I agree wholeheartedly Mark. This person has popped up from time to time causing friction but sadly not of the critical geography ilk.
On another topic, I hear that the Dictionary of Human Geography is going to have a fifth edition since the last one in 2000. There's been some debate in Geoforum vol. 39 after Setten's article. I didn't necessarily wish to continue that debate but wondered if there were thoughts about concepts that might gain an entry in a future edition.
For me 'livelihoods', 'participatory development', 'land reform', 'household food security', 'agrarian change' and 'social reproduction' might be worthy candidates. Each of those concepts have tussled and shifted in analysis on rural development in developing areas.
Nick
A heads up regarding "John Jackson."
There is every reason to suspect that the person writing e-mails from
various gmail accounts using the name "John Jackson" is hiding behind a
pseudonym.
Several people at the University of Bristol and the University of
Exeter, and beyond, have received repeated e-mails from accounts
bearing the name. It appears as though this person sees themselves as
something of an
agent provocateur(
-euse). The e-mails
engage in deliberate and often offensive provocation and
derision-perhaps even deliberate prevarication-with no discernible aim
other than self-gratification. This person, to mine and colleagues'
eyes, does not deal honestly, openly and fairly in their
communications, and we have taken simply to deleting e-mails bearing
any semblance of "John Jackson."
I realise that this will no doubt just stir the pot, but please don't
waste any effort in engaging "John Jackson's" disingenuousness.
Mark
Oliver Belcher wrote:
I can give you a couple of reasons.
First, I was put off by the accusatory tone of the Ilan's
concerns. Since I do not know Ilan, it was hard to tell whether there
was an ulterior motive at work. Obviously, he is passionate about
Antipode having some sort of accountability mechanism, but I ask, why
resort to polemics in order to raise such an issue? So, the approach
is a problem.
Second, I wondered, why Antipode? Has Ilan gone through every
journal in geography and the social sciences in order to check whether
they have accountability procedures? I doubted it, which led me to
wonder whether Ilan was resorting to moralizing the issue - Antipode
claims to be radical, but they don't put their money where there mouth
is by not having a grievance procedure. If this is merely the point
Ilan is trying to make, it sounds more like petty grade school banter
than a serious conversation. So, this is another problem: Ilan's
moralizing invites his readers to resort to conjecture - Antipode
*must* be doing something wrong, and why won't it implement his right.
I'm still at a loss as to why Antipode needs any formal
grievance procedure. Should it just have one because its radical
and... it... just... should have it? This is a tautology. Frankly, I
don't really care. Let me explain. I once had to contact the journal
due to my name being out of order in a particular article posted on the
website. Usually, such trifles wouldn't bother me, but I had to bring
it up because I had just applied for several fellowships, and I didn't
want any of the fellowship committees too look up the article online
and see my name third when it should have been first (it is in
alphabetical order) - obviously it would have looked like I was
misleading the committees by claiming a false first authorship. So, I
contacted the editors, told them the problem, and it was promptly fixed
within 48 hours. Should I have had to go through a proper grievance
procedure? Why the extra paper work, when a one or two-lined email did
the trick? Its not like Antipode has a huge staff with an HR
department.
Again, all this led me at the time (though I haven't lost sleep
over it) to wonder, what are the motives? Again, this is what I think
Ilan invites his readers to do: be suspicious of somebody or some
journal. Frankly, I'm tired of this form of surveillance society. Is
it not equally radical for me just to trust Noel and Wendy?
Oliver Belcher
--
Oliver Christian Belcher
PhD Student
Department of Geography
University of British Columbia
Blog:
meanswithoutend.blogspot.com
"The hope that earthly horror does not possess the last word is, to be
sure, a non-scientific wish." Max Horkheimer
"No one likes armed missionaries." Maximilien Robespierre
