{"id":589,"date":"2018-05-24T21:35:54","date_gmt":"2018-05-24T21:35:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/?p=589"},"modified":"2018-07-30T22:21:51","modified_gmt":"2018-07-30T22:21:51","slug":"we-dont-make-this-stuff-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2018\/05\/24\/we-dont-make-this-stuff-up\/","title":{"rendered":"WE DON\u2019T MAKE THIS STUFF UP"},"content":{"rendered":"

In subtext 161, we published a piece on the proposed office layout of the new Health Innovation Campus. We wrote of a Great Seat of Learning populated by Those In The Know and Men of Wisdom (mostly men, that is, as we know from our coverage of the gender pay gap at Lancaster, see subtext 176<\/a>)\u00a0 who decided to build a new tower which they called the High Intensity Corporate.<\/span><\/p>\n

The new tower would have lots and lots of room for the (mostly) Men with Lots of Money (more Lots of Money than the Women, anyway) to visit. Tucked away in the tower would be the Knowledge Producers. It was very important that the Knowledge Producers did not realise how much the (mostly) Men of Wisdom depended on them to attract the (mostly) Men with Lots of Money , and many different methods were used to obscure that fact. Most of the Knowledge Producers were hired on Fixed Term Contracts. This made it easier to Keep Them On Their Toes. They knew that if they were naughty they wouldn\u2019t get another contract when their\u2019s ended (see our piece on precarity, above.)<\/span><\/p>\n

Another good way of obscuring the importance of the Knowledge Producers was to make them feel small. The (mostly) Men of Wisdom decided that, in the new High Intensity Corporate tower, the Knowledge Producers would not sit together in little rooms. This had tended to foster Cooperation in the Old Tower – a market force the (mostly) Men of Wisdom felt was uncomfortably close to Solidarity. It would also be much easier to keep an eye on the Knowledge Producers if the place looked more like a call centre. Some of the (mostly) Men of Wisdom were quite impressed by what call centres had achieved in terms of \u2018employee productivity\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n

It would appear that the (mostly) Men of Wisdom do not read subtext. Loath as we are to side-line the humour (attempt at \u2013 ed.), subtext would like to spell it out. The plan is to go ahead with the new open shed layout. The thinking (?) behind this idea is that the Health Innovation Campus will be a hive of industry. Desks will be hired out to companies \u2013 people from these businesses will mingle with folk from the university and individuals from other corporations and organisations to Shoot The Breeze and interlock with Blue Skies Thinking. Members of the public will be encouraged to come along and engage with debate \u2013 meeting that awkward engagement element of the university\u2019s mission statement.<\/span><\/p>\n

The (mostly) Men of Wisdom are excited at the prospect of creating their own version of Silicon Valley. Meanwhile, the researchers and academics and evaluators will be at these very same desks, working on their large high resolution computers that you can read from several feet way, on highly sensitive personal health records and confidential social care files. Who could possibly object to that?<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In subtext 161, we published a piece on the proposed office layout of the new Health Innovation Campus. We wrote of a Great Seat of Learning populated by Those In The Know and Men of Wisdom (mostly men, that is, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":568,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[144,332,335,336],"class_list":["post-589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-health-innovation-campus","tag-issue-178","tag-open-plan-offices","tag-privacy"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p99sHo-9v","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":612,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2018\/05\/24\/subtext-178-the-future-aint-what-it-used-to-be\/","url_meta":{"origin":589,"position":0},"title":"subtext 178 – ‘the future ain\u2019t what it used to be’","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"May 24 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Fortnightly during term time. Letters, contributions, & comments: subtext-editors@lancaster.ac.uk Back issues & subscription details:\u00a0http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/about\/ In this issue: editorial,\u00a0hostile environment (x4), sticky wiki, Gary on teacher (x4), flounders, surveying the surveyors (x2), democracy, LUSU (x3), crazy paving, gradballs (x2), lost & found, mostly men o\u2019 wisdom, wet and forget, spine, buses,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "editorial"","block_context":{"text":"editorial","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/editorial\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":155,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2017\/11\/09\/letters-3\/","url_meta":{"origin":589,"position":1},"title":"LETTERS","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"November 9 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Dear subtext, I suspect I'm not alone in asking if you've seen our latest signage but if not I suggest you pop 'down south' for a look. At first it all appeared very corporate and professional, a smart look with clear white on black text (though some colleagues feel the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "letters"","block_context":{"text":"letters","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/letters\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":407,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2018\/03\/01\/tales-from-the-bunker\/","url_meta":{"origin":589,"position":2},"title":"TALES FROM THE BUNKER","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"March 1 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"The bomb shelter simulator or marathon man experience continues apace. subtext ponders that it might be the case that senior management have sensed a 'good day to bury (or should that be dig up, retile, dig up again, and make lots of noise with a jackhammer) bad news' moment. The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "news"","block_context":{"text":"news","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":680,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2018\/06\/21\/human-performance\/","url_meta":{"origin":589,"position":3},"title":"HUMAN PERFORMANCE","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"June 21 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"In subtext 179 we noted that the new Human Performance Laboratory mentioned in a sits vac for an LU Sports Science Lecturer (and also suspiciously similar to one mentioned in UA92 literature) was to be built at an unspecified site: 'The Human Performance Laboratory will initially be housed at a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "news"","block_context":{"text":"news","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":538,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2018\/05\/10\/letters-12\/","url_meta":{"origin":589,"position":4},"title":"LETTERS","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"May 10 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Dear subtext, In 2005\/6 when I (as HoD) was trying to support an appeal by a female member of admin who had been downgraded by the job review that was supposed to bring equivalence to roles, I looked\u00a0 through the internal telephone directory at the names of people who occupied\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "letters"","block_context":{"text":"letters","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/letters\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1002,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2019\/05\/23\/hedging-our-nets\/","url_meta":{"origin":589,"position":5},"title":"HEDGING OUR NETS","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"May 23 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"What with recruitment freezes (sorry, vacancy management controls!), Brexit and a departing VC, you'd think the university would be trying its hardest at the moment not to create any new enemies, but apparently not. We learn that Lancaster has recently managed to seriously upset Chris Packham and a gaggle of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "news"","block_context":{"text":"news","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/568"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=589"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/589\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":620,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/589\/revisions\/620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}