The thing with the 'Hair'

One of my favourite movies when I was in high-school was 'Hair', given its message of freedom and independence from all adults rules - although I was not too much involved in the 'pros' and 'cons' of Vietnam though. As someone who broke free from the communism, I knew how much emphasis was put on the clean short cut of men and carefully arranged tresses for girls - that I never had, as my mother chose to keep me with the hair cut short. The hair was so important for my formative years that I even took part to a sit in in the school yard against the decision of a school director to cut the hair of some rebel youngsters. 

Even we acknowledge it or not directly, the way we look at hair plays an important role in the history of mentalities ad this book reveals several interesting aspects. Actually, we can easier read a culture through its ways to look at hair as 'all cultures have created clear rules and of dress and hair styling to vindicate gender and (usually) marital status'. Hair is more than part of an invidiual identity and personal statement, but is part of an intricated system of beliefs and cultural codes. New hairstyles are indicating a change of attitudes, more than a simple fashion. 

Although the book focuses extensively on the religious approaches to it - in my opinion, the Jewish one is quite underrepresented, but maybe it is because I know too much about it, but it also introduces the approach of almost unknown Christian groups, such as the strange House of David - it goes beyond it, trying to read the cultural messages and meanings. It is well documented, but written in an accessible way.

I recommend this book to any contemporary historian, and anyone interested in the history of mentalities. 

Disclaimer: Book offered by the publisher via NetGalley.com

Manifesto for the 'slow professor'

After so many 'slow' movements in food and the everyday life in general, it was about time to approach the high-speed academic life from this perspective too. In previous academic blog posts I touched upon several times the idea of 'publish or die' and other high pressures - such as bureaucracy that I do not fancy at all, regardless its shapes and aims - that taint the fragile intellectual achivements of the academia. 

'Corporalization has compromised academic life and speed up the clock', complain the authors, who continue: 'In the corporate university, power is transferred from faculty to managers, economic justifications dominate and the familiar 'bottom line' eclipses pedagogical and intellectual concerns'. However, as long as the universities are part of the state system and do receive budget funding, a certain scrutinity of the funds and criteria of performance should be considered. Also, universities are part of a larger state conception on education and, thus, they prepare future members of the work force. What can be done?

The authors pledge for a reconsideration of the academic pace: 'We need time to think, and so do our students. Time for reflection and open-end inquiry. 

One of the highest pressure the professors should deal with is time. Time to correct and edit papers, to apply for grants, to write books, to answer bureaucratic demands, to spend time with the family. Although several books were dedicated to the time-management issues in the academia, this does not alleviate the burden and the deep guilt for the time spent not 'at work'. Somehow, the book does not approach the issue of the high level of university graduates, compared to decades ago, which creates pressure for the market and the need of high efficiency at the university workplace too. 

An interesting approach concerns the pledge for 'pleassure' at teaching, a focus on emotions and emotional intelligence in the classroom. Hard sciences as mathematics or nuclear physics, just to mention randomly, do not necessarily require such an emotional involvement, but very often during my academic expriences I noticed the lack of any personal involvement of teachers in the process of sharing knowledge. 

Understanding is more important than knowledge, consider the authors, and I agree, but in the nowadays world, with so many sources of information and so many possibilities to expand the knowledge, it is very hard to resist the temptation of too much knowledge. I am going through this right now and secretely I enjoy the pleasure of not being able to find the right balance.

The book is very important for the stage of academic discussions right now, but it does not provide any specific mean of action, despite the need of more collaboration and 'conviviality' among teachers. I will be curious to find out how exactly the current culture can be institutionally challenged. Maybe then I will finally decide to make the big step of joining the academia. 

Disclaimer: Book offered by the publisher in exchange of an honest review 

Science blogging, a step-by-step introduction

Academics and particularly scientists do not have time to blog or read newspapers or be on Instgram. They are in the libraries, labs, at high-end conferences where they discuss the latest equations or microbiology discovery. True or not?

It is a matter of choice, after all, but nowadays, Science Blogging is a reality and sometimes all you need in order to proceed to the next practical step - like opening your blog - is a little bit of encouragement and acknowledgement of the results already achieved by other professionals in your domain. This essential guide reunites articles written by famous scientists bloggers, who are explaining in a very simple yet encouraging way what science blogging means, what are the advantages, how to manage the various technical choices - Tumblr vs. Blogger vs. Wordpress; if you ask me, I keep being a faithful Blogger follower and practician- how to use visual content or keep in mind copyright issues. There are also tips about how to read your blog metrics and how, eventually, one can make money out of it, although this should not necessarily be the main aim of the project. 

Instead of being dismissed as futile activity, mostly a waste of time, science blogging offers to the scientists several noticeable advantages: practising writing on a daily basis, personal branding, networking with other scientists, creating a platform for further academic contacts and freelancing work, to mention only few of them. 'Blogging is a marathon, not a sprint', mentioned one of the authors, as a warning that, similarly with the academia, science blogging does not guarantee a blitz-success. Science blogging improves teaching skills and social skills in general, can help testing concepts and ideas and, what I think it is very important, offer to scientists a voice against pseudo-science. 

