Monday, June 06, 2011

a burning question for musicians

How to induce uncertainty?  In most contexts, people try to reduce uncertainty, and establish ways of acting that make life go on in ways that conform to expectations. But in the creative moment, we embark into something uncertain! The paradox comes in how to intentionally organize (or better said to be available for) this very process that cannot (and should not) be fully organized? This tension plays out in different ways in different musical or performance cultures, and in relation to different modes of commercial expectations or economic exploitation (“the industry”). All this is not new. So a burning question: what sort of social science might contribute something meaningful to musicians today?

Thursday, June 02, 2011

Career Expectations

An email from a younger management scholar came to my attention in relation to an academic job recently advertised:


“The requirement for an appointee to have an outstanding track record of research and teaching for a junior position seems somewhat unethical to me.”


Is it unethical to require someone to be outstanding at what they do?  Or to require some experience prior to appointment in a long-term position? In my interpretation, an outstanding track record of a “junior” colleague might entail not just a PhD, but the PhD consisting of very good research.  Alternatively, one can distinguish good research by publishing an “outstanding” article.  A more interesting question is what the correspondent means here by “somewhat unethical”?  Kantian ethics would not allow for this intermediate position, although a utilitarian ethics might allow space for costs to “somewhat” outweigh benefits.  

I do appreciate the concerns of junior colleagues regarding the mania for ever more publications in supposed top journals, the quality of which are often determined by either citation metrics or subjective academic opinions.  But these concerns should not lead us to abandon a notion of quality.  A better question for a junior colleagye to ask would be: what is my aim in being a social scientist, and how may I meet this aim in an outstanding fashion? 

Relaunch

This blog will report my observations about the practical challenges to creative work. The main focus here is the social sciences, and inevitably will touch upon my research in corporate governance and corporate responsibility. A secondary focus is to explore creative work in relation to music. My aim is to invite the interested public to looks at the practical activity of social science, as well as provide a means for reflection and pointed stick to my own thinking.

Welcome!