So, I'm approaching the end of my thirties, I've just written a book on the implications of disruptive environmental, economic and technological change for education and social justice, and I've just been given a Professor's job at the University of Bristol, with a remit to do research that will help rethink what a university is for in these conditions.
How did I get here? A circuitous route. I wanted, in the past, to be a whole load of things - a civil rights lawyer, a tree surgeon, a film maker (when I was very young, a dancer). What actually happened was, in times of high unemployment in the 1990s, after several long months of signing on, temporary secretarial work, and freelance media work, I took an academic job. And I stuck with that, albeit doing it in a range of different places and at different times. What strikes me, though, is that the battles I wanted to fight in the other 'careers' I considered are still the ones I'm fighting now, just with different tools. So what stays the same is an orientation to the world, what changes are the jobs or the settings in which you play out that orientation.
I will write for longer soon, but I'm being summoned to a meeting which cannot wait.
