Re: EU and sociology

On Sat, Sep 12, 2009 at 6:41 PM, Debabrata Panda <pandadebabrata65@gmail.com> wrote:

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: singh vijay <vijaysingh1917@yahoo.com>
Date: Thu, Sep 10, 2009 at 8:48 PM
Subject: EU and sociology
To: vijay singh <vijaysingh1917@yahoo.com>






ON THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE EUROPEAN STUDY CENTRE PROGRAMME IN THE DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY, UNIVERSITY OF DELHI

In the recent years the Forum for Democratic Struggle has been pointing out the dangers posed by international capital to Delhi University. Neo-liberalism, the entry of foreign capital and universities, privatisation, fee-hikes, self-financing schemes, and conformity to the requirements of the WTO and the Bologna agreement are the order of the day. The teachers of the university have opposed these schemes as they lead to a reduction of the democratic space and rights as well as wholesale violation of the rules and regulation of the university and the introduction of right-wing ideologies, of post-modernism and communalism into the courses. These policies are inimical to the national interest but especially the children of the working people who enter the university.  Under the vice-chancellorship of Deepak Nayyar, violating the rules of the university, we saw the introduction of the B.A. Programme in correspondence with the Birla-Ambani report. The
 course content was dominated by post-modernism.  The CPI M on and off campus and the broad left professors of the social sciences were the enthusiastic and indispensable executors of these policies. In the immediate past under vice-chancellor Deepak Pental the process has been further accelerated. The policies of Washington and the Bologna agreement are being introduced wholesale. The semester system for the undergraduate courses which has been opposed almost unanimously by the teaching community was bulldozed through the Academic Council. The professors belonging to the CPI M and the new left neither spoke nor gave their dissent to this. In line with these policies is the attempt to establish a European Studies Centre in the Department financed by the European Union. The courses designed for M.Phil in the name of European studies are actually intended to train students in the niceties of postmodernist ideology. The sociology department it seems is the
 launching pad for this programme which is intended to take over all the social sciences, language and literature departments. This postmodernist assault is being introduced surreptitiously and undemocratically. It must be hoped that the democratic forces in the sociology department are able to defeat this project.

Here are some important points about the proposal which seeks to set up a European Studies Programme/Centre at the Department of Sociology/University of Delhi through an EU grant for the same.

1.      The procedure for the application for the programme was completely undemocratic. The application has been prepared by a very small number of faculty members, after a hasty approval for doing so was taken at a Department meeting held at the end of last academic year even though the matter was not on the agenda. The reservations and queries of the colleagues were brushed aside by Prof. Meenakshi Thapan who brought the proposal and took the lead in preparation of the application. Thereafter no other faculty member was consulted regarding any aspect of the programme including the contents and their implications for the Department of Sociology/University of Delhi. No inputs were sought from faculty members even on email. This is despite the fact that many faculty members were available in the Department throughout the summer and could have easily been consulted and a meeting could have been convened given the importance and far reaching consequences of the
 application. The small number of faculty members prepared the application which has been submitted to EU in which:

•A select and objectionable focus area of the programme has been decided. The       thrust of the programme on encouraging study of Europe is highly objectionable and it is debatable whether a premier Sociology Department of the country should be anything other than India-centred in its focus.
•MPhil courses are included which have not been passed by the M.Phil Committee
•A number of unwarranted commitments on behalf of the teachers and non-teaching staff of the University have been made without their consent.
•Structural changes in the MA and M Phil Programme have been suggested which have never been discussed in any formal or informal body.

2.      Even though the application had been prepared sometime in July (last date of application is said to be 10th July), the contents were not made available to the rest of the faculty till 28th of August even though a number of Department meetings were held during the intervening period. Now the implementation of the programme is being projected as inevitable.
3.      The Programme, if implemented, will mean an unwarranted shift in the Department's (which is a Centre of Advanced Study) focus areas as decided through formal consultations with UGC appointed committees.
4.      A matter of such gravity should not be approved without the prior clearance of the academic council of the University of Delhi.


