I find discussion fine, especially if it relates to the internet, internet research and related topics in some manner. My position was only that, to the best of my understanding, as an association, we do not do make statements that may have political import beyond those that are implied by our mission. To me political discussion, etc. is fine. However, do not get this confused with complete freedom of speech, because this list does not have that, it is topical and targetted toward the mission of AoIR, and the executive committee can and has moderated individuals and groups that proved to be problematic. I think Barry's call is to stay topical to internet research, which is what the list tends to do, though we do diverge sometimes for brief moments. On May 26, 2005, at 1:00 PM, Greg Elmer wrote:
Barry (et als),
I took Jeremy's note to mean that it is not the role of the association to take political stands. And while I find such blanket policies (along with assumptions about what constitutes the "political) troublesome, you've now seemingly extended this logic to the AOiR listserv. What's more since you don't seem to want to take your own advice why should the rest of us avoid 'politics' on the list serv?
I for one would like to see a broad discussion about the social implications of new media, the Internet, scholarship, and the acadmemy (which as some of you know can get messy and political). If you're not interested in posts about political issues that impact upon academic life and society in general then I'd encourage you to actively 'delete'.
Greg Elmer
Although there are counter-arguments to the anti-Israeli posting yesterday, I agree with Jeremy Hunsinger that they are out of place on this list.
But since the issue has been brought up, my position is that professionalsocieties should be extraordinarily cautious about encouraging boycotts of universities. I don't believe in collective punishment, even if there was a crime -- and there are different sets of "facts" floating around on this matter. Hence, I have worked a bit to encourage the ending of the boycott. And am glad that it happened.
For reasons of the first para, I won't respond to any postings about the boycott -- or Israel -- on this list and urge us all to refocus on AOIRstuff.
Barry _____________________________________________________________________
Barry Wellman Professor of Sociology NetLab Director wellman at chass.utoronto.ca http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman
Centre for Urban & Community Studies University of Toronto 455 Spadina Avenue Toronto Canada M5S 2G8 fax:+1-416-978-7162 To network is to live; to live is to network
Greg Elmer, PhD Bell Globemedia Research Chair Rogers Communications Centre/School of Radio-TV Arts Ryerson University 350 Victoria Street, Toronto, Ontario Canada M5B 2K3
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