{"id":383,"date":"2024-11-13T14:32:53","date_gmt":"2024-11-13T14:32:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thegramsciblog.wordpress.com\/?p=383"},"modified":"2024-11-13T14:32:53","modified_gmt":"2024-11-13T14:32:53","slug":"protestpub-the-political-situation-and-a-strategy-for-collaboration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/venstresida.net\/ny\/index.php\/2024\/11\/13\/protestpub-the-political-situation-and-a-strategy-for-collaboration\/","title":{"rendered":"ProtestPub: The political situation and a strategy for collaboration"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Yesterday I was at the event ProtestPub revived,<\/a> discussing the current situation in academia in Norway. I had an appeal, whch I will share below, including in a Norwegian translation. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The political situation and a strategy for collaboration<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The university sector in Norway is in historically dire straits. For the first time in history, there is talk of massive layoffs of permanent academic staff at several colleges and universities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This comes after a decade of annual flat cuts in our budgets, by successive governments, a huge 600 million overnight cut by the previous government based on new ways to calculate pension expenses, and temporary, but demanding cuts to the Norwegian research council of which both the current and previous governments must take blame.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The very demanding economic situation creates huge challenges for academic freedom in any real sense. To get funding for research, or even keep yourself and your colleagues in a job, you need to apply to research grants and place the direction of your research where the money is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the same time, we have politicians from most parties, with relatively short time horizons, staring blindly at the immediate usefulness of both research and higher education. This gives little room for curiosity, creativity and an idea of Bildung.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But like in the recent US elections we can complain as much as we like. The question is what do we do about it? What must we do different?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is no lack of money in the Norwegian government in any meaningful sense, but higher education and research is being less prioritized. Why?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I represent the Norwegian Civil Service Union, and as the only union that organize ALL types of personell at universities, and have a relatively wide network of connections, I can form a hypothesis:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are a smaller sector than kindergardens and schools, which basically ALL Norwegians go through, and that engages adults with children through a lot of their lives. They also employ a lot more people, whic in themselves is an important voter base. But we are part of the same education system, and the same welfare state as them and a lot of other sectors like hospitals, libraries public infrastructure etc. – there is a basis for WORKING TOGETHER with other sectors and people in society with common interests, to move the public debate and policy making in Norway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My hypothesis is: This sector is not good enough at building alliances, and this prevents us from getting political breakthrougs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe that sometimes e.g. university professors in public debate can seem slightly arrogant? This is a very few cases of course, arrogant professors that think they know better and are more important than everybody else. We don’t have much of that in academia \u2013 do we?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But to give some concrete examples: Argue for the importance of research and higher education. But do that WITHOUT intentionally or unintentionally talking down at people without higher education. Recognize that we live in a society where we all give important contributions if we have vocational education, higher education or no education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Argue for better funding, and higher salaries for university professors, without complaining that without complaining that other parts of the public sector get too much money or that people without a long education get too high salaries (they don\u2019t).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Run an argument that brings people together for a common cause, and not one that is divisive. Work for the recognition that the welfare state in all its aspects is an investment, and not an expense. If we can manage that, we can save both our universities, and our welfare state. But we have to do that TOGETHER!