Middlesex philosophy closure is more than a blow to education

Mon 03 May, 2010

The looming closure of the Centre for Research in Modern European Philosophy represents a move toward ‘cybernetic governance’, reports EDIA CONNOLE

LATE ON Monday 26 April, the Dean of Arts and Education at Middlesex University, one Edward Esche, announced abruptly to staff and students, that the University is to cut all of its philosophy programmes: undergraduate, post-graduate and MPhil/PhD.

Philosophy is the highest research-rated subject at Middlesex University, and the Centre for Research in Modern European Philosophy (CRMEP) is understood is be one of the most important centres for the study of modern European philosophy anywhere in the English speaking world, receiving research grants from national and international funding bodies, - not surprising really, given the fact that 65% of its research activity is judged ‘internationally excellent’ or ‘world-leading’ - what is surprising, is Edward Esche’s decision to chop off this limb, what appears to the world at large to be Middlesex’s best asset.

This ‘cut’, or axing of the hand of philosophy at Middlesex, came dressed in the rhetoric of ‘recession’; the other, we might say, more ‘hidden hand’ of Capital. Whilst Esche yielded to the international esteem of the CRMEP, and to the excellence of its research, he stated that the decision was ‘simply’ financial, insofar as he, or the executive, felt there was no ‘measureable’ contribution from such achievements in research of philosophy at Middlesex.

Middlesex

Philosophy at Middlesex is a hub for internationally renowned scholarship that prides itself on its commitment to researching post-Kantian, or ‘continental’ philosophy. This pride is justified: the stellar line-up of staff, including Eric Alliez, Peter Osborne, Peter Hallward, Mark Kelly, Stella Stanford and Christian Kerslake, is responsible for bringing contemporary philosophical thought to a wide audience. Working exceptionally well at an international level, the group have hosted events and collaborations with European and American Institutions, as well as with cultural venues in London.

There has been international outcry in the wake of this decision, and whilst the Guardian, the Times Higher Education Supplement, and the New Statesman, all carry online articles, the comments that adorn the public pages of the Save Middlesex Philosophy campaign at Gopetition are perhaps the most telling. With some 8,000 signatures attesting to the growing outrage at Esche’s decision, what is described by one as ‘venial idiocy’ is described by another, post-colonial critic, as simply ‘...unthinkable’; ‘I do not usually get involved with the administration of other institutions’ notes Guyatri Spivak, but ‘I am ready to witness at whatever level that the closure of philosophy at Middlesex is an unwise decision.’

This ‘unwise decision’ pivots precariously on a previous one, made by the Higher Funding Council for England (HFEC), who announced in February 2010 that they would cut £449m from university budgets. The University and College Union (UCC) suspected, at that time, that some 15,000 posts, principally academic, would dematerialize in Britain over the next few years, and warnings ensued that university and college funding would, in the near future, be cut by a further 6%. These ‘cuts’ have been described as ‘devastating’ and, as if to add an after-shock to the already impending academic wasteland, they come to be realised at a time when the US’ response to combatting unemployment and developing skills couldn’t be more contradictory: Barrack Obama proposing a 31% increase in education spending over the next year alone.

According to a survey of academic principals, recorded by the Guardian, higher academic results will now be required by those intending to enter a British university, and the restriction on student numbers - with recourse to 2008 levels - suggests that these cuts to education in Britain, which come at a time when youth unemployment is peeking, are more reactive than active, serving only to intensify competitive pressure. The British business secretary, Peter Mandelson, who is in charge of universities, has suggested that such a summation, as outlined by the principals, is guilty of ‘gross exaggerations’ and while evading comment over further cuts, he is reported to have stated that the universities were compelled to ‘do little more than their fair share of belt tightening’ and, accordingly, since the government is more than aware that British universities contribute substantially to the growth of Britain’s economy, they would not be undermined by the government. ‘We are asking for savings of less than 5%’ said Mandelson, ’ and we expect universities to make these in a way that minimizes the impact on teaching and students. I am confident they will.’ (1)

This would seem to suggest that Mandelson’s confidence in Middlesex’s management, must be shattered, but without any obvious economic rationale behind Edward Esche’s decision to axe philosophy at Middlesex - the CRMEP generates a substantial amount of revenue for the University, and is one of relatively few such programs in Britain that remains economically viable - the decision seems political. Accusations thrown at Mandelson by vice-chancellors, that he is letting arts and humanities courses close down because he only cares about maths and science, mirror, from the top-down, the accusations of ‘pseudo-business blather’ thrown at Edward Esche, who has given people cause to surmise that he is unsympathetic to the CRMEP, as a department with a strong commitment to Marxist and critical theory. (2)

The CRMEP is internationally recognised as, amongst other things, the base of a journal, ‘Radical Philosophy’, which, aimed at a wide audience, provides a forum for discussion and debate of theoretical issues on the left in clear and non-technical language. This journal reflects the rigorous and inclusive spirit of the CRMEP, one of the first philosophy departments - based proudly in an ex-polytechnic - whose curriculum addresses ethnic and gender imbalance as a problem for and within the discipline. Nina Power is right to assert that Middlesex managements axing of its top-ranking department is not only ‘a blow to philosophy’ but a blow to ‘minorities’: marking a ‘step back to the bad old days when philosophy meant a few young, white and almost entirely male students at privileged institutions discussing the finer points of formal logic over sherry’; and when she notes that the CRMEP ‘is an institution as important to people not in philosophy as those within it’ she has again, hit the nail on head. (3)

The recent ‘Anthropologies of the Present’ series organised by CRMEP staff member, Peter Osborne, on behalf of Tate Britain, which took place in London over several weeks, attests to this: attending two of the talks as a contemporary art theorist from Dublin, I was able to familiarize myself with the present project of Susan Buck-Morss, a critical theorist from Cornell University in the US, and that of Kojin Karatani, a most esteemed philosopher from Japan. Karatani is now due to visit the Graduate School of Creative Arts and Media (GradCam) in Dublin this Autumn, and for this we have to thank the rigor of the CRMEP at Middlesex, the generous spirit, as Power notes, ’ that takes so seriously philosophy’s relation to other disciplines, and the world at large.’ (4)

French Marxist theorist Etienne Balibar is one of the thousands of esteemed Doctors, Professors and ‘organic’ intellectuals, from around the world, who have kicked out at the heels over this ‘seemingly ‘technical’ decision’ to axe philosophy at Middlesex, suggesting like Power, and others, that it ‘is in fact a political move both reactionary and self- destructive’, and if only for that reason, ’ should be opposed not only by direct collaborators of the Department, but by any concerned teacher or scholar within the discipline and beyond.’ Balibar’s ‘view’ sets the scene for another blogger, Dublin’s own Dr. Dermot Lane; Lane, from the Mater Dei Institute of Education (DCU) writes that the proposed closure of the CRMEP is a ’ great loss to the academy and to the world at large and the Middlesex University in particular’. It is, he notes, ‘one more victory for the reduction of Higher Education to instrumentalism and economic ends.’ (5)

The impending British academic wasteland is one of alienation and commodity fetishism: from Mandelsan to Esche, from Middlesex to the ‘Middle Mind’; and while the battle is not over yet - the campaign for signatures is still going on and staff and students, with growing solidarity from around the world, are protesting on May 4th and 5th - it would seem that Brian Holmes had it right, in his ‘Affectivist Manifesto’ (2009), when he said that activism today faces ‘not so much soldiers with guns as cognitive capital: the knowledge society, ...its fallback to automatic pilot, its cybernetic governance.’ (6)

A letter condemning the closure of Philosophy programmes at Middlesex is soon to appear in Times Higher Education, this letter, I am told, will be signed by dozens of the highest- profile people in the field, all of them participants in recent CRMEP events: Alain Badiou, Etienne Balibar, Judith Butler, Antonio Negri, Guyatri Spivak, Slavoj Zizek and others.

If you want to help save Philosophy at Middlesex, or simply find out more information, go to the blog http://savemdxphil.wordpress.com. Peter Hallward, and the team at Middlesex, suggest the best thing that people can do is to write a letter, en masse, to the addresses listed on the blog - this means mobilizing yourself and your institution, or group - condemning the closure of Philosophy programmes at Middlesex.

Anyone who has not already signed the petition should proceed to immediately at http://www.gopetitions/save-middlesex-philosophy.html

If anyone is around London in the coming days, the University and College Union (UCU) are holding a ‘Day of Strike’ - over the proposed cuts in Middlesex and elsewhere - on May 5th. This ‘Strike’ begins at Kings Cross London (KCL) at 1pm, Peter Hallward will be speaking there soon after 1pm. Middlesex students and staff will be meeting after that to discuss what to do next, to find out further information on this and other matters go to http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid+119102561449990

(1) http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2010/feb/07/job-loses-universities-cuts
(2) http://www.leitterreports.typepad.com/blog/2010/04/middlesex-university-in-the-uk-cuts-its-highest-rated-program-in-its-entirety.html
(3) http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/apr/29/philosophy-minorities-middlesex-university-logic (4) http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/apr/29/philosophy-minorities-middlesex-university-logic
(5) http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/save-middlsex-philosophy.html
(6) http://www.e-flux.com/journal/view/131