10/01/2024
Mike Neary (1956–2023) was one of those rare figures in critical social theory and critical pedagogy who did not make a fuss of themselves but dedicated his academic life to bringing up the best of his students and the institutions he served.
He did not live according to the neoliberal university's 'publish or perish' format but created opportunities for intellectual cooperation and democracy between teachers and students.
Among his contributions were the ideas of ‘students as producers’ and the concept of a ‘cooperative university.’
But as often happens, most of his innovations have since turned to dust because of the money-making, profit-oriented, and conservative-to-the-bone universities.
As Finnish pop-rock band Four Roses has it, “Every night and every day will go down in history, eventually, be forgotten.”
This is the price most of us pay for our efforts – trials, and errors.
Photo: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:RoseRed.jpg
Mike's papers:
https://eprints.lincoln.ac.uk/id/eprint/1675/
https://eprints.lincoln.ac.uk/id/eprint/23051/1/Co-opHEconferencepaper2016.pdf
