Ritchie gets all soppy about the recently announced physics Nobel laureates:

Of course, such research would be considered utterly pointless under a neoliberal cuts regime. It will go. No time for such frivolity: only proven commercial applications must be allowed.

But that’s because neoliberals don’t understand the true nature of the human condition. Or creativity.

And that lack of understanding; their incomprehension of the capacity to make a mistake and learn from it; their inability to see anything except an absolute cash value will be their downfall, at cost to us all.

Basically, he's arguing that the capitalist system, with its absurd demands for research to have a purpose or some sort of possible payback before it gets funding, doesn't work.

Why then, did both laureates leave their native Russia to seek employment in the UK?  Presumably the opportunities for frivolous research must have been far more widespread in Russia?  Whereas the UK has the tricky Research Assessment Exercise (being replaced by the REF) which allocates research funding according to its "quality", which must make it much more difficult to follow whimsical research ideas.  Perhaps because, yet again, Ritchie's blather has been weighed up in the balance and found seriously wanting.

People who read this post also read:

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• A very strange idea indeed
• Ritchie on the teaching of accountancy
• Sometimes Ritchie shoots himself in the foot
• No, Ritchie, you don’t get to do this

Filed under: Academic research, Current issues, Other blogs with tags nobel laureates, research assessment exercise, richard murphy