thinking is the new black

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what I will do when I finally sit my viva and become Dr Peacock. What will life be like post PhD and what is next on my research agenda? 

I went to Cuba in 2007 to stay with a family in a casa particular in Verdado a nice suburb of Havana. It had been a major ambition of mine to visit the country and the trip was fantastic. But ever since I’ve been dying to get back and spend more time there, exploring the rest of the country.

Last  week I went to watch Che: Part I . Mainly because I’m a massive fan of Benicio del Toro. It’s an unusual film, not quite what I was expecting to be honest and if you have little or no prior knowledge of Che Guevara or the Cuban revolution, basically you’re f***ed. Coincidentally I heard  yesterday that one of the artists from Buena Vista Social Club, Eliades Ochoa – the one with the cowboy hat, is coming to

perform in Feb in my home town.

I’m so giddy. All roads are leading to Cuba. I see it in the dregs of my mojito – my future is in Cuba. 

I’ve recently been diagnosed with celiac disease which sounds much more dramatic and serious than it is, but one of the symptoms is an intolerance of wheat and gluten which has been making me feel very tired and nauseous.  This is an extreme blow , as one of my other passions in life is cake. I love it. Lemon drizzle, macaroons, fairy cakes, scones, you name it I can make it and eat it. Yessirree I take cake very seriously indeed. But you’ll know this already if you’re a regular to this blog and all about my future plans for a tea room called the Public Sphere after Habermas’ great work. I envisaged sparknotes on critical theorists and their key works on the menu, and a free weekly salon for debate on culture and life, in the Raymond Williams sense of the word. I suppose I could still do this and make all the cup cakes gluten free – but the wheat free flour doesn’t rise very well. No Cuba is where I’m headed in my dreams.

Since a lot of my research and growing expertise is in the field of identity formation and brands, I have been fantasizing about making an ethnographic film on such things.

One of the things which fascinated me so much during my 2007 trip to Cuba was the almost total lack of  marketing, and miniscule references in popular culture to consumer brands (Cuban or other) that we experience in The West.  Not suprising given  wages average about £15 a month and because of the embargos food and goods are rationed. Literally there isn’t anything to buy.

During my time in Cuba I recall seeing only a few billboards in Havana with government messages and political slogans, but no commercial advertising. I seem to remember there being 3 TV channels – all state owned. My land-lady made me watch universidad para todo every morning, which was on 1 of the 3 an educational channel. I saw one shop in the foyer of the hotel national selling palm olive soaps and some L’Oreal shampoo I think, and just one other store in a very smart touristy area of Havana selling trainers  There were definitely some real or fake Adidas and Nikes in amongst them, and that’s the only form of branded goods I recognized during my stay. However, I found something online which quoted

Business Week (August 6, 2001) ranked the top 100 global brands and stated that of these 64% were available in Cuba

So much of contemporary identity in the UK is signified through our relationship with consumption and engagement with the brands we choose. And yet Cubans have  a strong sense of identity that is both individual and group – national and local .To me a non cuban, this seemed to be in part constructed through music,family, baseball etc.

But Cuba is changing, and especially in light of Obamas’ hint at new policy on Cuba I feel this will alter soon. Who in Cuba will experience an increase in material culture if embargoes are lifted? Will this result in a a semiotic glut and how will this effect class relations?

So now I’m day dreaming about learning ethnographic film making techniques and looking for crash courses in Spanish…

