first of all, I love this...<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Sat, Jul 9, 2011 at 9:37 PM, Janet Hawtin <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:lucychili@gmail.com">lucychili@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-left: 1ex;">
<br>
imagine if every local region did a census of species. regularly.<br>
perhaps citizen collected like a human census.<br>
indigenous and introduced, food, fibre, and habitat.<br>
imagine if each community took as its first principle that any species<br>
indigenous to that area must have<br>
room to live sustainably in a coherent ecology. that the continuation<br>
of biological diversity was a foundation goal for each local area and<br>
the planet as a whole. plan that space. mean it.<br>
<br></blockquote><div><br>but more important for our discussion is this:<br> </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-left: 1ex;">
not sure if this helps with humanities. to me it is the ecologies<br>
which are more marginalised</blockquote><div><br>and this:<br><br>On Mon, Jul 11, 2011 at 4:47 PM, Geert Lovink <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:geert@xs4all.nl">geert@xs4all.nl</a>></span> wrote:<br><br>
Often humanities are dull and asleep, and straightout<br>
conservative. I really wonder if such organisational constructs from a<br>
perspective of radical politics are defendable to start with. Authors<br>
are. Libraries, for sure. To make your school, yes, that would be brave!<br></div><div><br>--<br><br>Although no doubt in your own academic institutions there are very real conflicts between the humanities and STEM (what gets taught, who gets hired, who gets funding, who gets respect, etc.) I think it is a mistake to project this conflict onto society as a whole. Because at a macro-level these two 'competing' curricula actually have a great deal in common, notably their overlapping epistemologies and shared role in shaping the intertwined industrial and intellectual architectures of America/Europe past and present.<br>
<br>I know that some of you will object to my suggesting that there is a single dominant epistemology in the humanities, but there is, and it is extremely clearly defined by academia's immutable knowledge certification tools, including marks, essays, footnotes, tests, dissertations, degrees, peer-reviewed research, etc.etc. These authentication tools define knowledge in the same way that science defines knowledge, i.e. as fixed facts. So at an epistemological level there really is no crisis, just a shift in resources. <br>
<br>At a social level there is indeed a crisis, but it arises as a consequence of the unsustainability of this monological epistemology that has no ears to hear the sound of its own imminent doom, not as the result of an internecine squabble between social scientists and physical scientists. Ask yourself: would a massive reorientation towards the humanities result in a massive reorientation of society towards ecologically sustainable principles? I don't see how anything more than blind hope could lead one to draw the conclusion that it would. More teaching of Thoreau will not a green world make.<br>
<br>At least not the way Thoreau is taught today in humanities classes. Stripped of all experience, of all subjectivity, of all revolutionary courage and sweaty effort. But if we threw away marks and picked up shovels, threw away essays and picked up journals, threw away degrees and picked up the will to change and challenge and dream. If we actually taught Thoreau's real lessons by living them, instead of teaching literate lessons about his book, then the true crisis would come into focus at many levels. And that is the crisis between fixed facts and possible futures, between sustainable wholes and unsustainable parts, between pride and humility on an evolutionary scale. <br>
<br>To make your school, as Thoreau did, that would be brave. To argue that we need more tenured humanities profs is not. Our world is in crisis and if the humanities are to be of any help whatsoever in saving it for our children, their transgressive and radicalizing legacies will need to be reclaimed and reenacted far beyond the classroom and the campus, on behalf of our unknown futures and not our overglossed past.<br>
<br>It seems to me that Mobility Shifts may already be helpful in these respects. I look forward to more...<br><br>John Sobol<br><br>--<br><a href="http://www.johnsobol.com">www.johnsobol.com</a><br></div></div>