Tag Archives: class

In praise of ‘low value’ subjects.

Posted on February 27, 2023 by Eddie Playfair

The English education system is built on value judgements. Measures of provider quality, qualification currency and student achievement create a web of rankings which shape our view of the system, and the resulting hierarchies impact how everyone feels about where … Continue reading →

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University Gold.

Posted on October 1, 2016 by Eddie Playfair

With some help from the Jackson 5: The proposal to classify English universities as Gold, Silver or Bronze is a stroke of genius. The perfect expression of the English obsession with ranking. So obvious, one wonders why we’re not already … Continue reading →

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‘Useful work v. useless toil’ by William Morris

Posted on December 28, 2014 by Eddie Playfair

Introduction: This lecture from 1884 is a clear and powerful statement of Morris’s political and economic manifesto, which also informed ‘News from Nowhere’ (1890) his visionary fable of life after a revolution. His critique of the waste and inequality inherent in … Continue reading →

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