of raging irrationality: cars, planes running amok, monsters and demons invading homes and bodies.
Small wonder people are so scared of imagination and of dreams. The dreams of rational people are, most likely, terrible, and completely irrational. I would give anything not to have such dreams.
17.IV.2015
Barnsley - a strange cauldron where different pasts mix; April has not reached Barnsley yet, hell, neither has neoliberalism - here still Coke competes against Pepsi and capitalism is about investing in difference. Young people hanging around in the great hall of the railway station, dressed in black; policemen and -women walking around casually two and two, like lovers or friends; a stack of Metros smelling of fresh ink. Late night city sounds from the slightly faded 90s. and ads for companies from the dot.com-boom era, with a slightly modern twist: a beard, a tattoo. Trains smelling of old trains, sounding like old trains. Funny sculptures and a photo depicting the station manager: a time when somebody still cared.
When we are leaving on the train towards Sheffield, several mobile areas come up on my phone. Echoes bounce away on peripheral vision.
Oh what a jetlag I have!
20.III.2015
Why does the world need me? Maybe I am just a stranger, a wanderer, I move on, I like to move on. Not obviously useful. But I can help people to walk in the imagination; I can be a guide. I can show the way, I can hold their hand, I can show how to move around without drugs or alcohol. Imagination is beautiful and wild, it is dangerous, terrifying, but it is life itself: embracing opposites, bringing tigether contradictions, pure raw madness, and a sense meaning that only angels can touch. Looking at it is like staring into the Sun; one's eyesight will never return to normal again.
I can take you there.
15. III. 2015
Elisabeth Kendall at BBC Radio 4 answering the question why people seem to be so attracted to join jihadist movements, "even" people from the West - she points out that it is not their rationalistic propaganda that speaks to people, but their poetry; and she proposes a poetic counter-movement to balance out that effect.
The Shadow of neoliberal West is tightly tied to its very heart. Small wonder the cord is made of poetry. Without poetry we are all dead. A slow, suffocating all-embracing death by impact and contribution, much more finite than by any natural kind of disaster - it eradicates humanity backwards and forwards, as if it has never been, and never will. There will be no one left to mourn us, not now, not some day in the future or in the past, not ever. We will have rationalized ourselves to stuff, money and figures; toxic and useless from the ecological point of view, to be devoured by Gaia, and if she refuses, by Cosmos itself.
14.III. 2015
"Stalinists and their ilk did not kill because they dreamed great dreams - actually, Stalinists were famous for being rather short on imagination - but because they mistook their dreams for scientific realities." (David Graeber)
...it's easy to do that when one is short on imagination. "The [current] moral deficit is due to a deficit of imagination" (Zygmunt Bauman)
13. III. 2015
Daniel Doherty said:
" Rut or river writing... the choice for us all except the river is poverty the rut security
meccano set or purest putty
he mediums do not mix
no such thing as hybrid really
even you can't push that river Monika"
There are no hybrids: one either follows the river or tries to push it. What people call genius is really about doing nothing at all, just flowing along. Nothing: no adopting, no adapting, no focusing, no contributing, no presenting. No hard work, and, above all, no impact.
It is silence, being the straw through which the water flows. Wherever it takes you.
No resistance, no effort, no authorship.
No stillness, no harmony, no relevance.
12. III. 2015
Having to write in an rigid, apologetic manner makes me profoundly sad, to explain, thrice, in other terms (and different style) what it is I write about in the whole text and why I write it, to clarify, to focus, explore significance, indicate relevance, explicate to death something that used to be beautiful, which used to have a flow. So, to the last question: why are you writing this? the answer is: I used to know, once, before I revised and improved, but I don't remember now.
11. III. 2015
What will we all do when it's all over? After this, how are we going to act and to talk? An extreme pull, tsunamilike, not unlike the 1930s, except the people getting killed now mostly live out of "our" sight... Things people say and do, how so many suddenly run into their ultimate edges, what will we do when we all sober up? Are we going to take up work as if we left it yesterday, say sorry, hello, okay. The Zeitgeist taking the final fall, to be reconstituted again as something new, someday. Who knows what and when. Altered states of consciousness. Munin not coming back.
5. II.2015
I am discovering another side of authors writing management... The poetic, the river, words that move; if we all began to write like that, and only like that, speak like that to students, what would the world become?...
