The sociologist Joyce Canaan’s critical and sensitive analysis of the structural problems facing academics in Britain goes back decades. This article will examine the major themes and concerns in her thinking about the university system, spanning an academy turned to the uses of government and business, the effects of wide-ranging commercialisation and bureaucratic management on the experience of academic work, and the equivocal status of degrees in a harsh economic climate. It will also discuss Canaan’s pedagogical work with students, where meaningful dialogue and collaboration are stressed, her activist, non-didactic and participatory work with people outside academic circles, among them socially marginalised groups, and the interrelation between these types of work. Canaan’s ideas and activities are more urgent, it will be argued, because the managed and business-led system that she thematises has strengthened, and with this development the conditions needed for the kind of politically committed sociology that she practiced have become more insecure. The article ends with a discussion of the prospects for progressive action and change in current circumstances, a preoccupation of Canaan’s from the start.
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)