It is very important if you blog to mention the credit crunch. Content is king and these two little words in combination are grande buzz wordos en el blogospheros. Credit crunch, credit crunch, credit crunch. That said, I would like to introduce the fashion practice of chiconomics and to tell you I’m on cardi-watch. In November last year my life changed forever when I was shopping with my big sis in Selfridges, and I tried on the Missoni Avorio wool cardigan coat. For a short while I was enveloped is soft, warm, designer loveliness beyond anything I can really describe. Sadly the coat was priced around £800 which is beyond the budget of a lowly symbolic analyst in waiting (sob). However, it matched my wooly raspberry Uggs so exquisitely that in lieu of actually buying it I thought I’d simply keep it on for a time, whilst I window shopped in the Dries Van Noten concession. Oh it was heaven for 10 long minutes – the cardi was mine. That is, until I had to put the shop assistant who was nervously trailing me around Selfridges 2nd floor out of her misery, and explain that I had no intension of buying the cardigan and not to worry I was neither a loon nor a shop lifter. She responded so graciously as I took it off and handed it over, by telling me that it really suited me. Bless her.

The next best thing to buying, is wearing a garment just for a bit. Much more satisfying than window shopping and cheaper than actually purchasing. I highly recommend it, and it’s my top tip for the credit crunch. I was in Harvey Nichols in Leeds on Saturday, and I did the same thing with one of this seasons Roberto Cavelli knock out dresses. There is no point buying such a thing unless you have a yatch in Portafino, which is the only accessory that will do for that sort of dress. Why waste £875? 

Back to cardi watch. I still really want it & I think about it all the time. It’s reached 30% off on net-a-porter, but I remain firm that I will not purchase it until the price drops a bit more, Missoni or not. It must reach a price that it still cheaper than going on a knitting course at Central St Martins and buying my own flock of sheep to make the wool.

But seriously, no seriously. WTF is going on with the shopping frenzy??!! Yes there are some amazing discounts to be had out there at the mo ( I found £600 off a Prada dress on Saturday) but aren’t we supposed to be in a recession? Burberry were almost giving away clothes on Regent street before Xmas and I heard Superdrug announce an online sale of 99% on Xmas day. That’s not a typo btw. I do mean ninety nine. As I bagan to trawl the retailers of Missoni last week, I can only describe scenes of utter madness something along the lines of a shoal of piranhas stripping the flesh off a plump calf having a paddle.

Dramatic events in the thinking is the new black house hold this week, when my personal computer began to sound as if it were being powered by a russian hamster on a tread wheel. Unfortunately it was the hard drive in my 3 year old mac mini that gave up the ghost.

Apparently living in and powering my mac-mini

Frankly at the time, an utter horrendo disaster. Although I regularly back work up, and managed  to salavge all my thesis and teaching work, I still lost some of my itunes and photo data. It’s a painfull lesson to learn as I’ve spent several hours already this week, loading CDs into itunes and rummaging around for old software disks and memory cards. But thanks to some help from my friends I now have a suped up 160GB, and modded mac-mini as good as a brand new one. And I have discovered a great Mac Mini civilization camped out there on the t’interweb of streams.

Even more nail biting perhaps was the return of my TV husband Jack Bauer, in a one off special 24 Redemption. Damn It! This has certainly wet my appetite for Day 7 which is on in January. I’m now beside myself with excitement.

I always base the upgrade of my mobile phone on what ever Jack is using, so the writers strike in the US has meant a delay and me being stuck with a rather rubbish motorola razor for some time and looking like a right old laggard. Jack I am waiting for you.

sorry Bruce Parry - there can be only one. xx

I went to the 1st of the evening media seminars at Brighton University yesterday to hear Dr Kate O’Riordan from Sussex give her paper “The Genome incorporated: Constructing Biodigital Identity’” which

“examines the intersection of genome sequencing and digital media practices through a discussion of interactivity, social networking and genome browsing which centres around the personal genome sequencing company23andMe “

In terms of social networking 23andMe has a community function whereby users compare their genome data with other people signed up for the service. As I commented last night I can really see this ending up as some sort of face-book style application  / public profile. 

What was especially interesting to me is that Google is one of the investors of 23andMe. 

As the article points out

the investment could be seen as Google’s first step towards indexing genetic information.

