Day 3: The Eternal Recurrence

In this new series of The Isolation Pod we'll be discussing knowledge production after a year of COVID-19. We cover a range of topics in this opening episode from the affectivity of online teaching and the physical strains of digital scholarship through to the social infrastructure for scholarship and the opportunity to critically revaluate the 'normal' which many of us feel a yearning to return to. This exploratory conversation raised lots of issues we'll explore in future such as the role of practice in responding to crisis, the likely shape of post-pandemic academic culture and whether we need to rebuild the social fabric of scholarship. 

In Day 6 of the Isolation Pod, Jana Bacevic and Mark Carrigan look to the future: what happens in a post-lockdown university? What is the relationship between digital and physical infrastructure and organization of working life? How will the sector cope with the changes in financing?  Readings discussed in the podcast: - Cooling the Crisis by John Holmwood http://cdbu.org.uk/cooling-the-crisis/ - Gyms, Bars, Cafes– We’ve Lost A Certain Intimacy In Society by Setha Low https://www.socialsciencespace.com/2020/05/gyms-bars-cafes-weve-lost-a-certain-intimacy-in-society/ - “Stay the fuck at home” By Des Fitzgerald http://somatosphere.net/2020/stay-the-fuck-at-home.html/ Thanks to @2kwanya (and @GubernatorHomo) for our music and @milan_stuermer for suggesting our name. Find out more about our work at www.janabacevic.net and www.markcarrigan.net

In this supplementary podcast for day 5, Filip Vostal maps out the temporalities of Covid-19 as a sociologist of time, identifying some of the key questions which the crisis poses and how they are obscured by our persistent failure to recognise the temporal diversity of the social world. Find out more about Filip's work at https://filipvostal.net/

In this episode, Jana and Mark reflect on the changing experience of time during lockdown and what this means for how we understand the crisis.  We discuss a slow conversation about Covid-19 and a podcast from Filip Vostal about the classed experience of time during the crisis.  Readings discussed in the podcast:  - A slow conversation on COVID-19  by Mascha Gugganig and Nina Klimburg-Witjes https://www.4sonline.org/blog/post/a_slow_conversation_on_covid_19 - The podcast with Filip which we'll publish as a supplement to this episode Thanks to @2kwanya (and @GubernatorHomo) for our music and @milan_stuermer for suggesting our name. Find out more about our work at www.janabacevic.net and www.markcarrigan.net

In this episode Mark wanted to talk about why he was so tired but Jana wanted to debate capitalism... they found no agreement but covered some interesting ground, including supervenience, the biophysical, explanation in social science, Amazon deliveries and the nature of late capitalism.  Thanks to @2kwanya (and @GubernatorHomo) for our music and @milan_stuermer for suggesting our name. Find out more about our work at www.janabacevic.net and www.markcarrigan.net

In this episode, Jana and Mark discuss Slavoj Žižek's self-care during lockdown advice, contrast it with the gendered division of care labour, and bring in Nietzsche's concept of eternal recurrence. That's right. To find out how it's all related, listen to the episode.  Readings discussed in the podcast:  Slavoj Žižek’s surprisingly earnest and rather good advice about adapting to lockdown  The Pandemic and Female Academic Nietzsche's Idea of Eternal Recurrence Thanks to @2kwanya (and @GubernatorHomo) for our music and @milan_stuermer for suggesting our name. Find out more about our work at www.janabacevic.net and www.markcarrigan.net

In Episode 2, Mark & Jana discuss the productivity pandemic and what it means to theorize in and about the crisis.  Thanks to @2kwanya (and @GubernatorHomo) for our music and @milan_stuermer for suggesting our name. Find out more about our work at www.janabacevic.net and www.markcarrigan.net The articles we discuss:  Why You Should Ignore All That Coronavirus-Inspired Productivity Pressure by Aisha S. Ahmad https://www.chronicle.com/article/Why-You-Should-Ignore-All-That/248366?fbclid=IwAR2fpLKBvePab0RjXfI7ykFytyqMV2_iAcTEvVJNI-fdIpkjcMql4RsXlL8 Writing Theory During a Pandemic by João Florêncio https://identitiesjournal.edu.mk/index.php/IJPGC/announcement/view/16

In this episode, Jana and Mark discuss the sociology of 'hot (theoretical) takes'  - what is it about crises that provokes so many intellectuals to offer interpretations? What is it about 'philosophising' that is so tempting and so frustrating for gasping epochal events? And what is specific about the Covid19 crisis and how intellectuals respond to it?  Thanks to @2kwanya (and @GubernatorHomo) for our music and @milan_stuermer for suggesting our name. Find out more about our work at www.janabacevic.net and www.markcarrigan.net.