This seems like an appropriate topic on which AOIR, as international and interdisciplinary as well as academic and open minded, should take a stand. What are the appropriate steps/procedure(s) thru which that could/would/should happen? http://ellisgodard.blogspot.com/2005/05/aut-is-out-of-line.html -eg
we do not take stands. fundamentally, we are a-political in order to allow the plurality of interesting interdisciplinary, and international groups to speak equally, which is a politics in itself. in short, there is currently no way for aoir to do anything like this and i don't that can change without fundamentally alienating some of our population. On May 25, 2005, at 1:15 PM, Ellis Godard wrote:
This seems like an appropriate topic on which AOIR, as international and interdisciplinary as well as academic and open minded, should take a stand. What are the appropriate steps/procedure(s) thru which that could/would/should happen?
http://ellisgodard.blogspot.com/2005/05/aut-is-out-of-line.html
-eg
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Perhaps you misunderstand the AUT's blacklist, which itself is political, whereas opposition to it is not. The blacklist interferes with academic freedom, impeding the very plurality which, as you note, the AOIR tries to advance, and inhibits international groups from speaking equally. The opposition to it is a-political, and includes a wide range of organizations such as the National Academy of Sciences, the New York Academy of Sciences, the American Association of University Professors, the Middle East Studies Association, the American Political Science Association, the American Mathematical Society, and even a local chapter of the AUT. What part of the AOIR population would be alienated by defending academic interaction against the encroachment of politics? -eg
-----Original Message----- From: Jeremy Hunsinger [mailto:jhuns@vt.edu] Sent: Wednesday, May 25, 2005 10:24 AM To: air-l@listserv.aoir.org; ellis.godard@csun.edu Subject: Re: [Air-l] AOIR on AUT?
we do not take stands. fundamentally, we are a-political in order to allow the plurality of interesting interdisciplinary, and international groups to speak equally, which is a politics in itself.
in short, there is currently no way for aoir to do anything like this and i don't that can change without fundamentally alienating some of our population. On May 25, 2005, at 1:15 PM, Ellis Godard wrote:
This seems like an appropriate topic on which AOIR, as international and interdisciplinary as well as academic and open minded, should take a stand. What are the appropriate steps/procedure(s) thru which that could/would/should happen?
http://ellisgodard.blogspot.com/2005/05/aut-is-out-of-line.html
-eg
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On May 25, 2005, at 1:39 PM, Ellis Godard wrote:
Perhaps you misunderstand the AUT's blacklist, which itself is political, whereas opposition to it is not. The blacklist interferes with academic freedom, impeding the very plurality which, as you note, the AOIR tries to advance, and inhibits international groups from speaking equally.
i'm actually not involved in the AUT debate at all.
The opposition to it is a-political, and includes a wide range of organizations such as the National Academy of Sciences, the New York Academy of Sciences, the American Association of University Professors, the Middle East Studies Association, the American Political Science Association, the American Mathematical Society, and even a local chapter of the AUT.
yes, those are the appropriate venues for your interest.
What part of the AOIR population would be alienated by defending academic interaction against the encroachment of politics?
it is not this topic that alienates, it is the tendency to begin to make political statements, which will eventually alienate. We don't do any political statements, against anyone, or for anyone, at least under our current bylaws and incorporation . AoIR's purpose is pretty clear: (a) to provide an international, interdisciplinary and interprofessional organization for promotion of scholarly and critical research into the social, cultural, political, economic and aesthetic aspects of the Internet. (b) to organize and sponsor regular conferences to provide a forum so those engaged in Internet research can meet and exchange information about their work. (c) to sponsor and disseminate information about Internet research through publication of a site on the WorldWideWeb and through other publications. (d) to encourage recognition of Internet studies as an area for scholarly research, curriculum development and teaching. (e) to establish connections between the scholarly community, those in Internet and Internet-related industries, and Internet users. (f) to encourage the development of research and systematic study in topics and areas of Internet and Internet-related phenomena where such study is not well developed, both in terms of pioneering, substantive intellectual areas and in terms of regions, localities and institutions interested in Internet studies. (g) to be a clearinghouse for information about Internet research resources and encourage their development. (h) to encourage socially responsible Internet research that serves the common good. (i) to engender a networked approach to the establishment, growth, and organization of this association. Other organizations may have more socially active or policy-oriented bylaws. but the above is what we do, and it does not involve in my ability to discern developing statements as you request. You can ask the President to bring this to the Exec's attention, but I would expect that we would read the bylaws and say 'it is outside of our mission'.
