On the other hand, we are seeing a growing problem in academic publication wherein various people with more or less significant contributions to a piece of work add their authorship to papers, for various reasons, in ways that do not necessarily reflect equitable sharing of the workload. In such cases, ostensibly "collaborative" research may disguise important power relations in knowledge production that should also be subject to analysis rather than merely celebrating the spread of collective authorship.


Cheers,

Rob

________________________________
From: A forum for critical and radical geographers <[log in to unmask]> on behalf of Alison Neilson <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, May 4, 2016 1:54 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: writing collaboratively - tips, resources and papers


Thanks for sharing this information, I want to add my voice also to "just go do it", and also to promote this, more difficult, but potentially more socially-just way of recognizing the community/collective in knowledge construction (or co-construction).

It seems normal in natural sciences and other fields where "data" is conceptualized as objective, to have multiple people listed as authors. I think there are diverse informal rules about authorship order to recognize the people who did the field collections and the people whose grant/lab supported the overall work but who may not have done much writing or field work or analysis.

However in social sciences, at least in my experience, team writing and multiple authorship is less common and is still plagued by lack of recognition of the community aspect of knowledge production. Granted, it is much more difficult to co-write when the process of writing is part of the knowledge construction and when we deal with more holistic, complex situations and challenge the concept of objectivity.

But I have been recently disappointed by my research centre, whose researchers focus on participation and social justice, but as an institution seem to be succumbing, rather than resisting the pressures to follow quantitative, "objective" metrics based on individual "expert". We apparently value community participation and recognition of the multiple contributions to knowledge, yet when I add a paper which I co-authored with multiple people, I receive less points for every additional author, rather than more points to recognize the more work involved as well as the principles I followed.

So I think this is an important area for critical geographers to "mess around in!" :)

cheers,
alison



-----Original Message-----
From: A forum for critical and radical geographers on behalf of Anna Davies
Sent: Wed 04/05/2016 09:44
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: writing collaboratively - tips, resources and papers

Many thanks to those who responded to my call for resources on writing collaboratively. I received a range of thoughts, tips, papers and blogs related to writing collaboratively with a range of co-writers from academics to activists and policy makers which are collated below.

Writing collaboratively - resources:


1.      Brian J. Burke, Meredith Welch-Devine, Seth Gustafson, Nik Heynen, Jennifer L. Rice, Ted L. Gragson, Sakura R. Evans & Donald R. Nelson Environmental Communication, Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/renc20 Can Science Writing Collectives Overcome Barriers to More Democratic Communication and Collaboration? Lessons from Environmental Communication Praxis in Southern Appalachia



2.      Academic Writing Month, or AcWriMo - Published online: 27 Jan 2015.http://www.phd2published.com/acwri-2/acbowrimo/about/



3.      Thomas Burgoine, Peter Hopkins, Matthew F Rech and Gisela P Zapata (2011)These kids can't write abstracts': reflections on a postgraduate writing and publishing workshop Area (2011) 43.4, 463-469 http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1475-4762.2011.01030.x/abstract



4.      How and why to write collaboratively: http://theprofessorisin.com/2012/12/04/how-and-why-to-write-collaboratively-a-guest-post/



5.      The right tool for the job: Five collaborative writing tools for academics.  http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2014/04/04/five-collaborative-writing-tools-for-academics/



6.       Nairn, K et al (2015). "Negotiating the challenge of collaborative writing: learning from one writing group's mutiny." Higher Education Research and Development 34:3. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07294360.2014.973383

7.       Sangtin Writers Collective and Richa Nagar (2006) Playing with Fire (https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/playing-with-fire).



Top tips


1. Encourage everyone to be very honest about their time and energy. It is very frustrating to deal with a collaborator who is MIA, won't respond to emails, doesn't follow through on commitments- but it is much easier when the person has told you already that they are going to be really busy from June-August and will have to step away from the project for a couple months. I think people often feel that they SHOULD be contributing and so they want to and intend to- but it can be really frustrating when someone simply does not have the time and is not being accountable to the rest of the group. I've found that a lot of the tension here is alleviated when people are honest about their availability up front and so we know what we can expect of each other.
2. Talk about authorship early on (who is 1st, 2nd, etc). Be open about each other's needs and the different variables at play even if it's an awkward conversation. Don't assume that this is understood by all members of the collaboration unless there has been a clear conversation and decisions made.
3. Establish a system, through dropbox or google drive or some equivalent, where you can store your literatures, article drafts, outlines, etc. Make sure everyone has access to it and avoid situations where you have duel systems (i.e. some things stored in one system, some in another). Streamline this as much as possible. Include dates in the title of most recent drafts, or put a little note in at the top of the draft so it is very clear to all which draft is the most up-to-date.
4. In past collaborative projects, six people were spread out all over the globe at different points- get familiar with video chatting technologies where you can split the screen and have multiple people on the call. We found that the Google video chat feature tended to have fewer problems than other methods (Skype was terrible) - but this can still be a bit tedious because someone's connection will time-out, or there will be weird sound issues, etc. These technologies can be amazing, but you also have to be patient with them. Our usual formula would be to work from a Google doc together while we were on the call, so we could all see what was happening and be chatting about it at the same time.


