Right to the City Education Forum

Marxist anthropologist David Harvey

Tomorrow SSY members will be among the folk going along to the Right to the City discussion forum on education.

Right to the City is a political group that is based on ideas put forward by the Marxist anthropologist David Harvey (he’s the guy in that cool cartoon about the economic crisis). The idea is that people should have the right to transform the cities they live in to change society and make them more liveable. In Glasgow, Right to the City has organised in depth political discussions over the last year.

Tomorrow, they’ve agreed to provide a space to talk about education. The idea is that we can make some time for the student movement to go beyond just organising protests against cuts, and talk about what we want as well as what we don’t. We’ll be discussing our vision of an alternative education and what role it can play in changing society. There’s going to be lots of different people from different political backgrounds, so it should be interesting. Here’s the info they’ve put out about it:

Right to the City Forum has been running events since last summer creating spaces for discussion, and exploring ideas of community activism and how to define our own lives.

We are hosting an education forum on Saturday 22nd January at Partick Burgh Halls, Burgh Hall Street, Glasgow, from 12.30-4.30 pm. The venue is just off Dumbarton road, Partick, only two mins from Partick rail and subway lines:
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=…55.87129974%2C-4.30905008

The Forum will attempt to open up the education debate beyond an immediate defence against the cuts, and make a useful contribution not only to the education movement but to wider activity against the marketisation of cultural and public space. Members of the forum are not aligned to any one party or political position, however, the ‘Really Open University’, in the statement below, express some of our concerns very well: http://reallyopenuniversity.wordpress.com/

“The recent response to the marketisation of higher education has given a voice and a collective identity to a discontent stretching beyond funding constraints. It is now time to respond as well as create, looking for new action and dialogue for the future. We want to open up debate, not close it down.

Issues to consider: What is worth salvaging from the university system? What strategies do we have for attracting those who ought to be sympathetic: passive academics, apathetic students, individuals outside of the University, young people? How to operate within the academy without being corrupted by it? What could The University be? How do we make this happen?”

In short, the Forum will attempt to ‘re-imagine the school and the university’ – fighting for what education should be, not just preserving what it currently is.

We will be looking at wider cuts/resistance in education and not just the university. We also recognise that education is not confined to educational establishments, and that those outside of educational establishments have just as much if not more to teach than those in education. The event is open to all. It is an opportunity to meet other like-minded people to discuss the deep political implications of how the education system manages human potential.

A set of short texts will introduce the main themes the forum will explore. These will be handed out to all participants on the day and used in the initial discussion session to develop more in-depth discussion from people’s responses. Some themes to be explored include: student debt as training for life, the function of education in market relations, transformative potential of education/what education might be, uneven cuts to arts and humanities, academic ‘autonomy’?, disciplinary role of cuts/debt, crisis of aspiration (hope), wider cuts beyond education, and linking of struggles within and beyond education.

Best Wishes,

Right to the City Forum.

Facebook event: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=143062559084259

This event is hosted by Strickland Distribution http://www.strickdistro.org/.
It is supported by ARIKA http://www.arika.org.uk/.

“The question of what kind of city we want cannot be divorced from that of what kind of social ties, relationship to nature, lifestyles, technologies and aesthetic values we desire.
The right to the city is far more than the individual liberty to access urban resources: it is a right to change ourselves by changing the city.” David Harvey

Also, beforehand in the morning there’ll be a Glasgow Against Education Cuts stall to promote the next planned protest in Glasgow, which we’ll be posting details about soon. Meet at the Donald Dewar statue at 11am.