We’re in the basement of a café. It’s set up for a comedy show or perhaps an open mic night. But now, 25 people are gathered to talk about collective action. A representative from the local branch of the Fire Brigades Union starts the event off. He tells the history of strikes his union has been involved in, from the unqualified success of 1977 to the partial victories of 2002 and 2015. He talks about the difficulty of retaining public support, particularly if the media becomes hostile; how to tell when the employers are prepared to make a deal; knowing where the levers of power are. Next up, it’s two professors from the university’s Law School, experts in labour law and company law. They wrote an article on the legal side of industrial action 10 years ago, and they walk the audience through it. And, finally, a student – he draws on the strike tactics used in labour movements around the world, highlighting what we might learn from them. The discussion proceeds at pace – each speaker contributes the knowledge they’ve brought with them, historical, political, or legal, and the other discussants raise questions, make suggestions, explain how a particular proposal might play out for them, identify where there are gaps in our collective knowledge and further work needed. The session is ‘horizontal’ or ‘decentred’. One of the student organisers is chairing, and does it well, but otherwise everyone is there as an equal.

As we drew near to completing this book, large numbers of lecturers, professors, teaching fellows, research managers, student support staff, finance administrators and library staff from universities around the UK came out on strike to protest about changes to their pension scheme – changes that had been pursued by the senior management of universities without consultation and in defiance of the evidence. Over the 14 days of the strike, the university burst out of its buildings and reassembled in twos and threes and larger groups on the picket lines outside the usual teaching spaces, in rallies outside the offices of the senior management, on marches through the centre of town, and in impromptu ‘teach outs’ organised in small venues around the city, such as the café described above. It was a brief glimpse of what Adrienne Rich called the ‘university-without-walls’.