­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­
"To be truly radical is to make hope possible rather than despair convincing" (Raymond Williams)

Recent Publications:
Laura Devaney and Anna R Davies (2016) Disrupting household food consumption through experimental HomeLabs: Outcomes, connections, contexts Journal of Consumer Culture 1469540516631153, first published on February 19, 2016 as doi:10.1177/1469540516631153 Free on-line access:<http://joc.sagepub.com/content/early/2016/02/18/1469540516631153.full.pdf+html>
Anna R. Davies & Ruth Doyle (2015) Transforming Household Consumption: From Backcasting to HomeLabs Experiments, Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 105:2, 425-436. Free on-line access: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00045608.2014.1000948#abstract
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Anna R. Davies
Professor of Geography, Environment & Society
Director Environmental Governance Research Group
Department of Geography, School of Natural Sciences
Trinity College Dublin, the University of Dublin
Dublin 2, Ireland.

+353 1 896 1554
www.tcd.ie<http://www.tcd.ie/>

Trinity College Dublin, the University of Dublin is ranked 1st in Ireland
and in the top 100 world universities by the QS World University Rankings.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Anna R. Davies
Ollamh, Ollúnacht na Tíreolaíochta, na Timpeallachta agus na Sochaí
Stiúrthóir an Ghrúpa Taighde Rialachas Comhshaoil
Scoil na nEolaíochtaí Nádúrtha
Coláiste na Tríonóide, Baile Átha Cliath,
Baile Átha Cliath 2, Éire.

Coláiste na Tríonóide, Baile Átha Cliath, Ollscoil Átha Cliath
Baile Átha Cliath 2, Éire.

+353 1 000 0000
[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
www.tcd.ie<http://www.tcd.ie/>

Coláiste na Tríonóide, Baile Átha Cliath - an ollscoil is fearr in Éirinn agus ceann den 100
ollscoil is fearr ar domhan de réir Rangú QS ar Ollscoileanna an Domhain

From: A forum for critical and radical geographers [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Alison Neilson
Sent: 04 May 2016 02:36
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Free webinair - Arts for Social Inclusion - 10 AM - 11:30 AM Thursday May 5 (time in Lisbon)


Free webinair - Arts for Social Inclusion. Thursday May 5, 2016 10-11:30 (Portugal time)
facilitated by Alison Neilson and Andrea Inocêncio

You will need to log in around 10 minutes before the start time. If you
have not participated in an AE-Pro webinar before, please test your system
earlier. You also have to register yourself within the online course. This
is free but if you want to participate fully in the webinair activities,
please register before the course date.

webinair link http://www.ae-learning.eu/mod/url/view.php?id=481
pre webinair creative activity http://www.ae-learning.eu/
mod/forum/view.php?id=487

This is part of the EU Lifelong Learning Program "Adult Education in the
21st Century" offered by AE Pro and the free online course: How to use
adult education for social cohesion, equity and equality

The session "How to use AE for social cohesion, equity and equality"
includes four sections: introduction, individual assignment, group
assignment, peer to peer assessment. The participants will be leaded
through session with blended learning approach. The on-line and off-line
tasks will give you opportunity to learn more about problems in your local
communities and discussed the possible solutions with peers. The session
facilitators will give you support within forum discussions and encourage
you to open the relevant issues.

cheers,
Alison & Andrea

--
Doutora Alison Neilson, Phd
Centro de Estudos Sociais, CES
Universidade de Coimbra
[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
http://www.ces.uc.pt/investigadores/cv/alison_neilson.php
<http://webmail.uac.pt/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.ces.uc.pt/investigadores/cv/alison_neilson.php>

Coordinator, RCE Açores
www.rceacores.uac.pt<http://www.rceacores.uac.pt>

DISRUPTING PRIVILEGE, IDENTITY, AND MEANING A Reflexive Dance of
Environmental Education
www.sensepublishers.com/catalogs/bookseries/transgressions-cultural-studies-and-education/disrupting-privilige-identity-and-meaning/<http://www.sensepublishers.com/catalogs/bookseries/transgressions-cultural-studies-and-education/disrupting-privilige-identity-and-meaning/>