Toimiva yliopisto is a self-organized movement of students, researchers and other staff of the University of Tampere. It struggles against the current policies in education, which have been undemocratically dictated and aimed at destroying the autonomy of science, as well as the current trends in society, which threaten the freedom of information and democracy in general.
The people who write our educational policy see universities as innovation machines. This is utterly baseless and harmful. Freedom of knowing, being and making is essential for the universities, and now that those freedoms are leaving us, the universities must be redefined, reimagined and rebuilt. This power belongs to the universities and the process and the result of this redefinition affect all of the people in them. We wish to find new ways of operation that allow us to create the means of autonomous learning, study and research at the universities.
Our most important mission is to create a common public space for the people of the university, so we can begin rebuilding a new, more democratic university. The first principle of this network is that we operate from the below, creating new, open, public practices of governing and a new culture of action. We wish to offer a forum for critical speech and open the public space for every possible voice, so that we can spread the effects of our actions throughout the society.
However, this is also a movement which acts. We want to establish a free space for autonomic learning, without being constrained by the demands of productivity or a demand for instant results. Our network’s projects include reading circles and other such things, and we exhort people to participate in all levels of decision-making. For the coming summer, we have plans for various voluntary activities in Tampere, such as classes that are open to everyone, including those outside the university. We believe that people can teach each others and acquire skills without the strict constrictions of fields of science or societal hierarchies. Everybody has a right to learn and acquire knowledge, not just the people of the university.
Around the world, people are resisting the undemocratic, monolithic direction that the governments are leading the universities towards. This development, bolstered by the current international recession, shows the most clearly in how the university government is becoming more autocratic, time limits for degrees are growing shorter, life standards for the university people are declining, and in general, education is being tethered to a short-sighted agenda of productivity. Toimiva yliopisto is a part of a new wave of national and international student activism opposing this process. Toimiva yliopisto is in active contact with similar movements in other major Finnish universities. The representatives of different towns have met each other and will hold similar meetings in future. Furthermore, we have established contact with student movements around the world, such as in France, Italy and Britain.
Toimiva Yliopisto will be very visible at the University of Tampere during the Global Action Week, the week 17, when university movements around the world will act against the current trends. There will be reading circles, numerous workshops, panel discussions, lectures, movies, documents, music, parties and other such activities, all very visible and in a relaxed atmosphere. Toimiva Yliopisto is a network which lives and is defined through the participation of its members. Everyone is invited to join – we always need new viewpoints, ideas and participants, so come join us!
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Last Updated Monday, 13.April 2009 @ 00:16