-eg
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Jeremy wrote:
it is not this topic that alienates, it is the tendency to begin to make political statements, which will eventually alienate. We don't do any political statements, against anyone, or for anyone, at least under our current bylaws and incorporation .
Opposing the AUT blacklist is not a political statement, but a defense of free inquiry *against* political statements.
Other organizations may have more socially active or policy-oriented bylaws.
How about academically active? And how is a defense of inquiry, and opposition to blacklisting academics, socially active? -eg
Ellis -- I think you have to take on board that many people don't go along with the assertion that liberalism isn't political. To a socialist (like myself) it surely *is* political. Not only political, but hegemonic. People whose position is different from yours are equally likely to feel passionate about their beliefs and their sense of what is appropriate or inappropriate. I think this is a practical demonstration of the difficulties of managing global internet interactions. We *have* to accept multiplicity of perspective to avoid excluding specific groups and, I think, accept that there is value in a "talking shop" which does not commit itself to (institutionalise) any specific perspective. Of course, any social environment will have to define what it considers outright abusive. I have to say that murder and harassment (in defence of a breach of international law, what's more) would definitely be in that category . . . from my point of view . . . To answer your question about who could possibly feel excluded by a liberal hegemony -- I would. To make the assumption that no [sensible] person could possibly disagree with you is a form of pressure in itself. In an institutional or privileged setting which validates such an assumption, this begins to border on compulsion. Given that this list has apparently decided to acknowledge multiple points of view on this issue, pressure to conform to a liberal world-view with which I actually disagree is removed. To my huge relief! ;-) Paula Ellis Godard wrote:
Jeremy wrote:
it is not this topic that alienates, it is the tendency to begin to make political statements, which will eventually alienate. We don't do any political statements, against anyone, or for anyone, at least under our current bylaws and incorporation .
Opposing the AUT blacklist is not a political statement, but a defense of free inquiry *against* political statements.
Other organizations may have more socially active or policy-oriented bylaws.
How about academically active? And how is a defense of inquiry, and opposition to blacklisting academics, socially active?
-eg
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Please update your proposals online. Many have truncated titles and/or truncated institutional affiliations. Some panel proposals need to be edited to include names of all participants. Typos, etc. should be changed asap. We will be taking these proposals to make into the program soon, so please do this updating ASAP. Please DO NOT make major changes to your TITLE (but do correct truncated titles and misspellings). We are using titles as reference in assigning papers to sessions and we'll get lost if titles change at this stage! To edit proposals and other information, first go to this page http://conferences.aoir.org/index.php?cf=3 and click on Presenters, Abstracts, and Papers, and look at your submission to see whether it is correct and complete. To edit, go back to http://conferences.aoir.org/index.php?cf=3 and click on Abstract and Paper Submission, log in, and make changes. (Log-in info. was in your first submission and your acceptance notice.) *** Be careful -- you need to Preview the changes, then click the *Submit* button to have changes actually entered into the system. (The "Make Changes" button takes you back out of the preview to the editing stage again, it does not make the changes). /Caroline IR 6.0 Program Chair ---------------------------------------------------------------- Caroline Haythornthwaite (haythorn@uiuc.edu) Associate Professor Graduate School of Library and Information Science University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 501 East Daniel St., Champaign, IL, 61820 phone: 217-244-7453 fax: 217-244-3302 www.lis.uiuc.edu/~haythorn
