I also withdrew from writing an entry - this will come as no surprise to
anyone however! As I made clear to the editors this was no reflection on
my personal opinion of them or their work, but an unavoidable ethical
commitment. Some things cannot be compromised, and the sle of
instruments of repression and torture, even the allowing or facilitating
of such sales is one, and I am afraid the statement issued by the
editors is ethically inadequate. It is a shame to see so many of our
leading scholars putting their names to it.
I have other objections to Reed Elsevier too. They are one of the
world's largest brokers of personal information - and the subject of
dataveillance and the market in personal information is what I will be
speaking on in the session organised by Paul Chatterton at the RGS-IBG
this year.
And some broader comments to consider:
If, as the editors claim, this volume is really about an ongoing web
resource for the advance of scholarship - why not set it up as such?
There are examples on this list from Lawrence (with ACME) and myself and
others with Surveillance & Society, of how this might work - we've now
constituted ourselves as an educational charity, the Surveillance
Studies Network, which will allow us and income stream and to pursue
projects in surveillance studies rather similar the idea of this
encyclopedia. We've done it with minimal resources so far. The resources
that the names on the letter could command would be far greater
resources. And I for one certainly be happy to contribute to such a work
of open and progressive scholarship for nothing. The whole of publishing
is being thrown open right now and with these kinds of issues plaguing
large media companies, there's got to be a better way, or in fact many
better ways...
Just some thoughts...
David.
Dr David Murakami Wood
Global Urban Research Unit (GURU)
School of Architecture Planning and Landscape
University of Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 7RU
UK
tel: +44 (0)191 222 7801
fax: +44 (0)191 222 6008
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
GURU website: http://www.ncl.ac.uk/guru/
Personal website: http://www.staff.ncl.ac.uk/d.f.j.wood/
>-----Original Message-----
>From: A forum for critical and radical geographers
>[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Lawrence Berg
>Sent: 04 April 2007 22:07
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: Elsevier protest from Newcastle
>
>
>Nick and others, thank you for making public your decisions to
>not contribute to or use the IEHG. I decided to do the same
>thing late last year, and withdrew from the project and did
>not submit four entries I had been commissioned to write.
>Unfortunately, this was a pretty private decision, so your
>comments and those of others on the list have been reassuring.
> For many like myself who have withdrawn from the IEHG -- or
>refused to participate in the first place -- I suspect these
>kinds of decisions are very difficult ones, as we try to
>balance commitments we have made to respected colleagues with
>what I'm sure many of us feel are larger commitments to
>non-violence. Lawrence
>--
>Lawrence D. Berg, D.Phil.
>Canada Research Chair in Human Rights, Diversity and Identity
>Community, Culture and Global Studies Unit and The Allied
>Social Research Centres Irving K. Barber School of Arts &
>Sciences University of British Columbia 3333 University Way
>Kelowna, BC, Canada, V1V 1V7
>Voice: +1 250.807.9392
>Fax: +1 250.807.8001
>Email: [log in to unmask]
>Skype: lawrenceberg
>http://www.chrdi.org/ldb/index.html
>
>Editor:
>ACME: An International E-Journal for Critical Geographies
>http://www.acme-journal.org
>
>Co-Leader: BC Disabilities Health Research Network
>Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research
>http://www.dhrn.ca
>
>
>
>
>
>On 4/4/07 12:46 PM, "Nick Megoran"
><[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>> Dear crit-geoggers,
>>
>> I have been off this list for a year and a half. In the meantime I
>> have moved to Newcastle. Looking forward to renewing old
>> acquaintances...
>>
>> A group human geography lecturers at Newcastle have agreed on the
>> following position in response to the call by Paul Chatterton and
>> David Featherstone in the journal 'Political Geography' (26/1) to
>> boycott Elsevier journals and their International Encyclopaedia of
>> Human Geography over links between the parent company and the arms
>> trade. We are sending this response to the editors of the
>> encyclopaedia and to Elsevier itself. We expect one or two other
>> people will join us at Newcastle geography in taking this action. We
>> thought that you the list might be interested to see what we agreed
>> upon. Of
>>
>> Peace - Nick Megoran
>>
>> --
>>
>>
>>
>> Dear ...
>>
>> We, as human geography academics at Newcastle University, are
>> informing you of our collective decision to suspend
>co-operation with
>> Elsevier's forthcoming International Encyclopaedia of Human
>Geography,
>> in protest at Reed Elsevier's ongoing role as organiser of weapons
>> fairs such as the Defence Systems & Equipment International (DSEI)
>> exhibitions in London.
>>
>> We are concerned that our labour should be contributing to
>the profits
>> of an industry that is not regulated and policed sufficiently to
>> prevent sales of weapons to known abusers of human rights.
>Reports on
>> the 2005 DSEI fair by investigative journalists highlighted serious
>> shortcomings of this nature. More generally, echoing calls in
>> Elsevier journals such as The Lancet, The British Medical
>Journal, and
>> Political Geography, as critical scholars committed to a culture of
>> life we have profound concerns about the incorporation of our labour
>> into an enterprise that profits from the production of the means of
>> killing.
>>
>> Until such a time as our concerns are properly addressed (by the
>> disengagement of Reed Elsevier from the organisation of arms fairs),
>> we will not submit entries to the IEHG that we had agreed
>to, withdraw
>> entries that we have already submitted, and refuse to accept
>> commissions to write new ones. If the IEHG reaches completion, this
>> boycott will extend to a refusal to use it in teaching. We call on
>> our colleagues in other institutions to do the same, and urge those
>> working in an editorial capacity on the IEHG to reconsider their
>> involvement.
>>
>> Acknowledging the complexity of the multiple, and often murky,
>> intersections between academia and the military under neoliberalism,
>> this symbolic action initially only targets the high-profile IEHG.
>> Whilst sympathetic to the call for a blanket boycott of all Elsevier
>> journals, we recognise that it would have differential
>impacts both on
>> academics at different career stages, and those working in different
>> (sub)disciplines. Therefore we will not, at this stage, boycott
>> publishing in and refereeing for other Elsevier
>publications. However,
>> we reserve the right to revisit this decision in light of Reed
>> Elsevier's response.
>>
>> Yours Sincerely,
>>
>> Professor Alastair Bonnett*
>> Professor Andrew Gillespie
>> Dr Alex Jeffrey
>> Professor Nina Laurie*
>> Dr Nick Megoran*
>> Dr Anoop Nayak*
>>
>>
>> (The starred names are those who have already been
>contracted to write
>> one or more entries for the encyclopaedia; the remaining names are
>> colleagues who will refuse to accept invitations if approached).
>>
>> -
>> Dr Nick Megoran,
>> Lecturer in Human Geography,
>> School of Geography, Politics and Sociology,
>> GPS Office,
>> 5th Floor, Claremont Tower.
>> Newcastle University,
>> Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU, England.
>>
>> Tel: +44 191 222 6450
>> Email: [log in to unmask] Website: www.megoran.org
>>
>> "In our time of wars, of national self-conceit, of national
>jealousies
>> and hatreds ably nourished by people who pursue their own egotistic,
>> personal or class interests, geography must be - in so far as the
>> school may do anything to counterbalance hostile influences
>- a means
>> of dissipating these prejudices and of creating other feelings more
>> worthy of humanity." Peter Kropotkin, 'What geography ought to be',
>> 1885.
>
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