thinking is the new black

Greetings, after a bit of a hiatus from me may I present a wordle word-cloud of my thesis in its entirety. Woo hoo!

I’ve had a crazy e.o September updating, re-drafting, and proofing, working late into the night most nights. It really brought home the notion that writing a thesis is sometimes an endurance test. By Thursday morning of last week when I was sat with the reprographics guys watching it fly off the press, I felt v wobbley; something close to acute jetlag. ( note to self: don’t try and make an original contribution to knowledge on 4 hours sleep).

And, I was so tired after I signed off all the paper work, I celebrated by going home , eating a take-way curry with the Italian, and sleeping for a gargantuan 14 hours.

Finally 2 bound copies of the actual thesis  are with the academic registry. Yes sireeee! And just in the nick of time with only 3 days off, before teaching started.

Hopefully in the next few weeks or so, I shall post some reflections on the process and the trials and tribulations of submission.

There is a bit of a ‘thing’ going on out there of people creating word clouds of their research.

Good ones to be found on Almost PhD,Media @LSE &social sim

Here’s one from mine. It’s only one chapter, more to come I’m sure.

Love wordle.

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.

Remember a while ago I mentioned a blog post and a comment about “I don’t want to have a conversation with my toothpaste”? Well I’m preparing to give a lecture on branding and web 2.0 to a group of university students and when I was putting some thoughts together yesterday I came across it again.
Here’s the link.
I was reading through the Forrester social media report from February and it got me thinking once again about the use of the term conversation and the marketing industry employing certain words and phrases to constitute a discourse. Coincidently I am working on a chapter at the moment about consumers and producers or rather consumers as producers. I’ve been nurturing this idea for some time, but approach it with my discourse analyst hat on. Discourses I believe are something we do, they are performed and as such have an effect because they shape the way we think and act, but there is a metaphysical paradox, because they are self fulfilling. After all if we say something is being talked about – it’s being talked about. I’m arguing consumers as producers constitutes a discourse in its own right.

Because I am so busy writing it up, I’ve decided to pass on submitting a couple of abstracts for upcoming conferences in the Summer, which is a bit pants. I simply don’t have the time at the moment. Boo. However the end is in sight now and, my supervision meeting last week gave me a lot of confidence that the work is up to speed and meeting the right standards. I have agreed to the lecture though and am REALLY looking forward to it. It’s been a while since I’ve had the opportunity to speak in front of a large audience and, undergrads first thing in the morning can be challenging. It’s going to be a lot of fun.

Finally, an oldey but a goodey. At the beginning of my PhD I cam across a short article by David Gauntlett about completing a PhD, so I reread it last week. There are loads of guides on the market on how to survive, or how to write a thesis and, I’ve had a flick through a few. In retrospect none hit the mark as far as I’m concerned, but David’s article is pretty spot on.

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

I have been writing for a month. Happy anniversary me. Wooo

kool & the gang celebrating good times with me

Week one: Really only ½ a week but euphoria at being free to “begin to finish” I experienced joy at loafing around re-reading Marx and organising lever arch files. I skipped home from the gym mid morning and visualized finishing the thesis ahead of the timeline. This would allow me to spend the rest of special leave mooching in galleries, eating brunch at Providores, reading Vogue, and attending intellectual salons all over Europe. How cool was my life? Waaaayaaaay cool.

Week two: I wore chunky knits, reading glasses, and silk neckerchiefs. I was serious goddamnit, and my fashion story necessarily reflected this. Went to the library, saw my supervisors, read journal articles, updated my bibliography, structured chapters. As my favourite stylist Jay Immanuel is fond of saying to the models during shoots, work as if the rent is due tomorrow. Top Model? Pah! Britains next top thesis more like it. I was serving it.

Week three: was awake and at my desk before most people had their first thoughts of coffee. I’ll never finish, so best just give up sleep. Whilst the rest of the country slept I read Foucault and drew mind maps. I wondered if Foucault had drawn mind maps? I listen to Running up that Hill and decided if I only could I would make a deal with God to swap places. I wondered if Kate Bush had done mind maps? I became fanatical about creating the ultimate brain-food open sandwich and drew a mind map of various toppings. Finally on the Sunday I was lured to Hotel du Vin for a long lunch at someone else’s expense. Only fine dining broke the cycle. I went home to sleep for 48 hours.

avacado food of the gods & top of the charts for open sandwiches

Week four brought a vicious bought of impostor syndrome. I considered the possibility of simply handing in a one page mind map in lieu of the actual thesis and keeping my fingers crossed the external moderator might be wooed by my uncommon approach and ability to accessorizes any outfit. Obsessed with a fear of obscurity I chose wine and socialising, followed closely by self-reproach, more alcohol, more going out. This is intriguing, because despite all the hoo-haring, I somehow produced a prologue and introduction.

Week 5: It is so “on”. I’m giving it some ones and twos on the thesis front. I’ve sent work to the project supervisors ahead of time and everything. Had a paper published, found out I’d been quoted in Times Higher Education, and got contacted by a journalist from California interested in my not quite written thesis.

Consequently I’m indulging in a soupcon of fabulousness for a few days. Oh Oui. Mes lecteurs chéris et personnes très intelligentes I am away to Paris. The land of abundant éclairs, where the men say bonjour mademoiselle, and even regular folk have “le look”. I love Paris in Spring-time.