Relational ethics and the institution as 'intimate other'

Franklin, Alex

Abstract

This paper will explore the responsibilities and risks attendant to engaging in autoethnographic research wherein the researcher’s gaze is turned on the context in which they are operating and their employing institution becomes an identifiable other within the work.

The paper will take as its case study an analytic autoethnographic account of the impact of the increasing sway of the ‘political technologies’ of audit within Art and Design Higher Education, part of a broader study concerned with the relationship between Art and Design education and social justice.

It will discuss the caution and conflict experienced by the author, a British academic with 20+ years teaching experience, when discussing her home institution’s customs and practices in a public forum. More specifically it will examine the impact on academic freedom of a common - yet vague - contractual clause which requires academics in the UK not to bring their institution ‘into disrepute’.

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (unpublished)
• Conference Name: British Autoethnography Conference
• Start Date: Jul 23, 2018
• End Date: Jul 24, 2018
• Acceptance Date: Jun 28, 2018
• Peer Reviewed: Not Peer Reviewed
• Keywords: relational ethics, neoliberalism, autoethnography, higher education, fear
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/865877
• Additional Information: Title of Conference or Conference Proceedings : British Autoethnography Conference