Comments on: Governance, transparency and sacred bundles

By: AAG switches from Blackwell to Routledge « Foucault blog

AAG switches from Blackwell to Routledge « Foucault blog — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 17:10:57 +0000

[…] you have been following the absolute furore over the way the AAA (American Association of Anthropologists) handled a recent contractual […]

By: Jason Baird Jackson

Jason Baird Jackson — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 20:40:22 +0000

Coming off an (unusual) week in which I was in communication with AAA staff and leadership on the practical side of the W-B transition, I would just observe that there is much patient educational work to do on many fronts. The existence of deep anger/frustration in the research library community, the availability content management software for maintaining websites, the existance of OA anthropology journals, the arguements of OA advocates, the availability of open source software (for many of the tasks at hand) (and the meaning of open source), even the existence of forums such as Savage Minds where colleagues can gather to discuss significant issues–these are (the kinds of) things that many smart, engaged colleagues know nothing about (yet).

By: Rex

Rex — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 20:03:18 +0000

Is the AAA “a bureaucracy like any other”? I’m not ready to assume that they are all alike. Just how big is this organization we are talking about? The administration (full time staff members) is certainly not very large. And even counting the large number of sections and the committees therein, we are still not dealing with something the size of a large enterprise.

How the AAA works is something that is amenable to empirical inquiry, and I’m not sure we should take the natives analysis at face value. Based on my own participation in AAA governance, I’d say that the AAA is really about the size of a medium-sized ministry in PNG. And I’d guess (this is just a guess) that it is similarly structured: a small-world social network which attempts to present itself (I was about to say ‘masquerades as’) as a hierarchically-organized bureaucracy.

By: Laura

Laura — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 18:20:28 +0000

From my experience working in a few big bureaucracies, I think the problem of communication that Dan Segal talks about – getting the right information to the right people at the right time – is inherent in large and lumpy organizations like the AAA. The AAA is a bureaucracy like any other, and it provides structure at the same time that it’s somewhat sclerotic. The entire business model probably needs to be revamped, as you point out – the communication is just symptomatic.

Speaking of which, I found out that the AAA was opening the door to bids for its journals because I have a friend that works at Wiley who called me and said, “Hey, did you hear about this?” NOT because of anything I heard through the AAA. Houston, we’ve got a problem. That said, I agree, I think the Wiley deal could be really good for the AAA. Maybe they’ll make AnthroSource easier to use (I couldn’t find one of my own AN articles last week).

Chris, you’ve done more thinking about this problem than most AAA members. Don’t apologize for being willing to pay attention, get involved and work to inform yourself, and to get others informed, too. We need more people paying attention, too. You opened up some dialogue between SM readers and the EB. Good stuff.

By: ckelty

ckelty — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 13:40:26 +0000

Thanks alex, I just want everyone to like me, you know. Maybe the internet isn’t for me 😉

By: Jason Baird Jackson

Jason Baird Jackson — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 02:38:00 +0000

Thanks to Dan, Chris, Rex and everyone else who takes the time to try to figure this stuff out and make things better through open discussion.

By: Rex

Rex — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 00:10:37 +0000

There are important, structural problems at the AAA as Segal points out. That said, I think we should give the “personalized” explanation a run for its money. This is not a call for ad hominem attacks, but it _is_ a demand for _responsibility_. The AAA is made up of structures. It is also made up of agency. You can explain the failure of hard working and dedicated people to achieve their goals as a result of structural impediments. You could also call it ‘incompetence.’ We in anthropology know too much about the interplay of structure and agency to explain away the problems of the AAA solely with reference to one and not the other.

The website is a perfect example of this — it is now TWO YEARS since the promised redesign. Surely this is just not that hard. I have been around the internet long enough to know just how illusory the “let’s start a wiki” solution to organizational communication is. But in the AAAs case the incredibly simple expedient of signing up with blogger would be a step forward — which is saying something.

And finally, we would never had any of this — Segal’s letter, and what other dribs and drabs we’ve gotten out of the AAA — if SM hadn’t covered this story in the first place. The AAA may claim to ‘be committed’ to transparency but for all intents and purposes this is only because third party sources have ‘committed them to it’ by demanding information. That’s a track record you should be proud of, Chris, not one you should apologize for.