29.I.2015
In good times hybrids, explorers of borderline realities are very much appreciated, because we bring challenge, amusement and hope. In bad times, the choices seem, for most people and organizations, to be limited to avoiding the greater evil. Such times are binary and there is no place for hybrids. In the best case, they unseen. Hybrids are rare, never form mainstreams, it is easy not to see. Cultural and social amalgamates, poems of light, songs of innocence and experience, genre and gender fluidity, the ambivalent, ambiguous and fluctuating - what has the same pulse as dreams - are the most precise, accurate barometer of the times. The day when we hybrids are welcome again and people will see us, that day it will be certain that austerity, the war on diversity and abundance - on the stuff of life itself - is over.
25.I.2015
Eímai Ellinída - I am Greek
23.I.2015
As much as I hope that neoliberalism will die a a rapid and strictly atheist death (I wouldn't wish it on the Devil himself), I can't join in the popular lament over the demise of the middle class. I'm not particularly sorry. One of the most revolting things we owe this class nowadays is the abhorrent imperative of what is currently known as "happiness" - a kind of constant numb contentment. We have an obligation be "happy"this way, it is our primary duty towards society. If we fail, we are given pills, blamed for illnesses and misfortunes that befall us (he was not happy so he got cancer, so she was fired etc). The happiness imperative also works the other ways round - life, others, Cosmos, have an obligation towards is, to make us "happy", it owes us, and that's that. We cannot possibly do "unhappy" things, such as refrain from eating, from sleeping, even if we create something, even if we fall in love, or just because we forgot to. It endangers our "health" not to be "happy", and our superegos have become "Happyhappy Guys", telling us not to cry, not to complain, not to endanger our jobs by defending someone who is bullied, not to speak up for something we believe in, not to sleep too long, or too short, not to eat too much or too little. The Happiness Ministry inside the head of contemporary (wo)man. Delivered directly from the bourgois universe to the home, FREE! delivery.
22.I.2015
The verdict of plagiarism on Luc Tuymans is a stark example of how corporations (and neoliberalism) make us believe things that are completely pointless. Cf. the Zygmunt Bauman "plagiarism" hunt. "Stealing of others work", "stealing of ideas" or - something writers, painters and thinkers have been doing for centuries, working in the public medium of ideas and images?
If in doubt, check how creative work is done if it really flows, as it should be done. It has its strict rules and laws - and they are not market rules, they are not copyright laws.
21.I.2015
"If a man is the enemy of my spiritual life while he pretends to be the friend of my corporeal, he is a real enemy" (William Blake)
14.I.2015
"Somewhere in America, there is hope because of brilliant, fearless girls like this.
In an amazing, seriously, AMAZING performance on The Queen Latifah Show that is called “Somewhere in America”. These fearless girls; Belissa Escobedo, Rhiannon McGavin, and Zariya Allen get real about the issues America has their generations facing.
They are part of the non-profit organization Get Lit. The organization is the leading non-profit contributer of literary performance, education, and teen poetry programs in Southern California.
Queen Latifah goes on to interview these fearless girls. They give her some really amazing answers and insights into their strong beliefs.
When asked what is so important about poetry, Rhiannon says, “I think poetry is the best way to express emotions. I believe that if you write your feelings down, memorize the words and perform them aloud - that you won’t be bothered by that problem. It’s an amazing way to help people - especially teens.”
Poetry is revolution.
Write a poem NOW.
Don't worry about being T.S.Eliot.
You won't. There was one Eliot. Enough.
Don't worry about the voices
in your head, sarcastic,
telling you it's graphomania,
and you should not write
unless you know how to properly speak
and to disdain the contents.
Let them nag on, let them brag
they will make a lovely Greek chorus
for your song.
Poetry is revolution.
Revolution is beautiful,
it is not pretty.
13.I.2015
"The unachieved positivist utopia became [...] the global system of late capitalism wherein all that exists become quantifiable - not simply because it can be reduced to a statistical fact, but also because it has been reduced into a commodity.
In such a system there is no space for experience. Each person's experience remains an individual problem. Personal psychology replaces philosophy as an explanation of the world.
Nor is there space for the social function of subjectivity. All subjectivity is treated as private, and the only form of it which is socially allowed is that of the individual consumer's dream. (John Berger, prophetically, in 1982, in Another Way of Telling with Jean Mohr)
5.I.2015
I was in Paris with my parents when I was little. It was the summer of 1967, or was it 1968? I do not remember numbers, but I remember the air, flowing and curly, much darker and thinner than the bright and juicy sunlight above, the cool pavement; I remember Les Halles (I recall the name very clearly, I was fascinated, hypnotized by words and took them all in, much before I understood them ), the ground and the deep, intense shadows with mobile, flickering tiny stars of light. I remember the smell, addictive but not tight around the body, irresistible and inviting but not in any overt way. Calling.
It might have happened then.
