When I was on the job market last year, by far the toughest hurdle was convincing interviewing eyes and ears that my hacker and survivor project were connected in some fundamental ways. I think in the end, I was successful at times but it was difficult for some folks to see the connection in part because most professors knew little or zilch about survivor politics so I had to lay that ground work and then toss out the connections, which included free speech, the politics of freedom and self-determination, attacks on corporate/closed science. Now with the Zyprexa scandal and the support coming from Free Culture, these two worlds have indeed moved even closer together than before. (Thanks Jonah for pointing out).
December 26, 2006
Free Science, Free Culture
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Hey Biella -
Indeed, I pointed out connections between the movements, but I think the the specifics of the connection need to be developed in more detail.
To me, the freeculture movement can be conceived as a meta-issue in the sense that if the IP issues go down badly, it will negatively impact everybody’s ability to advocate anything.
In this sense we are talking about fundamental speech rights – the ability to read/write is being threatened, and this will have far a reaching impact on all forms activism. I mean, we are soon looking at the end of anonymous reading, which means the same anxiety you feel signing a petition will be felt reading it.
So – what’s left is talking about specific connections between psych survivors and freeculture, and what the two can learn from each other. Maybe interesting to ask this question that I posed in relation to the Green movement –
and, vice-versa, too.
The politics of freedom and self-determination, attacks on corporate/closed science are definitely fundamental connections. But I do think these specifics should be separated from the general ways in which freeculture politics is going to affect all forms of advocacy.
/jsb
Comment by Jonah — January 6, 2007 @ 2:57 pm