Food for Thought

If Google were able to combine the immense amounts of user data they collect right now with the health and medical data that could potentially be gathered from Google Health AND combine that with data potentially available to them through 23andMe, a person’s Google profile could be a dangerous thing. What if this hypothetical Google profile ever got into the hands of a health insurance provider? Could you be denied coverage based on a genetic predisposition to cancer? What if you also often search terms like “breathing problems” and “wheezing,” or you’ve emailed a cancer specialist to try and get an appointment?

I watched Question Time on the beeb last week after Obamas’ victory. It featured Brian Eno, for one, who is apparently a consultant to the Lib Dems. How about that? He is a  rather charming reactionary and good to see the Lib Dems appropriating a bit of cool. I’ve long thought that they’ve  catching up to do in the communication of democracy stakes. I know politics should be all about the policies, but in this day and age it has to also be about the brand. As well as be being on the money and having some sound political views, Eno mediates politics at the level of personal activism and social responsibility. Plus he allows the Lib Dems to draw on also sorts of connotations of hip and culture.

Anyway, as you can imagine the whole QT show was rather a viva Obama fest / “we are the world, we are the people”, including Bonnie Greer  who is normally very sensible telling everyone how she was in tears on victory night. Everyone wants to be Obamas’ friend, and every one wants to show  that their personal emotional reaction to the event is stronger than their neighbors, and some how more authentic. I mean don’t get me wrong I AM pleased ( though rather like Bonnie  I flipflopped from being a Hilary supporter to a Barack supporter).   2 events come to mind through all this.   One is the death of Princess Diana and the other, Tony Blairs’ victory in 1997. The whole emotional competitiveness is symptomatic of Western Society, particularly in the UK since the death of Diana. The notion of the media facilitation “our” ability to feel if you know what I mean. 1997 for me was one of the most important elections in the last 100 years, not least because it was the 1st one I was able to vote in. What I am reminded of more specifically is this discourse of optimism and hope obscuring actual policy.

I remember staying up all night watching the votes some in and seeing Neil Kinnock dancing awkwardly to D:ream. Remember this?

In 1997 I was an undergrad struggling to live independently of my family in East London during the eve of Cool Britannia. I was so hopeful and optimistic for the Labour party; all I’d ever known was Thatcher and that life as a young adult living on the bread line in the capital was quite hard. My pals and I got carried away with the election, because a change of government for us signified such giddy anticipation for the future. Alas, like so many others, I’m let down by what actually followed.

The language of new labour has been brilliantly analyzed by Norman Fairclough,  in his wonderful book New Language New Labour. But I thought it would be interesting to run a quick word cloud courtesy of wordle on Baracks’ victory speech.

Check out the focus on patriotism, words connoting change, inclusively and signifying society. The world awaits to see if this discourse will have any effect on social change. No pressure then..

Marx is trendy, official.  I was thrilled to read in the “going up” bit of yesterdays Sunday Times Style supplement, along with Ruebens Apples ( a cross between pink lady and cox), recession shopping  All Saints home, and purple boots, sales of Karl Marx Das Kapital are soaring.

You heard it hear 1st many moons ago, but if Style says – it must be a la mode.

Moi and Karl

As the Wild Child Fatboy slim remix goes…”Default damager, power to the people“.

Oui mes readers jolie, it is I, & I am back with the ill behavior.  

Google analytics tells me, much to my surprise and delight, that people are ending up at this humble destination whilst searching using key words stress & PhD. Therefore I’m thoroughly obliged, nay, compelled to revive thinking is the new black and share the highs and the lows of my personal tale of research-arama, avec tous.

So much has passed since I last blogged way back in April:  I watched the new season of Lost no less, Hilary was defeated by Obama, people wore Gladiator shoes, Safari chic and the Global Traveler look, I moved in with Senor Marco,  we went to Italy & Ibiza for the Summer hols, the iPhone came down in price, & I returned to the commercial world of work for 5 months. And still IMHO no one has really found a use for Twitter. My, time has flown. 

