Space, time and boundaries

Presented by Mary Hamilton and Karin Tusting

Discuss the pictures…….

Is this space conducive to writing?

What sort of writing?

How does it compare to your neighbours’ spaces?

Where do you write?

When would you work in this kind of space; when would you work in other kinds of spaces?

What we have already seen

Academics’ writing

practices

National policies

Institutional policies

Departmental culture

Disciplinary cultures

Individual career

objectives

Metrics

Digital pressures

Students’ expectations

Space

• Academics’ writing work takes place in a wide range of different spaces

• Although most people are provided with an office, the office is only one of the spaces in which people write – and not the most preferred one for many of our participants

• Much of the work is done in other places – increasingly facilitated by digital technologies – which has both positive and negative aspects

Institutional considerations about space • All the institutions we worked in had ‘masterplans’

• Use of space in universities has changed significantly in the shift from an elite to a mass system • Separation of space for teaching and academics’ personal

working spaces

• Increased pressure on working space > smaller offices, more movement between offices

• Shift from library as a central workspace to online access to library resources

• Investment in modernisation of the university estate driven by considerations other than those of academics’ working lives

• Efficient use of space, audited by estates management

Different Institutional Spaces

Academics’ considerations about space

• Many found the institutional space provided inappropriate for some types of work, many worked in places other than the office

• Temporary/disrupted spaces were not conducive to concentrated writing for extended periods without interruption

• This depended on circumstances – where people had caring responsibilities or other sources of interruptions at home, the office became more important

Any serious writing for research, I would basically do

at home in my study. The writing, which has more to

do with administration, I would tend to do in the

office. (Don, History)

Academics’ choices about space • People expressed strong preferences about the setup of

their writing spaces

• People set up their own spaces with the right kinds of resources around them, making active choices about where to work

When I sat in my office in the departmental building, I was facing that way, and then when I moved here and I was facing the other way, it took me three months before I could write. I felt like I was in the wrong direction, and I find that massively disruptive. And I thought, "Maybe I'll never be able to write here again." But I did settle into it. … Views are quite important too. I always feel I need a horizon to look at. (Diane, Marketing)

Spatial strategies

• Different spaces for different kinds of writing • Different offices

• Different desks

• Different computers

I have one desk which is very much like my work

space and it’s for looking at spreadsheets and stuff like

that. Then I have another desk which is much nicer. It’s

got far more tactile things around it, and it’s in a much

more restful space. That’s for if and when I ever do

some research writing. … That’s the luxury bit, isn’t it? (Clara, History)

Spatial strategies - Mobility

• People wrote on the move, and in transitional spaces between other activities. • Cafes

• Public transport I do not use the office for writing because

that is too disruptive and despairing. I write

either in libraries or in cafés. (Louis,

History)

Where do I write that? Trains are fantastic.

… because you have two or three hours

where, going down to London when

nobody can irritate you. (Robert, Maths)

Spatial strategies

• Controlling aesthetics and sensory experiences • Music

• Views

• Tactile keyboards

I like my office … but I find I like to be

outside … So the [café with views over the

hills], I quite enjoy that. I go up there first

thing in the morning sometimes, crack out

a few emails. Then from say 9:30 until

11:30, if I’ve not got meetings, I’ll just work

there until lunch on my Mac. I enjoy using

my Mac. I find it very intuitive, very

ergonomic. It’s a lovely machine to work

with, more so than the keyboard here. … I

find the physicality of the place I’m working

very important, I work faster and quicker

and more efficiently. (Charles, Marketing)

Time

• Day-to-day work time

• Annual rhythms

• Disjunctures in timescales

Day-to-day work time • Fragmentation of work time

• Email

• Physical Interruptions

Email is of course this spectre that looms over

modern academic life. So I try to turn it off. … I

don’t have notifications on… I find in some

ways it’s the temptation of, “Oh, well, I’ll have a

quick break and check my email,” which I’m

trying to discipline myself out of, but it’s easier

said than done. (Alex, History)

You think, “I’ve got two hours. I’m going to get something done,” and then it just takes one knock on the door to interrupt that (Will Maths)

Annual rhythms

• Changes to long-established academic writing annual rhythms

There's not a block where you

can say I’m doing writing. We

used to have the summer. But

things like overseas partners, it

massively intrudes on

everything. (Diane, Marketing)

Disjunctures in timescales • Writing demands at different timescales

• Lengthy timescales of research writing vs immediacy of other demands (teaching, admin)

• Institutional timescales vs. individual timescales

Writing is a slow process. Things like REF don’t necessarily factor in that writing is a form of thinking. As you write you process and you reflect and you think and arguably we need to speed all that up because we now have these deadlines and these targets. … that need to speed up, you just kind of short circuit somewhere along the line the thinking and reflection process. (HoD, History)

Temporal strategies

• Linked to spatial strategies

• Constructing boundaries around times for different types of writing

• Particular times of day for particular types of work

• Time blocking and compartmentalising

• Extending the time / space of writing work

• Desire for autonomy in constructing workable temporal strategies

Time blocking and compartmentalising

• Combining spatial and temporal boundaries to protect particular types of work By trying to compartmentalise the admin stuff in

my job and the teaching stuff, apart from the research, I’m trying to clear some headspace, if you will, for just sitting down, “Okay, I’m not going to worry about email today, I’m not going to worry about students and teaching materials and so on. Let’s just keep pounding out this chapter and see where we get to by the end of the day.” (James, Marketing)

Extending time and space of work

• Others extend work across boundaries – day/night, home/work, personal/public, research/teaching

I will check my emails many times a day. I will answer emails at eleven in the evening. In summer I wake up early so at five thirty in the morning. … It does mean that work and non-work are very much interlinked. I don’t know if that is entirely a good thing. It gives you more control but it does mean you tend to spend more time I think. (Will, Maths)

Conclusions and implications

• Creating and managing boundaries

• Autonomy and choice in maintaining boundaries

• Thinking through interruptions • Physical • Digital

• Explicit discussions about expectations • Working time • Emails • Mentoring