Latin American Studies and blogs
Regarding blogs, several things struck me at the conference, and remember this is a very big conference with a wide range of people and disciplines:
1. I saw no panels on blogs or other types of electronic media (unless I happened not to see it)
2. Whenever I happened to mention blogs to people, I often received a rather blank look. Those who did not give me a blank look were generally those who already knew about mine
3. There is a massive disconnect between academia and the many, many non-academia people out there who are deeply interested in Latin American politics. I've received a lot of comments on the blog from people who never would've heard of me otherwise (and vice versa)
12 comments:
1. I agree. I didn't see any panels or papers on blogs. I think it would be a little paradoxical to have a panel on blogs or electronic media at a conference in which ppoints have to be presented as transparencies... (same thing at APSA!)
2. Idem... blank look.
3. I think this disconnect is greater in US academia than in, at least some, latin american countries. Chile is a good example of a country full of "public" academics (old school: Garreton, Lechner, JJ Bruner, etc. new school: P. Navia, C. Fuentes, etc.), as are Argentina and Brazil. In the US, academia is a much bigger, self contained world.
I didn't get to see your panel bc i got to Montreal on Thursday, but it's good to hear it went well. I'd be interested in reading more about how it went...
I'm not so sure I agree w/ experimentador. Yes, there were no panels on electronic media at LASA. But, frankly, I've often thought LASA is about a decade behind in intellectual trends.
Have you seen all the ASPA panels on blogs etc? They've been there for a while. Also, LAPIS voted to start a section blog, which I'll be editing. So I think the non-blog element in academia is more in the "fuzzy" side of LASA (which dominates it organizationally) and less on the social science side (btw, there are some very good anthro blogs out there, too).
OK, but how many Latin Americanist political scientist blogs are there in the U.S.? Sociologists? Maybe I am just not aware of their blogs.
Well, let's face it, there are disincentives for academics to communicate with the general public. The incentives are to publish scholarly articles and to thereby keep the debates relatively insular. Blogging or writing for the popular press are not rewarded within academia. In fact, they are often looked down upon.
Miguel, I don't think saying LASA is 10 years behind is much of a retort, as it simply means we're doing something wrong! I'm glad LAPIS is doing a blog, and I will subscribe to it, but I still believe very few Latin Americanists in academia are blogging.
Justin, I agree only in part, as I think there is a lot of variability--that alone would be a good blog post to do someday. Definitely, you won't get pay raises for such activities, which may or may not be a disincentive. Department culture, whether you have tenure (or are a grad student) and whether you are also continuing to publish in academic outlets also play into it.
Justin, I agree only in part, as I think there is a lot of variability--that alone would be a good blog post to do someday. Definitely, you won't get pay raises for such activities, which may or may not be a disincentive. Department culture, whether you have tenure (or are a grad student) and whether you are also continuing to publish in academic outlets also play into it.
I'm sure there's something to the "department culture" bit.
But if blogging constitutes time away from things for which one does get rewarded in academia, I think it's safe to say there are implicit disincentives.
There was talk recently that the economist Daniel Drezner's blogging might have played a part in him not getting tenure at the University of Chicago. I have no idea if that's true, though.
clarifying...
MCentellas: Yes, APSA does have more panels on electronic media, etc. but I was complaining about still having to print out transparencies in order to present ppoints. That just doesn't make any sense.
Justin: again, I think those disincentives are more prevalent in US academia than in Latin America.
Justin: again, I think those disincentives are more prevalent in US academia than in Latin America.
I imagine that's true too.
I'll have to chew on this a bit and eventually post on it.
One thing that occurs to me, though, is that many professors and even grad students blog, but for the most part they are not Latin Americanists. However, there are a LOT of non-academics blogging about Latin America.
There are a lot of us non-academics blogging about Latin America. We don't get invited to LASA though...
In many cases, it seems to be journalists, analysts or activists who are engaged in the issues in real life, just in a different way than academics. In some cases though, there really is no professional link. Same as academia, it would be interesting to profile why non-academics take the time to blog and what the incentives/disincentives are.
I hadn't really thought about *who* blogs outside academia and why/why not.
BTW, no one is "invited" to LASA. It is just a matter of knowing about it, and then paying the fee to join and register. Obviously, the travel and fee is a potentially very strong disincentive to attend even if you know about it. The next one is in Rio in June 2009.
Post a Comment