CALL FOR PAPERS e-Relationships: The Blurring and Reconfiguration of Offline and Online Social Boundaries Information, Communication & Society (iCS) invites papers for a Special Issue exploring how the rapid expansion in the use of the Internet and other information and communication technologies (ICTs) is influencing offline and online social networks and relationships at different levels (friendship, family, workplace and community). Social science researchers have shown growing interest in understanding the changes in social relationships tied to this widespread diffusion of ICTs. Early empirical explorations of the effects of ICTs on social and personal interactions directed attention to the technologies’ effects on existing face-to-face relationships, such as a shift to more isolated activities focused on computer interactions. More recent studies have shown how ICTs are becoming part of everyday life, with increasingly blurred boundaries between offline and online social relationships as they interact in ways that reconfigure an individual’s or household’s social circle. For example, the Internet is often used to maintain and support geographically-dispersed relationships with friends and family. Online relationships also often translate into face-to-face meetings over time. iCS invites contributions from authors who are investigating the integration of online and offline social relationships. These studies can adopt any theoretical and methodological perspective and should address any of the following issues: • To what extent are online social relationships being integrated into offline activities and social networks? • In what ways do social ties created online differ from offline relationships? • To what degree do individuals make online connections with socially similar or socially distinct others? • What are the differences in the quality of social relationships created offline and online (e.g. in terms of the weakness or strength of ties and the levels of emotional and material support, friendship and sense of belonging)? • What circumstances affect the migration of Internet-initiated relationships to other settings? The deadline for receipt of the abstracts is October 31 2005. Abstracts, not exceeding 300 words, must be sent electronically to Gustavo Mesch, the Special Issue’s Guest Editor (gustavo@soc.haifa.ac.il). The Deadline for receipt of full papers (not exceeding 7,000 words and with an abstract of up to 300 words) is March 31 2006. See www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/1369118x.asp for author guidelines and journal information. iCS is a peer-reviewed international journal devoted to high quality empirical research and theoretical works that include analysis of the emerging properties of the Information Age in a multidisciplinary and transcultural perspective. It is published by Taylor & Francis. -- Gustavo S. Mesch, Academic Visitor Oxford Internet Institute, U. of Oxford Senior Lecturer, Department of Sociology and Anthropology Senior Research Associate Minerva Center for Youth Studies The University of Haifa, Israel email:gustavo@soc.haifa.ac.il http://soc.haifa.ac.il/~gustavo http://soc.haifa.ac.il/community ------------------------------------------------------------------------ This message was sent using IMP, the Webmail Program of Haifa University
Lois, Someone should write a paper about PMTH and our first conference for this guy. At first, I thought of doing this myself but then realized that you should do it. I don't know the history of PMTH and all that well enough to do it. PMTH is special and unique. PMTH is the kind of community the early utopian hackers of the 1980s HOPED would emerge on the net. T. Michael "Gustavo S. Mesch" <gustavo@soc.haifa.ac.il> wrote: CALL FOR PAPERS e-Relationships: The Blurring and Reconfiguration of Offline and Online Social Boundaries Information, Communication & Society (iCS) invites papers for a Special Issue exploring how the rapid expansion in the use of the Internet and other information and communication technologies (ICTs) is influencing offline and online social networks and relationships at different levels (friendship, family, workplace and community). Social science researchers have shown growing interest in understanding the changes in social relationships tied to this widespread diffusion of ICTs. Early empirical explorations of the effects of ICTs on social and personal interactions directed attention to the technologies effects on existing face-to-face relationships, such as a shift to more isolated activities focused on computer interactions. More recent studies have shown how ICTs are becoming part of everyday life, with increasingly blurred boundaries between offline and online social relationships as they interact in ways that reconfigure an individuals or households social circle. For example, the Internet is often used to maintain and support geographically-dispersed relationships with friends and family. Online relationships also often translate into face-to-face meetings over time. iCS invites contributions from authors who are investigating the integration of online and offline social relationships. These studies can adopt any theoretical and methodological perspective and should address any of the following issues: To what extent are online social relationships being integrated into offline activities and social networks? In what ways do social ties created online differ from offline relationships? To what degree do individuals make online connections with socially similar or socially distinct others? What are the differences in the quality of social relationships created offline and online (e.g. in terms of the weakness or strength of ties and the levels of emotional and material support, friendship and sense of belonging)? What circumstances affect the migration of Internet-initiated relationships to other settings? The