Yes, that is possible
30.XII.2014
Warning! May contain traces of infinity!
(Paris, Musee des Arts Decoratifs)
27.XII.2014
I have finally come to see that a mainstream spring may not come in my time. Most people in my country are well adapted to liquid modernity. They do not need Imagination or the knowledge how to walk the spaces where the songs are. They have created a whole complete world without them, a world with everything in it _but_ Imagination , no empty spaces, no place for longing, no nostalgia, nothing that cannot be worked hard for, that cannot be planned and purchased, in time. The water has been silenced.
But there will always be islands.
Please let us remember each other. Make place for each other. Do not let formal rules go before each other. Yes, we are not the most employable, electable people, perhaps not at all, there is always something vital lacking in our CVs, in our covering letters, it will be difficult, especially considering the tight structure of the current system, but still, let us, at least, make sure that there will be islands.
24.XII.2014
An ethnographic story of synchronistic organizing - or, why anarchists don't need linear time.
My interviewee told me to come over the next day so I could see their new location, to be opened soon, which is still under renovation. They would be handing out Christmas orders to people, starting from 11 and until the evening. I arrived one-ish and was let in by two renovation guys, slightly puzzled, but friendly enough. They asked me my name and I said "Monika". So they called the people from the cooperative to tell them I was there. "A guy with the package will soon be here" they told me, "if you don't mind waiting ten minutes". I didn't mind at all, just asked if I could walk around and they said: "sure, anywhere you please", so I did just that. 10 minuted turned 20, then 30 and 40. In the meantime, another guy came, asking for his order. The renovation people didn't know anything about it and nobody was answering the phone but they said someone from the coop would soon be with us, so just wait 10 minutes etc. When the guy with the package finally arrived, he was very apologetic. He said "sorry sorry, we're handing out the orders somewhere else, we forgot to tell you, but here's your order, Monika" and gave the package to me. "Ouch, thanks a lot, ummm, but I didn't order anything, I'm Monika the ethnographer". "What about me?" the guy asked, a bit miffed at this point.
Well, it turns out that his wife's first name is Monika and she'd ordered exactly the very same package which the coop guy has brought and was trying to hand over to me, an entirely different, but synchronistically not unrelated, Monika.
And upon leaving the place, I see a large sign over the neighbouring cosmetics store: Kosmetyki Monika
23.XII.2014
Dreams up and over the edge. Rain, rain, rain, from heaven, Neptune and his huge, floating shadow.
Emancipated in darkness. I was sitting in a cafe when the light when out in the whole block. We all fell silent. My coffee was strong, it tasted black. Two women started to whisper at the table nearby. Close to the dark window, in almost complete lustrous darkness, two shadow figures, playing chess.
23.XII.2014
This used to be obvious for those us us, lucky enough to have come to academia before the turn of the last century. The reason why we didn't go to business, banking or anywhere else. To be allowed to be irreverently mad, to have the peace, real peace, which is a state of mind without funding, impacts, plans, stars, ethical committees, student satisfaction quota, a peace necessary for pursuing our obsessions. May it be so soon again, while we're still human.
"Writing a thesis is a lonely obsessive activity. You live inside your head, nowhere else. University libraries are like madhouses, full of people pursuing wraiths, hunches, obsessions. The person with whom you spend most of your tine is the person you;'re writing about. (Patricia Duncker, 1996)
11.XII.2014
Bardzo dużo mówi się i pisze o wysypie psychopatów we współczesnym świecie, szczególnie w korporacjach i bankach. Tymczasem wcale nie jest tak, że nagle zrobiło się ich więcej. Nadal stanowią mniejszość. Jednak obecny system w pewnym momencie wkroczył w fazę, gdy wyłącznie ich działania stały się skuteczne - w świecie, gdzie nic nie działa, psychopatyczne postępowanie bez emocji, bez empatii okazało się działać. Dlatego znaleźli dla siebie w tym świecie miejsce i stali się wzorem dla innych. Ich dyskurs stał się dyskursem Zeitgeistu, ich sposób myślenia znajdziemy w mediach, w reklamach, ich język zaczął nas wszystkich obowiązywać. Nie możemy powiedzieć, że studiujemy, bo nas to pasjonuje, tylko dlatego, że nam się to opłaca. Nie wolno powiedzieć, że kochamy to co robimy, tylko że dużo zarabiamy. Jendakże większość osób działających w ten sposób, to nie psychopaci, tylko zwykli ludzie, z emocjami, z uczuciami wyższymi, z marzeniami. Ci ludzie zadają sobie niesamowitą przemoc, zmuszając się do psychopatycznego działania i mówienia. To wymaga ogromnego wkładu energii w każdej chwili, energii, której nie ma skąd uzupełnić (do tego potrzebny byłby wolny czas, korzytanie z uczuć wyższych), są ciągle zmęczeni, coraz bardziej chorzy. Działają tak, jak myślą, że trzeba, bo Zeitgeist mówi im, że tylko tak jest dobrze, że tak jest dorośle, tak jest odpowiedzialnie i trzeba zapomnieć o wszystkim innym, o całej swej ludzkiej naturze. Psychopaci są dostosowani do takiego życia (co nie znaczy, że są szczęśliwi, ale to już inna historia - są potwornie samotni i nie są w stanie niczym się nasycić). Zwykli ludzie, z uczuciami, z empatią - nie są. Dla nich takie życie jest najgorszym rodzajem więzienia, nawet jeśli wolą tego widzieć, zmuszają siebie samych do niewidzenia. Żyją w permanentnym bólu, którego nie da się z niczym porównać. Można próbować go przyćmić dogmatami, konsumpcją, ale to działa tylko troszkę, tylko chwilę.
