RE: Shell vote and future action.....
I don't think a mass resignation from the RGS/IBG is a good idea at the
current time.
If we leave the RGS/IBG the organisation won't collapse, its influence
won't decline dramatically. The organisation will carry on as it always
has before, and without the inconvenience of academics kicking up a fuss
about ethical issues, equal opportunities, the society's agenda etc etc.
We might not have won the Shell vote but the issue wouldn't even have been
considered if some members of this forum had not put considerable effort
into getting the issue onto the agenda.
On a practical note I also am concerned about the amount of work it would
take to run an alternative organisation. I'm a member of the WGSG
committee and to be honest I couldn't manage to do any more work of this
type than I already do. Setting up an alternative organisation will
undoubtedly be more difficult than working within an established one and I
don't think I've got the ability to do that, manage my job, have a family
life and engage in political activity outside academia as well. I
certainly don't think I could work both to reform the RGS/IBG and to
actively set up another structure. If others can manage this great, but I
don't think we should underestimate the task we are setting ourselves.
This might sound a little defeatist but I don't mean it to. I think we
have the potential to change the RGS/IBG from within. To use a slightly
dodgy saying, just because we've lost one battle doesn't mean we've lost
the war. As Tracey rightly pointed out the WGSG fought for changes in the
IBG through the 1980s+ and won some.
Sarah Holloway
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Sarah Holloway,
Department of Geography,
Loughborough University,
Loughborough,
Leics,
LE11 3TU,
United Kingdom.
Tel: (01509) 223095
Messages :(01509) 222794
FAX (01509) 223930
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