Abstract
Previous work on working-class academics has highlighted recurring themes, such as micro-aggressions, imposter syndrome, liminality, exclusion, invisibility and habitus. These themes have been encapsulated in a number of metaphors, such as ‘the ghost’ and ‘the phantom-limb’, both of which connote absence, silence and marginalisation. Whilst these metaphors vividly describe the lived experiences of working-class academics, it is necessary to make room for a more positive space in which academics can construct alternative futures. It is necessary to develop a ‘politics of critical hope’. A politics of critical hope seeks to move beyond linear narratives of victimhood, anger and heroic narratives of overcoming. This conceptual paper develops a critical hope that interrogates and repurposes dominant epistemologies in order to foster a bricolage of reparative and empathetic truths. It gestures towards an intersectional politics of academic work, compelling us to recognise that empowerment/ disempowerment is highly complex and stratified in nature. Copyright © 2021 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 522-534 |
Journal | Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education |
Volume | 44 |
Issue number | 4 |
Early online date | Dec 2021 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2023 |
Citation
Poole, A. (2023). From recalcitrance to rapprochement: Tinkering with a working-class academic bricolage of ‘critical empathy’. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 44(4), 522-534. https://doi.org/10.1080/01596306.2021.2021860Keywords
- Working-class academics
- Social class
- Bricolage
- The bricoleur
- Habitus
- Intersectionality