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Marshall Sahlins wants to make the Internet the new medium for pamphleteering

Published on October 21, 2004 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, internet, Open Access Anthropology and Knowledge Sharing

Creative Commons

Marshall Sahlins wants to make the Internet the new medium for traditional pamphleteering. Sahlins, a celebrated anthropologist at the University of Chicago and the founder of Prickly Paradigm Press, has decided to re-release the press’s backlist with “some rights reserved.” This week, Prickly Paradigm goes online with the publication of five pamphlets under a Creative Commons license.

“I just want to say that I truly support the idea of the free dissemination of intellectual information, and that I truly lament the various forms of copyrights and patents that are being put on so-called intellectual property. I also lament the collusion of universities in licensing the results of scientific research, and thus violating the project of the free dissemination of knowledge that is their reason for existence. So I consider it an important act to release these books under a Creative Commons type of license. I’m happy, and also a little proud, to do so.”

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SEE ALSO:
What is Creative Commons?
Prickly Paradigm Press (Five articles on the bottom of the page are free to download. More will follow later on)
News from the open access movement
Budapest Open Access Initiative

Creative Commons

Forskning=sant?

Published on October 21, 2004 by lorenz Posted in formidling, forskning(spolitikk) akademia, kunnskapsdeling på Internett, sosialantropologi i Norge, Sverige og Danmark

Gemini, NTNU

En av grunnforskningens irrganger er faren for at et fagmiljø heller konserverer kunnskap enn å drive nyutvikling. Rådende metoder og teorier oppfattes som sanne og ufravikelige. Grunnforskning har ikke økonomisk gevinst som mål, mens oppdragsforskning tar imot problemstillinger fra industri og myndigheter – som også betaler for jobben. Dette gir muligheter for manipulering. Forskeren kan tilpasse resultatene til oppdragsgiverens ønske.

Både Norges forskningsråd og Nifu (Norsk institutt for studier av forskning og utdanning) har gått ut i mediene og advart mot forvitring av forskerkompetanse: Forskningsinstituttene publiserer så få forskningsresultater at virksomheten grenser mot konsulentvirksomhet, hevder de.

Professor og direktør Roy Gabrielsen i Norges forskningsråd er en av dem som frykter at prinsippet om full åpenhet rundt forskning og resultater vil møte utfordringer framover idet universiteter og forskningsinstitusjoner knyttes sterkere opp mot økonomiske interesser. I prosjekter bestilt og betalt av industri og private aktører, kan forskerne selv tjene penger på sine resultater, og full åpenhet kan lett komme i konflikt med bedriftshemmeligheter og muligheter for egen vinning >> les mer

SE OGSÅ:
Marshall Sahlins wants to make the Internet the new medium for pamphleteering, laments the various forms of copyrights

Gemini, NTNU

Modern technology helps reinvigorate traditional values

Published on October 21, 2004 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, Asia, books, religion cosmology, technology, Us and Them

The University of Chicago Press

An interview with anthropologist Jonah Blank, author of Mullahs on the Mainframe: Islam and Modernity among the Daudi Bohras. The Daudi Bohras are a unique denomination of Indian Muslims, with a worldwide population numbering up to one million.

“Perhaps the most important lesson the Bohras can teach outsiders is that Muslims can indeed embrace modernity while remaining true to their traditions and core beliefs.”

“Perhaps the most important way in which technology has bolstered traditional values has been by permitting Bohras around the world to have immediate and constant contact with the dai-ul-mutlaq (the spirtual leader of the community). Due to the dai’s crucial importance, Bohras have eagerly pounced on each new generation of communications technology—from fax to email to digital cellphones—to maintain close contact with the dawat (the Bohra clergy)”. >> continue

The University of Chicago Press

Reser runt på arbetsplatser för att tala om social kompetens och kulturmöten

Published on October 21, 2004 by lorenz Posted in antropologi utenfor akademia, arbeid(sliv), sosialantropologi i Norge, Sverige og Danmark

Alla / LO

Nyfikenheten drev antropologen Gillis Herlitz till Asien och Afrika. Men en dag kände Gillis att han istället för att betrakta andra måste se på sin egen kultur och bakgrund. Idag reser han runt på arbetsplatser i Sverige och pratar om social kompetens, kulturmöten och vad som gör en arbetsplats bra.

Gillis skakar på huvudet och resonerar kring vårt tidsbegrepp. Hur absurt det är att trots att vi har många tekniska hjälpmedel så har vi ändå så lite tid. – Jag tror att det beror på att vi lever i en prestationskultur. Det första vi frågar varann är; vad jobbar du med? Utan arbete upplöses vår identitet. Men i relationskulturer som till exempel på landsbygden i Afrika är relationer det viktiga.

– Jag tror att vi mer och mer kommer att orientera oss mot det relationsinriktade. Tiden är mogen för att inse att vårt viktigaste kapital är människan. Att ha varit hemma med sina barn och kunna sköta ett familjeliv kommer att bli en merit i arbetslivet, siar Gillis. >> les mer

SE OGSÅ
Kort info om Gillis syns på språk, kultur og makt

Alla / LO

“The science of ethnography is an ideal tool to designing mobile phones”

Published on October 20, 2004 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, corporate & business anthropology, design anthropology, gift economy gift giving, technology

The Feature

People often confuse what they want with what they need when it comes to consumer products. Manufacturers try to collect this information through interviews, but observing users’ behavior in their natural environment can provide better insights. The science of ethnography can be an ideal tool to learn how teenagers use mobile phones and to help shape designs to cater to them.

Last year, a team of researchers went to a sixth-form college in England and for five months observed the way a group of students used their mobile phones. The researchers used these observations, along with periodic interviews, to come up with a concept for a 3G mobile phone that addressed their findings.

The researchers came to the conclusion that mobile phones were not only used as tools for transmitting and receiving information, but were also used as tools to establish and maintain the status of social networks. Mobiles facilitated the “obligations of exchange.” In particular, students have a social contract with each other to give and accept “gifts” in the form of text messages. The gift’s value is derived in part from the message’s content, but it also comes from the fact that the gift was given at all, regardless of its content.
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The Feature