deadline for receipt of the abstracts is October 31 2005. Abstracts, not exceeding 300 words, must be sent electronically to Gustavo Mesch, the Special Issues Guest Editor (gustavo@soc.haifa.ac.il). The Deadline for receipt of full papers (not exceeding 7,000 words and with an abstract of up to 300 words) is March 31 2006. See www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/1369118x.asp for author guidelines and journal information. iCS is a peer-reviewed international journal devoted to high quality empirical research and theoretical works that include analysis of the emerging properties of the Information Age in a multidisciplinary and transcultural perspective. It is published by Taylor & Francis. -- Gustavo S. Mesch, Academic Visitor Oxford Internet Institute, U. of Oxford Senior Lecturer, Department of Sociology and Anthropology Senior Research Associate Minerva Center for Youth Studies The University of Haifa, Israel email:gustavo@soc.haifa.ac.il http://soc.haifa.ac.il/~gustavo http://soc.haifa.ac.il/community ------------------------------------------------------------------------ This message was sent using IMP, the Webmail Program of Haifa University _______________________________________________ The Air-l-aoir.org@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/ "A prison becomes a home once you have the key." - George Sterling __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
I think the first action should be to read the other side of this debate: These are the notes from the meeting which made this decision which cite the reasons: http://www.kcl.ac.uk/kis/unions/aut/council.htm This is the website of the British Committee for Univesities of Palestine: http://www.bricup.org.uk/ This is the letter from the Palestinian Civil Society to the AUT: http://www.monabaker.com/ It would appear that BRICUP is acting in *defence* of academic freedom here. Well, from a Brit point of view anyway! Well, and, God, don't get me started on occupations in contravention of UN resolutions cos we're still feeling pretty awful about our Government ignoring the objections of the vast majority of the British people to the illegal occupation of Iraq. Note that this meeting also passed a resolution calling for an end to this occupation as soon as possible too. I think everyone understands that there are many Israeli people, including academics, who are working in difficult circumstances to oppose policies which are oppressive to the Palestinian people but this was also true of South Africa under apartheid. In South Africa, white members of the ANC also called for support from us in the form of boycotts. Many Brits understand the UK's part in creating these situations historically and are anxious now to try to do the right thing. Obviously, there are always arguments about boycotting as a strategy, but I think it undoubtedly was a factor in ending the apartheid system in SA and, since we can't rely on our government to act in accordance with the ethical or political views of the majority of the British population, we'll just have to do what we can ourselves through more localised institutions. It really *is* problematic attempting to universalise ethics . . . :-) Paula Ellis Godard wrote:
This seems like an appropriate topic on which AOIR, as international and interdisciplinary as well as academic and open minded, should take a stand. What are the appropriate steps/procedure(s) thru which that could/would/should happen?
http://ellisgodard.blogspot.com/2005/05/aut-is-out-of-line.html
-eg
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Paula wrote:
It would appear that BRICUP is acting in *defence* of academic freedom here. Well, from a Brit point of view anyway!
Please clarify that. How does blacklisting interaction with Bar-Ilan faculty defend academic freedom?
I think everyone understands that there are many Israeli people, including academics, who are working in difficult circumstances to oppose policies which are oppressive to the Palestinian people but this was also true of South Africa under apartheid. In South Africa, white members of the ANC also called for support from us in the form of boycotts. Many Brits understand the UK's part in creating these situations historically and are anxious now to try to do the right thing. Obviously, there are always arguments about boycotting as a strategy, but I think it undoubtedly was a factor in ending the apartheid system in SA and, since we can't rely on our government to act in accordance with the ethical or political views of the majority of the British population, we'll just have to do what we can ourselves through more localised institutions.
A boycott of the two universities is one matter. But the AUT declaration is a blacklist of anyone associated with those universities. Barring inter-faculty communication cannot advance the cause of altering Isreali policy; it may, rather, hinder any such progress. (Defending free inquiry and communication, by the way, advances neither cause.) -eg
participants (6)
-
Caroline Haythornthwaite -
Dr. T. Michael Roberts -
Ellis Godard -
Gustavo S. Mesch -
Jeremy Hunsinger -
Paula