It is a pleasure to speak at Sunday Assembly, and I will be sharing how helping others led me to understanding all I needed to find the community I always wanted. Starting the Ragged University project of knowledge sharing has been the greatest learning journey that I’ve ever undertaken, and through doing it I quickly came to identify the basic ingredients that I needed for a happy, balanced life. Read more…
There are a number of issues with seeking patronage which are discussed here particular to our time. This is a response to a thought experiment sent to me after writing an article called ‘Why Not To Chase Wealth and Status: A Community Project Perspective’. In it I was writing my rationale for not following a frequently offered piece of advice on how to develop the Ragged University as a project. Read more…
One of the common things which has been proffered to the Ragged University as advice is to “make use of the wealthy and high status individuals in order to deliver the good that Ragged could achieve”. This has been repeatedly mentioned in regards to how to get the project recognised, backed and funded. One person said that ‘the trustees you have in mind are not suitable’… Read more…
A journalist recently got in touch with me to ask me about the work which has been happening through Ragged University. Kashmira Gander had initially asked me to reflect on an article ‘The British university where a degree doesn’t mean a lifetime of debt Learning for love, not money‘ published in Huck Magazine which takes a particular focus on the great work going on at the Free University of Brighton.
This presentation was given to the Knowledge, Power and Identity research group at the University of Manchester Institute of Education, on the 29th February 2016. The research group explores understandings that educational theories, practices and policies work to constitute categories of identity and subjectivity that reflect knowledge and power relations.
So, as you might have been following over the years, through the Ragged Uni project I have been trying to find various ways of delivering free computer training in community situations where people have least access. To see the photos of the floating classroom scroll to the bottom. Meantime, I will try and provide some context as to how this has come together. Read more…
Why do whistleblowers get such a hard time ? The philosophy of Kintsugi may help us appreciate the value of the critical even when it is directed at something we love; as such we can learn to love the process of finding problems because they lead to improvement. It is hard sometimes to not get caught up on the politics of group think and remain honest and true to the reality that you experience. I certainly have found this in both developing the Ragged University project and being honest in my own personal setting. I have long struggled with the uncomfortable nature of being critical especially when I worry that I may be upsetting some constructive setting or community. Read more…
Along the way in trying to get formal support for the Ragged University, I have encountered endless bureaucracies which, if taken onboard, distance you from the work at hand. In the case of Ragged University, it is about building communities of learning networks where people share their knowledge and skills in social spaces. As far as engaging with the bureaucracies goes, I have wound up analysing the processes instead of engaging as the culture itself seems to be a key factor in why so many social and community activities are dying out in our landscape.
Over the last five years I have been making a study of what is needed to create a community education project or network. The Ragged University project is about promoting and propagating all communities rather than building a monolith; this is another part of it as a multi-valued project which is interested and inspired by people sharing their knowledge in social spaces. A ‘recipe book’ is being created to distill helpful information and insights for all people out their who want to run their own ‘Ragged-University-type-project’. Read more…