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nhttps:\/\/youtube.com\/watch?v=Xx3_z-2uaXs%3Fsi%3DdktHgwIEhDqO2wDl\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Den politiske situasjonen og en strategi for samarbeid<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Universitetssektoren i Norge er i en historisk vanskelig situasjon. For f\u00f8rste gang i historien er det snakk om masseoppsigelser av fast vitenskapelig ansatte ved flere h\u00f8yskoler og universiteter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dette kommer etter et ti\u00e5r med \u00e5rlige flate kutt i v\u00e5re budsjetter, fra p\u00e5f\u00f8lgende regjeringer, et enormt kutt p\u00e5 600 millioner over natten av den forrige regjeringen basert p\u00e5 nye m\u00e5ter \u00e5 beregne pensjonsutgifter p\u00e5, og midlertidige, men krevende kutt til Norsk forskningsr\u00e5d hvorav b\u00e5de den n\u00e5v\u00e6rende og tidligere regjeringen m\u00e5 ta p\u00e5 seg skylden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Den sv\u00e6rt krevende \u00f8konomiske situasjonen skaper store utfordringer for akademisk frihet i noen reell forstand. For \u00e5 f\u00e5 midler til forskning, eller til og med beholde deg selv og kollegene dine i jobb, m\u00e5 du s\u00f8ke om eksterne forskningsmidler og innrette forskningen din etter hvor pengene er.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Samtidig har vi politikere fra de fleste partier, med relativt kort tidshorisont, som stirrer seg blind p\u00e5 den umiddelbare nytten av b\u00e5de forskning og h\u00f8yere utdanning. Dette gir lite rom for nysgjerrighet, kreativitet og ikke minst en id\u00e9 om dannelse!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Men som i det nylige amerikanske valget kan vi klage s\u00e5 mye vi vil. Sp\u00f8rsm\u00e5let er hva vi gj\u00f8r med det? Hva m\u00e5 vi gj\u00f8re annerledes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Det mangler ikke penger i den norske staten i noen meningsfull forstand, men h\u00f8yere utdanning og forskning blir mindre prioritert. Hvorfor?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jeg representerer Norsk Tjenestemannslag, og som eneste fagforbund som organiserer ALLE typer personell ved universitetene, og har et relativt bredt nettverk av forbindelser, kan jeg stille en hypotese:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vi er en mindre sektor enn barnehager og skoler, som stort sett ALLE nordmenn g\u00e5r gjennom, og som engasjerer voksne med barn gjennom store deler av livet. De ansetter ogs\u00e5 mye flere folk, noe som i seg selv er en viktig velgerbase. Men vi er en del av det samme utdanningssystemet, og den samme velferdsstaten som dem og mange andre sektorer som sykehus, bibliotek offentlig infrastruktur etc. – det er grunnlag for \u00e5 jobbe SAMMEN med andre sektorer og mennesker i samfunnet med felles interesser, \u00e5 flytte den offentlige debatten og politikkutformingen i Norge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Min hypotese er: Denne sektoren er ikke god nok til \u00e5 bygge allianser, og dette hindrer oss i \u00e5 f\u00e5 politiske gjennombrudd.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jeg tror at noen ganger f.eks. kan universitetsprofessorer i offentlig debatt virke litt arrogante? Dette er selvf\u00f8lgelig noen f\u00e5 tilfeller, arrogante professorer som tror de vet bedre og er viktigere enn alle andre. Det har vi ikke mye av i akademia \u2013 har vi?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Men for \u00e5 gi noen konkrete eksempler: Argumenter for viktigheten av forskning og h\u00f8yere utdanning. Men gj\u00f8r det UTEN med vilje eller utilsiktet \u00e5 snakke ned folk uten h\u00f8yere utdanning og jobben de gj\u00f8r. Erkjenn at vi lever i et samfunn der vi alle gir viktige bidrag dersom vi har fagutdanning, h\u00f8yere utdanning eller ingen utdanning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Argumenter for bedre finansiering, og h\u00f8yere l\u00f8nn til universitetsprofessorer, uten \u00e5 klage p\u00e5 at andre sektorer f\u00e5r for mye penger eller at folk uten lang utdanning f\u00e5r h\u00f8y l\u00f8nn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kj\u00f8r et argument som bringer folk sammen for en felles sak, og ikke en som er splittende. Arbeid for erkjennelsen av at velferdsstaten i alle sine aspekter er en investering, og ikke en utgift. Klarer vi det, kan vi redde b\u00e5de universitetene v\u00e5re og velferdsstaten v\u00e5r. Men det m\u00e5 vi gj\u00f8re SAMMEN!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday I was at the event ProtestPub revived, discussing the current situation in academia in Norway. I had an appeal, whch I will share below, including in a Norwegian translation. The political…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":384,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/venstresida.net\/ny\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/venstresida.net\/ny\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/venstresida.net\/ny\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/venstresida.net\/ny\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/venstresida.net\/ny\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=383"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/venstresida.net\/ny\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/venstresida.net\/ny\/index.php\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/venstresida.net\/ny\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/venstresida.net\/ny\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/venstresida.net\/ny\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}