Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Going Public: Reflections on Predicaments and Possibilities in Public Research and Scholarship

  • Chapter
The Entrepreneurial University

Abstract

On the afternoon of 14 May 2011, only minutes before a Paris-bound flight departed from Kennedy Airport, officers from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey boarded the airplane and arrested Dominique Strauss-Kahn, former head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Several hours earlier, Naffisatou Diallo — a hotel housekeeper and asylee1 from Guinea — had reported that Strauss-Kahn had sexually assaulted and attempted to rape her when she went to clean the Manhattan hotel room where he had been staying until earlier that day. Almost instantaneously, news media outlets began salivating over the sordid details of the alleged scandal involving such a high-profile figure as ‘DSK’, as he is known (Goldfarb, 2011), the media initially, sympathising with Diallo (Dickey and Solomon, 2011). Before long, however, attention turned to scepticism as private details and uncertainties about Diallo’s character and her past were catapulted into full view as fodder for public consumption. Headlines splashed accounts of seemingly shady connections, questionable financial transactions, and alleged mistruths and misdeeds by the woman who brought charges against DSK (Italiano, 2011). Many of the news stories and exposés replayed what Welch and Schuster (2005) have described as the ‘noisy’ discursive construction of asylum seekers. This account draws on Cohen’s (2002) discussion of moral panic theory.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 109.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  • Adkins, L. (2002) Reflexivity and the politics of qualitative research. In T. May (ed.), Qualitative Research in Action. London: Sage, 332–348.

    Google Scholar 

  • Anderson, B. (1983) Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. London: Verso.

    Google Scholar 

  • Back, L. (2007) The Art of Listening. New York: Berg Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bell, D. (2011) Grey area. Dialogues in Human Geography, 1(2), 215–218.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blomley, N. (1994) Activism and the academy. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 12, 383–385.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Burawoy, M. (2004) Public sociologies: contradictions, dilemmas and possibilities. Social Forces, 82, 1–16.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Burawoy, M. (2005a) The critical turn to public sociology. Critical Sociology, 31(3), 313–326.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Burawoy, M. (2005b) For public sociology, 2004 presidential address. American Sociological Review, 70, 4–28.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cahill, C., Sultana, F. and Pain, R. (2007) Participatory ethics: politics, practices, institutions. ACME: An International E-Journal for Critical Geographies, 6(3), 304–318.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chatterton, P., Hodkinson, S. and Pickerill, J. (2010) Beyond scholar-activism: making strategic interventions inside and outside the Neoliberal University. ACME: An International E-Journal for Critical Geographies, 9(2), 245–275.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cohen, S. (2002) Folk Devils and Moral Panics: The Creation of Mods and Rockers. 3rd edition. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Conlon, D. and Gill, N. (2013) Gagging orders: asylum seekers and paradoxes of freedom and protest in liberal society. Citizenship Studies, 17(2), 241–259.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dewey, J. (1927) The Public and Its Problems. New York: Holt.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dickey, C. and Solomon, J. (2011) The Maid’s Tale. Newsweek, 25 July [online]. Available at http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2011/07/24/dsk-maid-tells-of-her-alleged-rape-by-strauss-kahn-exclusive.html [accessed 7 October 2012].

  • Dolnick, S. (2011) Asylum ploys play off news to open door. The New York Times, 11 July, p. Al [online]. Available at http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/12/nyre-gion/immigrants-may-be-fed-false-stories-to-bolster-asylum-pleas.html [accessed 7 October 2012].

  • Eligon, J. (2011) Strauss-Kahn drama ends with short final scene. New York Times, 24 August, p. Al [online]. Available at http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/24/ nyregion/charges-against-strauss-kahn-dismissed.html [accessed 7 October 2012].

  • Eriksen, T. H. (2006) Engaging Anthropology: The Case for a Public Presence. Oxford: Berg.

    Google Scholar 

  • Freire, P. (1982) Creating alternative research methods: learning to do it by doing it. In Hall, B., Gillette, A. and Tandon, R. (eds), Creating Knowledge: A Monopoly. New Delhi: Society for Participatory Research in Asia, 29–37.

    Google Scholar 

  • Freire, P. (1972) Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Hammondsworth: Penguin Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fuller, D. (2008) Public geographies: taking stock’ Progress in Human Geography, 32(6), 834–844.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fuller, D. and Askins, K. (2007) The discomforting rise of ‘public geographies’ — a ‘public’ conversation. Antipode, 39(4), 579–601.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fuller, D. and Askins, K. (2010) Public geographies II: being organic. Progress in Human Geography, 34(5), 654–667.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fuller, D. and Kitchin, R. (2004) Radical Theory, Critical Praxis: Making a Difference Beyond the Academy? Vernon/Victoria BC: Praxis e-Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gill, N., Conlon, D., Tyler, I. and Oeppen, C. (2013) The tactics of asylum and irregular migrant support groups: Disrupting bodily, technological, and neoliberal strategies of control. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, DOI 10.1080/00045608.2013.857544.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gill, N., Conlon, D., Tyler, I. and Oeppen, C. (2012) Networks of Asylum Support in the UK and USA: A Handbook of Ideas, Strategies and Best Practice for Asylum Support Groups in a Challenging Social and Economic Climate. Funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), grant reference number: Res-00–22–3928.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goldfarb, Z. (2011) IMF chief arrested in alleged sex assault, police tell AP. The Washington Post, 15 May [online]. Available at http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/imf-head-taken-into-custody-in-new-york-questioned-over-sex-assault/2011/05/14/AF8Tfj3G_story.html [accessed 7 October 2012].

