A Clash with the System : Experiences of teaching film and media production in the south of Sweden
(2016) NECS: European Network for Cinema and Media Studies, 2016- Abstract
- As a by-product of a meeting between my university’s vice-chancellor and the manager of the largest bank in the small southern town of Ystad in 2006, I, almost accidentally, soon after came to commence teaching and researching media production, production studies, media industries studies or film and media industry studies, as the subject finally came to be called at Lund. The teaching part involved that I constructed a master’s programme that took its inspiration from previous models, particularly in the Anglo-American academic sphere, and which typically attempted to straddle the present and emblematic competing demands of higher education and consequently hovered “between market-oriented and critically reflective and analytical... (More)
- As a by-product of a meeting between my university’s vice-chancellor and the manager of the largest bank in the small southern town of Ystad in 2006, I, almost accidentally, soon after came to commence teaching and researching media production, production studies, media industries studies or film and media industry studies, as the subject finally came to be called at Lund. The teaching part involved that I constructed a master’s programme that took its inspiration from previous models, particularly in the Anglo-American academic sphere, and which typically attempted to straddle the present and emblematic competing demands of higher education and consequently hovered “between market-oriented and critically reflective and analytical non-commercial orientations” (Stenport 2013). However, after a while I also became part – in several ways – of the audit culture and control inspections so typical of the ways in which attempts to regulate and control higher education are conducted. Here, I was confronted by the characteristic discourses of suspicion, supervision and inspection that unmistakably form crucial parts of the principles of New Public Management, the controversial and often despised scheme that presently is much interrogated globally (Lorentz 2012). These experiences, in turn, led me to have misgivings about the programme I myself had created and still coordinated. In this paper, some of the productive as well as more adverse aspects connected with these somewhat less than a decade long endeavours will be scrutinized. In particular the development will be contextualized as it was conducted in a specific, national education setting influenced by contemporary international trends in higher education while still holding on to its own domestic quirks, peculiarities and traditions.
Lorenz, Chris (2012), ’If You're So Smart, Why Are You under Surveillance? Universities, Neoliberalism, and New Public Management’, Critical Inquiry, vol. 38, no. 3, pp. 599-629.
McDonald, Paul (2013), “Introduction” [as editor of section InFocus: Media Industries Studies] Cinema Journal vol. 52, no. 3, pp. 145-149.
Stenport, Anna W. (2013), ‘We Train Auteurs: Education, Decentralization, and Regional Funding in New Swedish Cinema’, in Mette Hjort (ed), The Education of the Filmmaker: Views From Around the World, London: Palgrave-Macmillan pp. 85-104.
(Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/59b4d555-aac8-4641-bb81-ff8e446bbef2
- author
- Hedling, Olof LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2016-07-30
- type
- Contribution to conference
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- higher education, masters degrees, Bologna process, audiovisual education
- pages
- 9 pages
- conference name
- NECS: European Network for Cinema and Media Studies, 2016
- conference location
- Potsdam, Germany
- conference dates
- 2016-07-28 - 2016-07-30
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 59b4d555-aac8-4641-bb81-ff8e446bbef2
- date added to LUP
- 2016-11-08 12:10:26
- date last changed
- 2018-11-21 21:27:12
@misc{59b4d555-aac8-4641-bb81-ff8e446bbef2, abstract = {{As a by-product of a meeting between my university’s vice-chancellor and the manager of the largest bank in the small southern town of Ystad in 2006, I, almost accidentally, soon after came to commence teaching and researching media production, production studies, media industries studies or film and media industry studies, as the subject finally came to be called at Lund. The teaching part involved that I constructed a master’s programme that took its inspiration from previous models, particularly in the Anglo-American academic sphere, and which typically attempted to straddle the present and emblematic competing demands of higher education and consequently hovered “between market-oriented and critically reflective and analytical non-commercial orientations” (Stenport 2013). However, after a while I also became part – in several ways – of the audit culture and control inspections so typical of the ways in which attempts to regulate and control higher education are conducted. Here, I was confronted by the characteristic discourses of suspicion, supervision and inspection that unmistakably form crucial parts of the principles of New Public Management, the controversial and often despised scheme that presently is much interrogated globally (Lorentz 2012). These experiences, in turn, led me to have misgivings about the programme I myself had created and still coordinated. In this paper, some of the productive as well as more adverse aspects connected with these somewhat less than a decade long endeavours will be scrutinized. In particular the development will be contextualized as it was conducted in a specific, national education setting influenced by contemporary international trends in higher education while still holding on to its own domestic quirks, peculiarities and traditions.<br/><br/>Lorenz, Chris (2012), ’If You're So Smart, Why Are You under Surveillance? Universities, Neoliberalism, and New Public Management’, Critical Inquiry, vol. 38, no. 3, pp. 599-629.<br/>McDonald, Paul (2013), “Introduction” [as editor of section InFocus: Media Industries Studies] Cinema Journal vol. 52, no. 3, pp. 145-149.<br/>Stenport, Anna W. (2013), ‘We Train Auteurs: Education, Decentralization, and Regional Funding in New Swedish Cinema’, in Mette Hjort (ed), The Education of the Filmmaker: Views From Around the World, London: Palgrave-Macmillan pp. 85-104.<br/>}}, author = {{Hedling, Olof}}, keywords = {{higher education; masters degrees; Bologna process; audiovisual education}}, language = {{eng}}, month = {{07}}, title = {{A Clash with the System : Experiences of teaching film and media production in the south of Sweden}}, year = {{2016}}, }