Addressing the beginner and skeptical science bloggger, it is well written with good references and many good tips. Personally I think blogging can tremendously make a difference in the life of a PhD student that needs to polish his or her writing skills permanently, but also constantly test and confront various conclusions and results of the research. Wish I had used this opportunity more often during my doctoral research.
Disclaimer: Book offered by the publisher via NetGalley.com in exchange of an honest review

German elites at work. And their money

While I was preparing my PhD on elites in Central and Eastern Europe, I had read a book by Julia Friedrichs, where she is addressing the issue of elites as such, and as a beginner in issues regarding the German society, I found it interesting. Meanwhile, in the last seven years, my knowledge advanced and got more and more insights about the local elites, either from media reports or other books, or by using my own network of friends and acquintances. 

This relatively recent work by Julia Friedrichs goes into more specific details, with a focus on the genesis of financial elites, those members of big money families, ruling big stores like Rossmann or the Oetker and Aldi or Neckermann. More interestingly, it also describes the legal and financial incentives system offered by the state to the rich class, such as low taxes or various exemptions. 

There is a high incidence of wealth reproduction in Germany, particularly in the Western side, not few of them subsidizing the cultural adventures of bohemians stays-at-home in Berlin neighbourhouds such as Prenzlauer Berg or Kreuzberg. In most cases, this helps and it is nothing wrong with parents trying to help their children to survive in a very complicated world. Very often though, the money creates responsibilities and obligations and takes the freedom out too. Children who are forced to follow the steps assigned from birth by their parents in order to be able to continue the management of their companies or empires. Marriages of wealth in order to keep the wellbeing or even increase it. Some may conform, some may rebel, some can even comit a crime to get their freedom back. Wealth remains and people get even richer. 

This is the way of life, some may say and nothing to do against the trends. I don't think it is nothing wrong to secure a safe future for your children, particularly if you went out ot nothing. No one wants to be poor and the Socialist-Communist 'ideas' were proved wrong - as within the communist elites themselves people were doing the same transfer of wealth and prestige and sometimes the political positions too. Most of Friedrichs impressive work is describing the situation. Some comparative suggestions with the US or Japan are made, without entering into too much details, although as we can read in the conclusion, there are mounting fears that Germany may end up as a sort of Japan elite-wise. Meaning that the economic resources will be concentrated into the hands of some powerful families that can control the economy and the society.

The work opens a lot of interesting paths to further investigation, but it also did not cover many areas, such as the big real estate families or the very conservative auto-motive industry or some 'von' families from the South of Germany. What is the departure point of these new elites? At what extent these financial elites are coincide with the cultural and political ones? I was also expecting more charts and statistics featuring the mobility and distribution of elites too.

A book worth reading but quite incomplete. Maybe the next one will bring more light into the life of the shadowry life of German elites, and not only.  

Academic book review: Paying for college. Athletic Scholarship Info

This book laguished unopened on my Kindle for a long time because I was almost sure that the information deals exclusively with management of college payment and other financial information that does not interest me too much. After all, I am living in Germany where the high education is free and I do not have too many plans to going back to university either, at least not in the next 6 months. 

I was wrong though. It has very good tips about how to organise your entry to college, step-by-step, taking care of the smallest details such as time management, establishing special learning routines, organizing the extra-curricular activities. Written in an accessible language, it offers directions for going straight on the path to making good academic choices, setting up motivational tools and writing good application letters. 

The information is at the level of 2012 and unfortunally it does not have relevant links or extra materials for the reader, but regardless of your academic level, geographical location or the year when you start reading it, there is relevant information available. My favourite ones are: how to identify and fight procrastination and the advice to be in touch with a tutor or teacher seeking for academic guidance. 

A four-star kind of book, strongly recommended and easy to read - less than one hour if you are a speedy reader as me. 

Pro and cons of academic blogging

In 2016, there are problably few and few academics wondering what blogging is and why we, as educated people, we should use this medium to share our ideas to the world. Many of my academic friends already experienced at least once the bloggosphere, either as guest writers or as owners of their blog.

However, there are still a lot of misunderstandings and confusions regarding the advantages of blogging for academics and I am here to share some of them.

Let's start with the cons:

- Not every kind of scientifical domain can be easily blogged about. For instance, as a mathematician discovering new formulas, writing a blog post about this, will most probably not reach more than the usual people that are already familiar with your very niche activities. So, why to waste time setting up a couple of sentences about?

- Talking about time...one of the big arguments against blogging among academics is the waste of time. In a highly competitive academic world, where publish or die is still the motto, you better use every dime of time for forwarding your research, apply for academic conferences. If you also have a family, you practically do not have any extra time for scribbling.