  • Harvey, D. (1973) Social Justice and the City. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harvey, D. (2012) Rebel City: From the Right to the City to the Urban Revolution. London: Verso.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hausknecht, M. (2002) Models of public sociology. ASA Footnotes Public Forum, 30(9), 6.

    Google Scholar 

  • Holmwood, J. (2007) Sociology as public discourse and professional practice: a critique of Michael Burawoy. Sociological Theory, 25(1), 46–66.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Italiano, L. (2011) Maid cleaning up as ‘hooker’. The New York Post, 2 July [online]. Available at http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/maid_cleaning_up_as_hooker [accessed 7 October 2012].

  • Katz, C. (2005) Partners in crime? neoliberalism and the production of new political subjectivities. Antipode, 37, 623–631

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lamphere, L. (2003) The perils and prospects for an engaged anthropology. Social Anthropology, 11, 153–168.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Larner, W. and Craig, D. (2005) After neoliberalism? community activism and local partnerships in Aotearoa New Zealand. Antipode, 37, 402–424.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lewin, K. (1946) Action research and minority problems. Journal of Social Issues, 2(4), 34–46.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lizotte, C. and Burns, R. (2010) Forum on public geography. Past Place Newsletter of the Historical Geography Specialty Group of the AAG, 9(1), 7–9. Available at http://maps.cisat.jmu.edu/public/hgsg/pplace/pp.19.1.pdf [accessed 31 August 2011].

    Google Scholar 

  • Mazzadra, S. (2004) The right to escape. Ephemera: Theory and Politics in Organizations, 4(3), 276–275.

    Google Scholar 

  • McDowell, L. and Sharp, J. (1997) Space, Gender, Knowledge: Feminist Readings. London: Arnold.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mehta, S. (2011) The asylum seeker. The New Yorker, 1 August.

    Google Scholar 

  • Monk, J., Manning, P. and Denman, C. (2003) Working together: feminist perspectives on collaborative research and action. ACME: An International E-Journal for Critical Geographies, 2(1), 91–106.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pain, R. (2004) Social geography: participatory research. Progress in Human Geography, 28, 652–663.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pain, R. and Kindon, S. (2007) Participatory geographies. Environment and Planning A, 39(12): 2807–2812.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pain, R., Kesby, M. and Askins, K. (2011) Geographies of impact: power, participation and potential. Area, 43(2), 183–188.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Papadopoulos, D., Stephenson, N. and Tsianos, V. (2008) Escape Routes: Control and Subversion in the 21st Century. London: Pluto.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pillow, W. (2002) Confession, catharsis, or cure? rethinking the used of reflexivity as methodological power in qualitative research. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 16(2), 175–196.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Slater, T. (2012) Impacted geographers: a response to Pain, Kesby and Askins. Area, 44(1), 117–119.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smith, D. (1976) To what extent is the geographer’s world the ‘real world’. Area, 8, 83–84.

    Google Scholar 

  • Steel, S. (2010) Escape routes — review. Darkmatter, 7, 21 April. Available at http://www.darkmatter101.org/site/2010/04/21/escape-routes-control-and-subversion-in-the-2lst-century/ [accessed 15 June 2012].

  • Taylor, Y. (2009) Lesbian and Gay Parenting: Securing Social and Educational Capital. Basingstoke: Palgrave.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Taylor, Y. and Addison, M. (2011) Placing research: ‘City Publics’ and the ‘Public Sociologist’. Sociological Research Online, 16(4), 6. Available at http://www.socreson-line.org.uk/16/4/6.html [accessed 15 June 2012].

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tyler, I. (2010) Designed to fail: a biopolitics of British citizenship. Citizenship Studies, 14(1), 61–74.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ward, K. (2006) Geography and public policy: towards public geographies. Progress in Human Geography, 30(4), 495–503.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ward, K. (2008) Mainstreaming Public Geographies, paper presented at Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University, 31 March.

    Google Scholar 

  • Warner, M. (2002) Publics and Counterpublics. New York: Zone Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Welch, M. and Schuster, L. (2005) Detention of asylum seekers in the UK and USA: deciphering noisy and quiet constructions. Punishment and Society, 7(4), 397–417.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wolch, J. (1990) The Shadow State: Government and Voluntary Sector in Transition. New York: The Foundation Center.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Authors
  1. Deirdre Conlon
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Nick Gill
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Imogen Tyler
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Ceri Oeppen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Week Centre for Social and Policy Research, London South Bank University, UK

    Yvette Taylor

Copyright information

© 2014 Deirdre Conlon, Nick Gill, Imogen Tyler and Ceri Oeppen

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Conlon, D., Gill, N., Tyler, I., Oeppen, C. (2014). Going Public: Reflections on Predicaments and Possibilities in Public Research and Scholarship. In: Taylor, Y. (eds) The Entrepreneurial University. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137275875_11

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation