Purchase instant access (PDF download and unlimited online access):
This ‘afterword’ for this collection of chapters on exclusion and inclusion asks the question, After Words? Reflecting on life in the early stages of COVID-19 lockdown in the north of England, it is clear that the abiding patterns of exclusion are amplified by the pandemic and the responses to it. The educational panacea – “Just go online” – may well be adequately managed by those who enjoy a workspace in comfortable surroundings with the requisite technological apparatus to access the new forms of delivering education (as delivery it is). This does not apply to all. So, exclusion endures and requires our vigilance and resistance. The second purpose of this chapter is to remind us of the comfort we academics enjoy as the agents of critique. How do we find meaningful engagements, beyond our words, in the more demanding and urgent project of reconstruction?