'Talking 'bout a Revolution'? How Academics NOT ONLY CHAT to make a Difference

The idea of 'political lunch chats', which have been taking place on an regular basis over the past two years at the Open University, grew out of a frustration with what was perceived as privileging academic output over political engagement. Involvement in political projects and agendas is often considered a nice add-on to the production of theory, rather than integral to it. The political lunch chats were intended to create a space of debate and engagement around how we negotiate politics and academia (and the politics of academia), how we make them part of one another and how we respond to demands of segmenting the two. This one-day workshop seeks to open the space to a wider public. We are interested in bringing a variety of ways in which the 'political' and the 'academic' are inhabited and articulated into conversation wit h each other.

The workshop aims to create a space for discussing the public relevance of research. Do we have any responsibilities beyond our research as academics, and if so what are they? What does 'being political' mean for an academic and what does it involve? Does the 'political' speak for itself, or do we need to articulate this politics beyond the academy; and if so, how? Does our work give us a valid platform from which to engage with these issues? This workshop will attempt to address these questions in terms of the choices we make when selecting research topics, designing our research, and developing our everyday engagements outside of our immediate academic environment. By enabling an exchange between researchers who are politically involved in different ways the workshop can begin to create new possibilities for political and public engagement.

The design of the workshop is unconventional and we hope will stimulate conversations and ideas in ways not often encountered in the academy. Rather than conference papers, all of our presenters will run 'stall's' in a 'market place' where ideas will be exchanged and jointly developed. We intend this to provide the basis for further discussion in the whole group, which will be facilitated by discussants and market stall facilitators.

Presenters include:

Jeremy Gilbert: School Of Social Sciences, Media And Cultural Studies, University Of East London

Nick Dines: Roma 3 University, Uninettuno, Italy

Doreen Massey: Department Of Geography, The Open University

Paul Chatterton (TBC): Department Of Geography, University Of Leeds

Jenny Pickerill: Department Of Geography, University Of Leicester