 Why no words on here from me for so long? By April I had been holed up for 4 months writing the thesis, and was more than ready to get ba wit it mandemz the legendary content and media team at iCrossing UK. But alas alack, after bashing 65000 words out of the 80000 word count of the PhD between Jan-April 08, frankly I have not felt like writing  even a shopping list until now. In addition, I was busy working on some research and analysis projects over the summer for a TV client, a major FMCG and finally a pharma client, on behalf of iCrossing, so social media kept me from social media.

It has been a very tough decision indeed to leave the team, but I’ve decided to return to academia and teach this semester in order to allow me time to submit the thesis, prepare for the viva, maybe even write a paper and go to some conferences. (More of this in coming weeks…) Teaching starts next week and I’m really looking forward to supervising some undergrad dissertations this year, and teaching “Innovation, Culture and Technology”. Although I’m already missing the A-team in content and media in the Brighton office and their clever clever ways I’m also really happy to be able to pursue my own agenda.

So yes folks, I am a university lecturer and PT freelance researcher, or as I prefer to say at diner parties when asked what it is that I do?   I’m  presently a symbolic analyst thank you very much for asking.  A term which comes from economist Robert Reich, in Reich R, B. (1991) The Work of Nations. Simon & Schuster.

 “all the problem solving, problem identifying, and strategic brokering activities […] they do not enter world commerce as standardized things. Traded instead are the manipulations of symbols -data, words, oral and visual representations. (Reich 1991 p177).

Although it’s some 17 years old, I’m still very taken with this book and I’ve employed Reichs’ work in my own a fair bit, and especially in a paper I wrote for the BSA conference in 2006. I’ve also used his theories in my thesis, so expect more of him too. Anyhow, I’m one now, a symbolic analyst that is, when I’m not busy being either a research student, social anthropologist slash social scientist slash communication theorist, slash fashionista revolutionista slash retired at 33. Hmmm. So little time so much to do.

A full update on the state of the PhD and A/W fashions with be with you imminently.

Following yesterday’s cat theme – I discovered today that Miu Miu is her mother’s daughter. I’m so proud! I doubt there are many people who can claim their pet has read Das Kapital.

It all began very early this morning when I was looking for something else entirely on Adfreak and came across a blog post about cats getting a PR overhaul. It seems not everyone loves cats as much as me. Wierdos.

The US based website CatChannel.com are running a competition asking people to create a 7″ x 10″ ad that shows the world the value and importance of cats. As they say cats are terribley misunderstood. “Throughout history, cats have been the victims of superstition and misunderstanding – and even today, cats are in trouble: More than 70% of cats in animal shelters are euthanized (compared to a still-shocking 56% of dogs).”

Anyone who knows me knows I love cats. More than that, I worship my very own mini-panther, Miu Miu. Not in a sad, lonely, cat-spinster way, but in a cats are the thinking mans best friend way. I can say this confidently as a) I’m not a spinster. I have a v nice b.f. who I knew was a keeper when I met his mum, who has 4 cats of her own and who gave me a present to give to my cat & b) I’m not alone, because I shone a spot light on the t’interweb quickly to see just how big the cat loving community was, and there are flippin loads of us.

awww little Miu Miu, constant companion &
critic to my PhD.

Cat lovers share a very special unspoken bond and this fascinates the ethnographer in me and I think the online cat loving community and social networks such as Catster are simply ter-riff. I have kown of the existence of catster for some time, but only just found out about mycatspace. Thrills. I am very taken with the idea that people are blogging on behalf of their cats. Check out the homage to the late great Albert. I mean, seriously? SERIOUSLY!!???

one more piccie of iccle miu miu for good measure.

As and aside to social theory, for r&r, I’ve been studying the Dharma. A few days ago I came across Paramis or the ten perfections. This is what one needs to achieve to be fully awakened, to have bodhisattva, the road to Buddha.