- The blog post does not equal the academic article and will not (yet) be considered a reference for applying for a serious permanent academic position.

- It increases the risk of being caught in various commercial traps, especially when various companies or institutions are keen to offer sponsorship and thus, diminish the credibility and independence of the academic individual and research.

- It has the temptation of easy journalism, and may affect the hard polished academic skills which includes precaution and long preparation of the texts as well as cross-referencing.

The advantages are equally noteworthy:

- It offers visibility to ideas developed by academics, by offering a medium to share and discuss. This is particularly available for academics in the field of human sciences and politics. 

- It makes academic work transparent and relevant to the public and take back the intellectuals in the agora as parts of the public discussions. 

- It help spreading knowledge in parts of the world without a proper educational network. Wherever they are, people can read and get in touch with new ideas.

- Outside the rigid institutional settings, academics are free to express opinions not only about their daily work but on issues of public interest.

- It offers academics important opportunities to collaborate and share ideas. It also offers the chance to find people sharing common interests and researching similar topics, wherever they are. 

Probably there are many more things to outline about academic blogging and I will keep writing about this in next posts. As for me, I will always keep telling how grateful I am for being alive these times, with tremendous learning opportunities, many of them for free. 

Academic book review: Buying a bride, by Marcia A.Zug

A couple of months ago, while looking to download some titles for my Kindle I discovered some indie series called Mail-Order Brides. I realized what the topic might be about, but the images of the cover too convinced me to do not overcharge my e-book device with some non-sense. 

When I started to read this book I assumed that it covers the usual angles on this topic, mainly the human trafficking and women abuse, but surprinsingly, there is a completely new perspective opened. Although there are cases of abuses, the mail-bride system can be, in fact, an opportunity for many women to improve their life. Far from portraying images of desperate women, ready to sell themselves from a visa, the author covers various historical and geographical cases when mail-brides were in fact the engine of change. 

Definition

The cases extensively studied are Canada, and most specifically the US, starting with the 17th century.Although the author acknowledges the problematic choice of wording, she decides to keep the "mail-order" term, but for offering a critique and challenge the assumption of exploitation of the women using this system to acquire a husband. It is defined "as a marriage resulting from some form of advertisment or other public request, soliciting women to enter into a marriage with previously unknown man and typically travel a significant distance to complete this (...)". The definition excludes in any case the idea of women getting married against their own will. Mail-order husbands were also possible but at a smaller extent and not studied by the book.

History

The phenomenon started in the 17th century, mostly part of larger state plans to expand towards previously unconquered lands, both in Canada and the US. The mail-brides were thus part of a national policy aimed to dublicate the national family models. The relationships with Native Indian women were not encouraged and in some cases forbidden by law, being considered as "a danger for European men to abandon their civility". The rights of women moving to colonies were more generous compared to the Eastern coast of the US or Europe, they being offered equal wages with their male counterparts, the right to trade, to sue and to be sued, to sell property etc. The right to vote was offered first to women from the Western part of the US, long before those from the Eastern coast benefited of the same advantages. An interesting assumption of the book is that in fact the mail-bride systems contributed to the advancement of women's rights. 

Another merit of the book is to offer a transversal perspective into the genesis of the elites and social classes in different American states. 

In both the US and Canadian cases, 'the complex forces of feminism, imperialism, capitalism and racism created a situation in which divergent interests aligned to produce support for a variety of large-scale marital immigration programs'.

The medium

A special section is dedicated to analysing the ads aimed to attract potential suitors, after the Civil War when the state policies were less predominant in encouraging this kind of immigration. By the fact that the women authored or authorized the content of the ads, they were given more control over their marital process. Actually, this kind of process through which a marriage takes place is distinguished from the arranged marriages, which may explain why, for instance, India was not included as part of the cases analysed by the author.

In parallel with the spread of the phenomenon and the increase of women coming not only from Western Europe, but also from East and South Europe, or as far as from China or Japan, the negative perception of the mail-brides developped. It was reflected not only through the negative media reports, but in the prohibitive legislation aimed to discourage the process. 

Now and then, there will always be men interested to marry overseas and women ready to leave a life of poverty and without hope. "Today's mail-order brides and grooms are not a throwback to an earlier, unenlightened time. Instead, like the most of us, they are simply men and women who believe marriage will improve their lives, and we should support this choice".

Overview

The book is seriously documented, based on a detailed bibliography which covers historical, literary, media, anthropological and legal sources. It covers well and clearly couple of good centuries and outlines new academic perspectives. 

What I did miss was a more quantitative focus. The author herself reckon that statistics in the success rate of mail-order mariages are hard to verify, but more data and comparisons between different periods of time and the racial profile of women might have help to counter stereotypes about the issue. 

A recommended read for both academics and journalist covering immigration related topics.

Disclaimer: I was offered the book for review part of the NetGalley.com network, but the opinions are, as always, my own.