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 professional societies 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 AOIR stuff. 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 _____________________________________________________________________
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For various reasons discussed off-list, and in light of the AUT's reversal, I concur. Although I don't concur that opposing the blacklist would have been a political act, I am very glad to have the assurances and clarification that the AOIR will not take political or even activist stands. I am bothered by other organizations, notably the American Sociological Association, having taken explicitly political stands, even in violation of that organization's own code of ethics. I am honored to be part of a group whose mission is steadfast and whose zeal is decidedly topical. Regards, Ellis
-----Original Message----- From: air-l-aoir.org-bounces@listserv.aoir.org [mailto:air-l-aoir.org-bounces@listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of Barry Wellman Sent: Thursday, May 26, 2005 8:48 AM To: aoir list Subject: [Air-l] british boycott over
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 professional societies 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 AOIR stuff.
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 _____________________________________________________________________
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Ok, I concur with Ellis - thanks for that. I did participate in an annual meeting where a stand was taken - at the Milwaukee Meeting of the Society for the Social Studies of Science (4 S) meeting in 2002. The stand was to support the work of a sociologist who was 'blacklisted' on Lynn Cheney's list of US academics who support terrorism because he dared to offer a guest speaker in one of his seminars that was an academic from country X who had been accused of terrorism (sorry sketchy on the details). The stand was neither for nor against the war in Iraq(although the largest majority at the meeting would have been against) but the right of an academic to offer in his classroom, an invited speaker that he felt would assist students in developing an understanding of an issue of the day. The point is, the vote was held by those present. It was passed into the minutes of the annual meeting. There was a chance to speak for or against the motion. Likewise, the motion was 'confined' to an issue of academic freedom and support this academic while IN his classroom, neither for nor against anything the invited speaker might have SAID or NOT said in that classroom. I did not have any problem voting with the majority (the unanimous) vote as it was held on the day for the motion that went forward. However, I am not able to see that I would vote in this situation. I don't understand the pros & cons, and even if I did, I prefer to vote for issues regarding academic freedom to speak pro & con on a given issue, NOT pro & con any GIVEN issue. I hope this makes sense. I support, and would vote for the rights of academics to speak their minds on given issues of the day. I do not support any given stand to go forward that is a concern outside of the issue of the academic freedom to speak, talk, publish, etc. on given issues as they arise. Ok, I hope I haven't hung myself here but it's my perspective on all this. And in particular, I don't want to be coerced into someone else's battles, although I'm happy to defend their right to fight such battles (verbally) as they see fit . . . . . Cheers, Denise Denise N. Rall, PhD candidate, School of Environ. Science, Southern Cross University, Lismore NSW 2480 Sustainable Forestry Mentoring Coordinator & Internet Researcher Room T2.12, +61 (0)2 6620 3577 Tuesdays or Mobile 0438 233 344 http://www.scu.edu.au/schools/rsm/staff/pages/drall/index.html
participants (4)
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Barry Wellman -
Denise N. Rall -
Ellis Godard -
Jeremy Hunsinger