Situated opposition in competition

Abstract

The background for this article is a presentation at the Nordiske Udkast conference "Rebellion, democracy and sustainability" held on November 16.th 2023 at Roskilde University. The presentation was held in the wake of several simultaneous university conflicts. The conflict between students at the Department of Psychology, which is described in this Nordiske Udkast issue by Voulgaris Valeur as well as Volck Paulsen and Gundolf Josiasen. The simultaneous and, from the first conflict, the conflict between two groups of employed academic staff at the same Department and then the conflict between the technical administrative staff and the Faculty of Social Sciences, which started prior to and gained momentum with the large and comprehensive administrative reform that had just been initiated in 2023, with the aim of saving hundreds of millions on the administration over a few years period of time (Månsson 2023). Finally, the importance of the competition for the university's participants: Students, researchers and administrative staff is discussed. The participants' opportunity for resistance in a system and a society that increasingly rejects conflicts and thereby loses the opportunity to protect and develop itself.