‘If I Can’t Dance, I Don’t Want to be Part of Your Revolution(s)’: On being together in and outside of the academy

Abstract

We have both, independently and with others, long been interested in collaboration within an institution that publicly supports such work whilst often working against it. Thus, in our daily working practices, we challenge (alone, with others and together) traditional definitions and myths of working, learning and being in higher education. In this article, through a focus on our relationship both in and outside of the academy, we critique and respond to the socio-political challenges of academic work. Through auto/biographical stories, we first show the general expectation on us (and others) to dance to ‘the dominant societal tune’ and second, focus on our experiences of working in a UK university. With reference to writers who have discussed spaces of slow scholarship and, in particular, care-full working and love, our central argument hinges on the significance of our friendship to our work in the neoliberal world. Our point is that practising platonic loving relationships, that comprise caring, creative and collaborative practices, offers a form of resistance. Such practices, we suggest, can enable alternative and powerful ways to dance (i.e. to work) that are positive and just as productive, if not more so.