Rough Theory

Theory In The Rough

Monthly Archives: June 2007

Incentives

Leave a Comment Posted by N Pepperell on June 23, 2007

Frank Pasquale over at Concurring Opinions passes on the following apocryphal, but resonant, anecdote: I once heard a forlorn graduate student put a $20 bill in her dissertation in 1978, and when she returned to campus 20 years later to see if anyone had read her magnum opus, the bill was still there. The rest [...]

Links, Writing

Word of the Day

Leave a Comment Posted by N Pepperell on June 22, 2007

I’ve just been marking a student essay that uses a word I haven’t heard for a long time: adhocracy. I suspect I’ve been living in one of these for a while now… Apologies for the very infrequent updates recently – it’s a very busy end to an unusually heavy term, and so posting may remain [...]

Blogging, Overheard, Professional Life

Marking Texts

Leave a Comment Posted by N Pepperell on June 18, 2007

From an email exchange with L Magee, a comment on the impact of marking on everything else one reads at the time: I find it attractive when someone attempts, and for the most part succeeds, in conveying this kind of syncretic understanding of multiple, in-themselves-complex traditions. Usually not to be emulated of course – it [...]

Reading, Reading Group, Teaching

Congratulations!

Leave a Comment Posted by N Pepperell on June 17, 2007

L Magee successfully completed the charity half-marathon discussed here a couple of weeks back. LM reports: I completed it – can’t walk, can’t talk, of course, but otherwise feeling fine… I wanted both to congratulate LM, and to repost the link to OxFam, for anyone interested in making a donation to commemorate LM’s efforts.

Events, Links, Reading Group

Material Relations

Leave a Comment Posted by N Pepperell on June 16, 2007

Sinthome from Larval Subjects has mirrored the entire monster comment I wrote yesterday, as my latest contribution to an incredibly productive discussion below with Joseph Kugelmass and Ryan/Aless. This discussion was itself begun in response to R/A’s post on people as means of production over at massthink, and has led to such productive and rich [...]

Conversations, Critical Theory, Negations, Political Economy

Placeholders on Capitalism as Impersonal Domination

14 Comments Posted by N Pepperell on June 11, 2007

For those who haven’t yet updated their links, I wanted to mention that Ryan/Aless’ massthink is now back online after a brief hiatus, recharged and with a flurry of fantastic posts. The most recent post asks the question “What Is Capitalism?”, a question that Ryan/Aless answers using a fairly conventional form of Marxist theory: Capitalism [...]

Conversations, Critical Theory, Negations, Political Economy

Notes to Self

2 Comments Posted by N Pepperell on June 11, 2007

I recently received an urgent request from a reader for a copy of an article I had discussed on the blog some months ago. The article is in fact quite difficult to find – the reading group had trouble sourcing it – and so I was happy to help out. I offered to scan and [...]

Blogging, Procrastination, Reading

Richard Rorty

1 Comment Posted by N Pepperell on June 10, 2007

I’ve just seen the notice that Richard Rorty has passed away. A few of the blogs I frequent have posted reflections. I have a complex engagement with Rorty’s work, which provided the immediate provocation to lure me back into serious theoretical work after a long hiatus, and which served as a kind of gateway for [...]

Links

Ontology Matching as a Service Industry

4 Comments Posted by N Pepperell on June 8, 2007

One of my more amusing experiences this term has been being the point person for students with questions about ontology. My best guess is that this is happening because of a public lecture I gave early in the term, which among other things was tasked with trying to make sense of the concepts of ontology [...]

Links, Professional Life, Reading Group, Sociology of Knowledge

What One of Us Does When Not Blogging…

1 Comment Posted by N Pepperell on June 6, 2007

L Magee continues to amaze: it seems that, around stints of teaching, developing software, writing a PhD, holding down a “real” job, posting here and at schematique, and providing me with endlessly patient advice on my own work, LM has somehow found time to train for a half-marathon on the sly! Next Sunday, 17 June, [...]

Events, Miscellaneous

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