From the ‘right stuff’ to the ‘real stuff’: a case study

Dr Tansy Jessop, University of WinchesterExploring the hinterlands: Southampton Solent

25 June 2008

‘Right stuff’

• Instrumental• Externally driven• Functional• Polite• Narrow focus• Superficial• Fragmented

‘Real stuff’

• Relational• Research driven• Influential• Confrontational• Targeted focus• Meaningful• University-wide

Research Methodology

• Exploratory• Secondary data• Personal reflection• Action research• Appreciative Inquiry

Three “success variables”

1. People, systems, processes2. Research, evidence, academic

street ‘cred’3. Getting a groundswell: knowledge,

politics, action

People, Systems, Processes

• Funding posts, funding projects• Streamlined, equitable, fast track• Networks • Steering groups• Collegial social process• Democratic, discursive committee meetings• Process orientation

Not just the usual suspects

Research, evidence, street ‘cred’

• Research focus• Inside out Vs outside in• Student experience• Institutional priorities Vs creative ideas• Value of different methods• External benchmarking• “Warts and all”

Knowledge, politics, action

• Distribution is not enough• Implicit to direct action points• Politics with a small ‘p’• Presentation strategies• Clustered themes• Commissioned research

The politics of Action Points – claiming the territory

Conclusions

“Spam in a can”

“Sending a man up to doa monkeys work?”

“We know more abouthow to fly this thing thananyone else!”

• “Who is gonna control this thing from here on out”

• “We’ve got to stick together on this deal”

“You know what makes

this bird go up?FUNDING makes thisbird go up.”

“He’s right. No bucks,No Buck Rogers”