Czas psychopatów się już skończył. Psychopaci z zachodnich banków i korporacji wyjachali na wieczne wakacje do ciepłych krajów, w dalekie drogie podróże, bo także ich działania przestały być skuteczne w rozpadającym się systemie. Nic już nie jest skuteczne. Chata wolna.
Ludzie mogą przestać się męczyć. Co będzie, gdy wszyscy naraz otworzymy oczy?
10.XII.2014
"The imagination is not a state; it is the human existence itself" (William Blake)
Everything passes: money, things, status symbols, educational cannons, figures of beauty. Only dreams survive.
Check history if in doubt.
8.XII.2014
To nieprawda, że człowieka najlepiej poznaje się w złych czasach, gdy ona czy ona redukuje się do jednego spójnego wątku. Nie, człowieka można poznać tylko w dobrych czasach, kiedy każdy ma wiele stron, wiele pragnień, marzeń, snów. W dobrych czasach ludzie są w pełni ludźmi.
Najbardziej mam za złe dzisiejszym czasom, że Zeitgeist nakłania ludzi do tego, by odarli się z własnego człowieczeństwa. Na pierwszy ogień poszły uczucia wyższe: współczucie, ciekawość poznawcza, pożądanie kontaktu ze sztuką, skłoność do szukania i błądzenia. Dalej, ludzie starają się w sobie stłumić wszelkie uczucia, wszelkie marzenia i sny. Obecne czasy przekonują ludzi, że tylko najbardziej niskie instynkty są "normalne", "prawdziwe", "dorosłe" i że dojrzały do życia w społeczeństwie człowiek musi zajmować się tylko nimi i niczym poza tym. Mówią nam, że "rzeczywiste" jest tylko to co na powierzchni, czego można dotknąć co można policzyć. Nie należy mieć snów, marzyć, szukać bez planu - to zdaniem Zeitgeistu dziecinada, którą należy wykorzenić także z dzieci. Ludzie dokonują na sobie aktu przemocy, odzierając się z tego wszystkiego; robią to z różnych powodów: bo tak jest dorośle, bo tak trzeba, bo tak robią wszyscy poważni, odnoszący sukces ludzie, wreszcie, dla rodziny, by dzieci miały jakąś przyszłość... Wszelka twórczość w takim świecie jest fałszem, bo niczym innym być w nim nie może; twórczość rządzi się tymi prawami, które obecnie jako społeczeństwo odrzuciliśmy. Ludzie często zwracają się do mnie o radę, co zrobić by być twórczymi. Jest jedna droga - ku własnej wewnętrznej prawdzie, temu wszystkiemu, co jest poza fasadą, co jest tajemnicą i nad czym nie mamy kontroli. To jest prawdziwe, mimo że Zietgeist każe nam wierzyć, że nie ma nic innego, niż fasada, że musimy porzucić to, czego sie da się zmierzyć i wycenić.
A jednak nie - nie musimy. Nauka tego nie mówi. Religia tego nie mówi. To tylko Zeitgeist - przyszedł, pójdzie. Przeminą rzeczy, finanse, kanony edukacji. Zostanie z nas tylko to co ludzkie: sny, marzenia, wszystko co myślimy, wszystko co nas porusza, w co wierzymy, czego się obawiamy.
Tak bardzo tęsknię za dobrymi czasami.
Ale one wrócą, wrócą na pewno.
30.XI.2014
The idea of the university is changed beyond recognition... The Western university is a centrally managed, profit oriented corporation. People who do not take part in this mode of action are not welcome, regardless of what else they do; they may be scientists, researchers, thinkers - academics that someone not familiar with contemporary university policies would consider an important, perhaps even crucial, part of the academic profession.
It is miraculous how, in the midst of all this, and after so many years of strategic turnaround, academia still produces ideas that matter, ideas that would come useful if we chose to change the world for the better. Look at management science - its role was (and is) to be a legitimizing ideology for the global economic system, thus the intensive funding and expansion, especially in the first decades of neoliberalism. Nonetheless it has been producing an incredible mass of critical, reflective, highly relevant academic output (ideas, books, articles). Even in Eastern Europe where the ideologization was much more straightforward and non-mainstream management / organization theory is, in most places, a prohibited knowledge for dissidents only, there exist people and even communities that ascribe to reflective/ critical management.
Procedures like the ones described in the article have been working to demolish academia for decades. Yet we have survived.
Doing something about the condition of world used to be considered our role. I think that it still is.
29.XI.2014
I talked with two friends, an academic and a management consultant. They both expressed an emphatic hope that neoliberalism will die and go to hell - or further, as not even Lucifer deserves it. Anyway, they were telling me how all of their life energy has moved away from their jobs, drained away; and how much, of who they had been, once, was happening in and thanks to their work. They also said that they saw themselves as extraordinarily energetic these days, both being ardent cinema goers, active within sports, reading books, etc. Most of their job colleagues and family don't do any of it, they just watch TV, shop, go to church - people who once were so many different things. And they told me how much they missed work, the work that used to involve them as humans.
Work is a human right.
And I don't believe that bad times reveal people's true nature. No - it's good times that do. Only then people become fully human, with many different sides, many things happening, songs, desires and dreams. I miss the good times. Songs, desires and dreams are a human right.
5.XI.2014.
I have never written one sentence that would make any sense while sitting in the office. I can't. Creative academic writing is beyond rational control, it demands humility, and so it has been understood for centuries and millennia. I am extremely lucky in that respect, and so very grateful: I can write almost anywhere (it often provokes and amazes my friends), I've been known to write on a tram, in a meeting, in the middle of a raging New Year's Eve party. I can write everywhere, except in the office. My friends and colleagues often have it tougher; many people need complete silence, or utter physical exhaustion, or loneliness and sensory deprivation. Most of us need space and time, no admin, as little teaching as possible, as few everyday obligations as possible. Such work cannot be planned, or pushed, or managed; I only know of one person who can write from 9 to 5, which is good for him but he's hardly a standard for all of us. Neither am I. I am extremely lucky, I can write anywhere. Except in the office, except from 9 to 5, except if a research plan says I must.
How can we work, however can we write, if there is no space for it, if our job descriptions have come to include only conditions that exclude such work, that for many of us go _against_ the rhythms and flows which make it possible? An institutional ecology that for us, doing creative work, is like climate change is for the Arctic. With no energy, constantly going against the flow, riding the horse backwards, we still write, and read, and think... It is a miracle, showing how beautiful our profession is, and how necessary. We are the Dream of society, important even, especially, in these strange times of violent insomnia. We are the Arctic and we are melting down.
4.XI.2014.
What has become of our profession? How far has it fallen? Changed, in ways time works on people, but also, so massively, changed beyond recognition for all of us who had once entered it, for a reason? That reason is not there anymore, our "work" is being defined from the outside, and as something that we never considered having anything to do with academia; in fact, as those very things we were so happy to avoid outside of it, in business and administration (even though these areas paid so much better). When I started to work in academia it was because it was a "free profession", with gigantic professional judgement, huge responsibility and as disalienated as they come. Yes, it was also a profession where women were supposed to make tea and bring home made cookies for the "real professionals", i.e. men. I was certain it was the latter that was about to change - not the former.
21.X.2014.
We write like we breathe - we would write if they put us to prison for it, we write when we fall over from doing the "job" that is demanded from us, we write for free, we can do no other, that's what we are...
If we could define our own profession once again (now it's being defined from the outside by two hostile groups: the administration that mistrusts us and business that despises us) we could, once again, focus not just on surviving but doing what we do well... have a long think... read.. write BOOKS... write in complex, non-linear ways, talk. Breathe _and_ be needed.
1. IV. 2014.
A thing that truly awakens the big bad wolf in me is the notion of the "paper". The are a few fitting outlets for submitting papers, but none of them has much to do with reading or engagement. Remember Barthes ? His pleasure and bliss of the text? I'm pretty certain he, just like I, would find the thought of enjoying a paper not only absurd but repulsive. Vive the texte! A bas le paper!