The 10 perfections are

1. Generosity (dana).
2. Virtue (sila).
3. Renunciation (nekkhamma).
4. Wisdom (panna).
5. Energy (viriya).
6. Patience (khanti).
7. Truthfulness (sacca).
8. Determination (aditthana).
9. Loving-kindness (metta).
10. Equanimity (upekkha).

The 10 perfections strike me as a really good Q.A framework for “writing up” a thesis.

A PhD is an apprenticeship in research. Nevertheless, for the majority of research students it is the single biggest piece of work they will ever produce in their lifetime, and therefore an expression of a significant personal journey. It takes years of devotion and truly is more than research and critical thinking. It’s a commitment to an idea and an “original contribution to knowledge”; it is a massive deal. However, I think that many people get carried away with what I’ll call Magnus opus syndrome. Sometimes it’s very easy to lose sight of the bigger picture and remember where a thesis sits in the scheme of life, all things woo-woo. Universe = BIG Thesis = small.

Anyway that said, I do see a lovely connection with the paramis and trying to get the old per her der finished. Thinking about and applying them to my research and life has certainly helped to get through some of the more difficult times recently. Generosity for instance is the key paramis to achieving the others because it includes all the others. It means being openhearted and letting go of the past or any negative habits. I have found this really helpful by turning it on myself when I’ve had days where I’ve struggled with writers block or haven’t quite achieved what I’d set out at the beginning of the day. It’s about living in the present moment and saying OK never mind about that and refocusing on being skillful in the now.

Paramis aren’t elaborate concepts either, which is one of the things I like about them. Employing the notions of say determination and energy to studying is fairly straightforward, but I also particularly like the ideas of truthfulness, patience, and equanimity.

Obviously one needs to be truthful when presenting an analysis, but I think really listening to what your heart tells you, and being brave enough to be honest about ideas is actually quite hard and occasionally scary. What if they’re rubbish thoughts? What if someone says durrrr – of course, and anyway? Yet, some of my best ideas have been my most uncomplicated ones and in the emerging thesis, I’m being to see that the original contribution to knowledge I’m making comes from simplicity rather than complexity. It’s about stripping away ideas to find ‘a truth’.

A PhD is one looooooooooonnnnnnnnng exercise in patience, in the sense that of course one needs amazing staying power to get to through the other side. Mental endurance if you like – comme ca the Japanese game show. But another sort of patience is also required because a PhD does not come all at once. It really is a series of processes. It can be absolutely infuriating to have to re-draft research proposals, aims and objects over and over, or spend an entire year conducting a literature review on a topic that – OK you become a world expert on for 10 minutes, but can’t bare to discuss with anyone for even 1 minute, because you are sick of hearing words, like for instance “commodity fetishism” or “branding” said aloud in the same utterance. But be patient if you can, because it does all come together. I was chatting with the supers about this only the other day. Although I cursed having to draft, redraft and re-redraft various documents for thesis outline or transfer meetings, because of the process my objectives eventually became razor sharp and one of the most useful tools in allowing me to crack on so quickly now. Know why? The objectives function, and I’ve actually stuck to them. Yup, they’re good.

Equanimity is also very important to Buddhism. In fact it’s fundamental to finding awakening. It is according most dictionaries a type of “mental composure”, especially in the face of adversity. It’s actually one of my favourite words at the moment. It’s to this week, what ambivalent was to last week. It’s difficult when writing up, because it can be pretty intense when you’re immersed, or having to put in long lonely days. Most of time in the final stages of a PhD is spent just with thoughts, and I think this is what is probably both the source of all the stress, and what sends people a bit la la. It’s an experience you can’t really communicate to anyone unless they’ve been through it, which can be a further source of isolation and inequity. This slightly off kilter state of mind can’t be explained to, nor understood by anyone who hasn’t done a PhD. Equanimity can definitely be refined, and I have found the more I meditate on it, the more steady I feel about the task in hand, so the more able I am to get on with it. Cultivating a balance of mind is therefore, extremely useful.

Om Shanti Om