Dear Rene,
Thank you for your intervention. However, I feel it was misplaced.
The attempt to raise a boycott was itself anti-sociological, because it would
silence rather than open dialogue.
I feel very strongly that in this crisis sociological
understanding is important, when it is distanced from campaigns for the
partisan promotion of ideological positions.
I agree that some of the postings have been outside the terms of
use of the list, but I hope you do not mean that European sociology should not
reflect on and engage sociologically with politics and political issues.
For instance, the last three postings have drawn attention to
sources that are sociologically relevant to the current crisis which had been
raised as an issue on this list by the email campaign for a boycott.
Regards,
Dr Michael S. Drake
Lecturer and Undergraduate Programme Director for Sociology
Department of Social Sciences
University of Hull
Cottingham Road
Hull
HU6 7RX
Tel.: +44 (0)1482 465770
email: [log in to unmask]
From: Newsletter of the European Sociological
Association (ESA) [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Bekkers,
R. (Rene)
Sent: 09 January 2009 14:19
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: please discuss politics elsewhere
Dear members,
This
is a message from one of the European-sociologist list managers. I'd like to
remind all of you that the list is intended as a tool facilitating cooperation
and discussion in European sociology. See http://www.europeansociology.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=17&Itemid=36
We've
seen quite some postings in the past weeks discussing an academic boycott. As
these messages concerned academic matters, I felt there was no need to close or
moderate the list. But lately the messages sent to the list seem to get less
and less connected to research and teaching in sociology. So this is a gentle
reminder to all of you of the purpose of the list. There are plenty
of opportunities to discuss politics and matters not related to European
sociology elsewhere on the internet.
Best
regards,
Rene
Bekkers
European-sociologist
list manager