In Praise of Makeshift Finishing

Tubb, Daniel. “In Praise of Makeshift Finishing.” Anthropologica 66, no. 2 (2025): 1–8. DOI / Mirror

This article reflects on the challenges of writing and finishing. Using experience of sorting ethnographic field notes, I explores how the desire for a perfect structure and method hinders progress. It is an argument for imperfection in the writing. An argument for finishing, even imperfectly, as essential to transforming ideas into tangible work. It advocates an iterative, hands-on approach to writing.

University Bureaucracies as the Death of Play: The 1968 Strax Affair and the Arts of Discombobulation

Dressler, H., Pleshet, N. & Tubb, D. (2025). “University Bureaucracies as the Death of Play: The 1968 Strax Affair and the Arts of Discombobulation.” Critical Education, 16(1), 125–154. https://doi.org/10.14288/ce.v16i1.186926. PDF / Mirror

The bureaucratic precepts engendered by modern universities produce a slew of negative effects inimical to educational justice. Drawing on historiographical evidence from the 1968 Strax Affair, a little-known protest held at the University of New Brunswick, we identify the arts of discombobulation as a novel approach to challenge the intellectual constraints imposed by university bureaucracies. By theorizing the arts of discombobulation, we aim to counteract bureaucracy’s most alienating affective residues, equipping scholars with an administrative arsenal capable of transforming the corporate academy into a playful, joyful environment. Inspired by cultural historian Johan Huizinga’s theory of the “play-function,” we introduce five interrelated tactics—burlesque versions of both formal and informal administrative practices—that amplify the contradictions inherent to the corporate academy’s contemporary bureaucratic structure: personalization, befuddlement, signal jamming, mapping, and abeyance. Even during moments of Kafkaesque bureaucratic defeat, discombobulation can generate a sense of heightened play necessary to fuel democratic resistance.

The Buzz Phase of Resource Extraction: Liquefied Natural Gas in Kitimat, British Columbia

2021, Sax, Marieka, and Daniel Tubb. “The Buzz Phase of Resource Extraction: Liquefied Natural Gas in Kitimat, British Columbia.” The Extractive Industries and Society (Volume 8, Issue 34): 1–11. (Co-author, 40% contribution). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.exis.2021.100938. PDF.

This article names a distinct temporal period in resource development and extraction—the buzz phase. The buzz phase draws attention to the years (sometimes decades) of speculation, exploration, assessment, and preparation for a major project, including everything that leads up to operations, whether or not a project actually becomes operational. The social impacts of the buzz phase are experienced by people living and working in zones of present and potential resource extraction, transportation, and processing. A workshop on liquefied natural gas (LNG) development carried out in Kitimat, British Columbia (Canada), is discussed to illustrate and outline the social impacts of the buzz phase. Six provisional themes are proposed as possible areas for future research: hope and fatigue; material and social changes; distribution of impacts; affective impacts; imagined futures; and what is left unsaid.