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 For many like myself who have withdrawn from the IEHG -- or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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