General information


•       The project grant application is from the Department of Sociology to the European Commission for approximately 300 thousand Euros spread over a two year period. This constitutes 52% of the entire contribution.
•       The 48% contribution of the entire amount which the DoS is supposed to provide is actually the cost of labour and time of the existing faculty members, the figure reached by totaling their salaries and cost of administrative infrastructure already existing in the department. Even the books on Europe will be bought by the Ratan Tata Library and accounted for within this 48%.
•       The rest of the 52% is from the EU, but that money will be for the European faculty to come and enlighten the DoS faculty and students on "cutting edge" European thought; for a few faculty members to go to Europe to organize or attend conferences or to conduct research on Europe; or other expenses like translations from European languages into English. No actual money will come to the department which can be used at its own discretion after discussion with the faculty members.
•       The application belittles the DoS's own contributions to the field of Sociology over the last 50 years on the grounds that "rigorous generalizations" in theory cannot be made on the basis of "India-centric" research the department has been carrying on.
•       The entire DoS faculty have been committed to the project in the application though a core group of just four or five faculty members have drafted this application led by Prof Meenakshi Thapan, and endorsed by the Head of the Department Prof Rajni Palriwala.

Quotations from the document are in bold letters.


•       The first broad objective of the project is "To establish an understanding of, and scholarship on, Europe and to make this an integral part of our everyday academic life." ( page 9)

•       Another objective is "to engage the target groups in the European Study Centre programme …" (page 9) Target groups are defined as "groups/entities who will be directly positively affected by the project at the Project Purpose level" (fn 6 on page 9)

•       To encourage research, postgraduate, doctoral and postdoctoral, on and about Europe. (page 32)


•       "The target groups are (a) Post Graduate students at Dept of Sociology: 180 per annum  (Note by author: This is the entire strength of the student intake at the PG level.)
      (b) PG students from other faculties of DU participating in the    Department's interdisciplinary programme: 100
             ©  Under Graduate teachers in Sociology from DU: 30-40 teachers
      (d) MPhil and Phd Students at the Department: approx. 30  (Note by author: This is approximately the number of new research students admitted each year.)
      (e) Students and faculty from other departments, research institutions, other universities participating in workshops and seminars" (page 9)

The target group thus consists of the entire student community of the Department and all sociology teachers in DU Colleges

•        "The target group for this initiative would be our students both present and prospective – as young citizens of a globalizing world – for whom an in-depth understanding of the making and existence of contemporary Europe would be invaluable. The focus will be on the dissemination of knowledge about contemporary European culture, society, polity and economy" (page 5).


Towards this end

•       "Teaching in the DoS, in contrast to research, has consistently engaged with the theoretical perspectives of eminent European thinkers since its inception. There is, however, a need to dialogue with cutting-edge thought emerging from Europe which is lacking in the present curriculum....Students and faculty in the DoS need to engage with European faculty and students in partner institutions for short periods to participate in the lived experience of Europe so that it does not remain an object of textual study from an earlier time-line based on secondary courses" (page 11)

•       "… the inclusion of contemporary writings in European languages in the course syllabi across the board are constrained by the limits to the faculty's familiarity with recent work and the dearth of translations. (page 22)

•       "a major part of the Department's work will involve new and innovative pedagogic tools such as the development of new syllabi at the MA and MPhil levels."(page 6)

•       One of the "Main Activities" will be "framing new syllabi and redesigning existing syllabi for the MA and MPhil programmes." (page 10)

•       Through the programme, "we also hope to involve various colleges of Delhi University that teach sociology in our programme." (page 6)

•       The programme will involve " interdisciplinary teaching on Europe in India with colleagues and students from other departments such as History, Psychology, Comparative Literature, Political Science as well as Department of Germanic and Romance Studies and the Department of Slavonic and Finno-Ugrian Studies in the University of Delhi." (page 6).

•       The"academic community at large" will be targeted through workshops on Europe which will "involve a component of networking with other universities in Delhi to involve and expose their students to an excellent European Study Centre Programme". (page 6)

•       'DoS is well placed to build a network of scholars from different Indian universities." (Page 23)

•       "Major funding bodies such as the UGC and the ICSSR in India as well as European institutions will be involved as implementing partners in our programmes to facilitiate teaching and research that are located in India and keeping in view the future sustainability of the programme." (page 6)

•       "In this way we plan on making the study of Europe a staple feature of our pedagogic and research programmes." (page 13). This will be done through  "routinizing of the programme in the DoS; establishing an e-archive; translating key sociological texts from the different European languages; establishing ongoing and permanent linkages with European partner institutions; taking target groups in batches for micro research projects and fieldwork to partner institutions; presenting research findings in workshops, publications in the departments Occasional Paper series, collaborating with faculty in partner institutions to develop teaching and research plans (page 33)

(From:  Contracting Authority: European Commission, Supporting the Creation of New Contemporary Study Centres in India and in the EU, Grant Application Form, 75 pages).


Vijay Singh,
Member,
Academic Council,
University of Delhi.



FORUM FOR DEMOCRATIC STRUGGLE
19th September 2009

--
Palash Biswas
Pl Read:
http://nandigramunited.blogspot.com/