[Air-l] Practice vs Scholarship

Tue Nov 21 14:41:35 PST 2006

Kevin

I think understanding activism is a worthy goal. By studying the way 
activism is done in various contexts - we understand and learn. The 
binary of activists as doing and academics as ("objectively") 
studying must be unpacked.

The problem with articulating research in such a way that it is 
implicitly conflated with expertise  (where "expert" is considered to 
be hierarchically above the practitioner/activist since this 
researcher/expert somehow is considered to have a objective overall 
perspective on the issue... ) and not with processual LEARNING is 
that we go into our research settings expecting to be distant and 
objective.

On the other hand if we accept that doing research while learning and 
engaging and doing - in other words doing a sort of engaged action 
research project or involved critical ethnography etc - is a learning 
process - we go in with humility and try to position ourselves as 
someone who wishes to be educated rather than as a know-all Academic 
looking to collect data and then heading off to write it up and 
report within spaces that have no accountability to the context being 
researched....

For instance, I might articulate my role in RELATION to 
activists/practitioners that I am working with as a researcher by 
describing research as my PRACTICE. My practice is to work side by 
side with those that practice forms of activism and to assist in 
translating at their request, but also to provide them with a 
critical lens through a mirroring function and through my analyses 
discussed first with them before taking them away and publishing them 
in spaces that are not accountable to them....

Further - there is practice, and there's practice and then there's 
practice - each situated in differing ideologies and hierarchies. 
Just as there is research, and there's research and then there's 
research - each situated in differing ideologies and hierarchies.

My scholarship is my practice.

My activist collaborator's practice is her scholarship...

r

>Thanks everybody for your input.  It has been very helpful and
>encouraging, encouragement I really needed at this point in time. 
>
>I posted this new vs old activism question to a list owned by both
>scholars and activists and the activists pretty much said: "activism is
>activism"  which i read to mean that in the past people have tried to
>change things (the world?) and today people are still trying to change
>things (the world?). (the response to this, i think, is that while the
>core reasons for activism haven't changed, perhaps the way in which that
>activism is carried out, has).  But their response also had a decidedly
>anti-scholarship feel to it--"while you scholars are busy studying
>activism, we're busy actually doing it.  by the time your findings come
>out, we've moved on to new things." 
>
>But isn't that the plight of the scholar no matter what they
>study...especially insofar as technology-related topics are concerned?
>Should I take that response to mean that I shouldn't bother studying
>activism--in other words, are we talking to ourselves or are we making a
>difference in the lives of those who practice what we study?  Guess I'm
>having a bit of a...moment.  sorry.
>
>Kevin Sherman
>PhD Candidate
>Centre for Communication Research
>Auckland University of Technology
>
>
>>>>  massa at itc.it 22/11/2006 10:52 a.m. >>>
>It seems nobody suggested this edited collection:
>
>Cyberactivism: on-line activism in theory and practice. London:
>Routledge.
>Find a review at
>http://english.ttu.edu/kairos/9.1/reviews/depew/index.htm
>
>I have in my toread list this paper that is in this edited collection
>(but I haven't read it yet):
>Garrido, M., & Halavais, A. (2003). Mapping networks of support for
>the Zapatista movement. In M. McCaughey & M. D. Ayers (Eds.),
>
>Hope it helps
>
>P.
>
>On 11/21/06, Kevin Sherman <kevin.sherman at aut.ac.nz> wrote:
>>  Can anyone direct me to significant literature regarding what
>>  constitutes old political activism vs new activism--particularly
>insofar
>>  as its organisation, structure and implementation is concerned?  Of
>>  interest is how (and whether) the Internet plays a role in what some
>are
>>  calling a new (global?) activism.
>>
>>  Alternatively, if you think there's nothing particularly new about
>>  activism, I'd be interested in that as well...
>>
>>  I realise this is a fairly broad question, but your responses
>needn't
>>  be similarly expansive--just a quick thought here or there would be
>>  greatly appreciated!
>>
>>  Kevin Sherman
>>  PhD Candidate
>>  Centre for Communication Research
>>  Auckland University of Technology
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-- 
Radhika Gajjala
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School of Communication Studies
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