tag:theconversation.com,2011:/id/topics/public-intellectual-12704/articlesPublic Intellectual – The Conversation2020-07-01T14:19:12Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1416162020-07-01T14:19:12Z2020-07-01T14:19:12ZAcademic freedom is sacrosanct. But so is ethical responsibility<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/344830/original/file-20200630-103645-8ru41j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">shutterstock</span> </figcaption></figure><p>In 1990 <a href="https://www.codesria.org/">CODESRIA</a>, Africa’s premier social science council, organised a conference in Kampala, Uganda, on academic freedom. The conference was against the backdrop of mounting harassment of academics on the continent. They were subjected to travel restrictions in some countries, <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/dech.12481">arrest, detention</a>, and sometimes even <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/17/world/idi-amin-murderous-and-erratic-ruler-of-uganda-in-the-70-s-dies-in-exile.html">assassination</a>.</p>
<p>The idea of defence of specific rights for academics was <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/dech.12481">not without contention</a> within the council. Why would you argue for an exclusive right to middle-class academics when the basic rights of ordinary citizens are denied every day?</p>
<p>Nonetheless, the idea of a conference and a charter for intellectuals (not just scholars) prevailed. The African scholars at the conference took the <a href="https://www.achpr.org/legalinstruments/detail?id=49">1981 African Charter on Human and People’s Rights</a>, of the then Organisation of African Unity, as its grundnorm, that</p>
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<p>set the normal standards to guide the exercise of intellectual freedom and remind ourselves of our social responsibility as intellectuals.</p>
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<p>Out of the conference, attended by the luminaries of the African social sciences, emerged <a href="https://www.codesria.org/spip.php?article350">the Kampala Declaration on Intellectual Freedom and Social Responsibility</a>. It remains Africa’s most definitive statement on academic freedom.</p>
<p>It followed almost two years after the 68th general assembly of the World University Service, held in Lima in 1988, adopted <a href="https://www.wusgermany.de/sites/wusgermany.de/files/userfiles/WUS-Internationales/wus-lima-englisch.pdf">the Lima Declaration on Academic Freedom and Autonomy of Institutions of Higher Education</a>. The Lima Declaration was driven by the realisation that, whereas there are several global instruments concerning human rights, there was none that specifically protected the freedom of intellectuals.</p>
<p>Both the Lima and the Kampala declarations are emphatic that academic freedom is fundamental to the functioning of the academic community. Its defence is seen as central to the viability and survival of the academy. Scholars must be able to teach, undertake research, report their findings and exchange ideas without fear or hindrance.</p>
<p>These principles still hold true. But that’s not the only consideration, as the Kampala Declaration acknowledges – academic freedom is only one wing by which the academy flies. The other is the duty of scholars to act ethically and responsibly.</p>
<h2>Uncomfortable truth</h2>
<p>By its nature, knowledge advances in unpredictable directions. Often, it might run counter to conventional wisdom and ideas with powerful vested interests. The most important findings from research may be something the researchers weren’t looking for. Similarly, the free exchange of information and protection of dissent against dominant paradigms are essential for the vitality of a research community.</p>
<p>The active and uninhibited dissemination of knowledge is vital for the advancement of knowledge. Scholarly debates need to be free and without let or hindrance. The instinct to restrict the free practice of the academic vocation does not come only from the state or powerful business interests. It may also come from powerful civil society entities. </p>
<p>You should not reject the findings of a study because they offend a segment of the population. You definitely should not attack a researcher purely because some find the results of their research offensive. The retort would be: </p>
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<p>Don’t shoot the messenger. </p>
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<p>Intellectuals can better deliver on their mandate to society when they can pursue their vocations without being hounded solely on account of their research findings and their dissemination. Nor should they be victimised for opinions they express in the practice of their vocation.</p>
<p>But the duty of scholars is to act ethically and responsibly. Article 19 of the Kampala Declaration <a href="https://www.codesria.org/spip.php?article350">states</a>: </p>
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<p>Members of the intellectual community are obliged to discharge their roles and functions with competence, integrity and to the best of their abilities. They should perform their duties in accordance with ethical and highest scientific standards.</p>
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<p>The social responsibility of intellectuals was set out in eight articles of the declaration.</p>
<p>Academic freedom cannot be a defence for bad science. This, especially where the “findings” are driven by bigotry and subterfuge rather than science. Don’t shoot the messenger, alright. But it is essential for the integrity of the scholarly community that the messenger is not the message.</p>
<p>A scientist who cooks up data or makes scurrilous claims not based on research can legitimately be subjected to disciplinary action by their institution. Journals routinely retract the publications of “research papers” purely on the grounds of unethical research conduct and cooked-up data. </p>
<p>Academic institutions can legitimately discipline their academics found guilty of misconduct; including fiddling the results of their research. Fairness and due process are central requirements of such disciplinary steps. In other words, the buoyancy of the academy depends on the defence of academic freedom and the requirement that its members conduct themselves ethically.</p>
<h2>Critical compact</h2>
<p>Scholars, groups and institutions imperil their collective integrity when they pull up the shield of academic freedom to protect themselves from scrutiny and reckoning for unethical behaviour. Forces external to the academy who engage in similar ventures endanger the genuine defence of academic freedom. They both undermine a critical compact that the academy has with the rest of society. </p>
<p>The compact is this: on the one hand, society values and serves as a guarantor of academic freedom because it understands that this freedom is vital for the optimal functioning of the academy, and meeting the academy’s obligations to society. On the other hand, academics will not deploy this freedom merely to shield an offending colleague from scrutiny and accountability.</p>
<p>Such compact exists within the academic community as well. Mobilising the whole of the academy in defence of academic freedom requires transparency. All within the academy need to know that academic freedom is not being invoked to protect those who engage in unethical conduct. </p>
<p>Often, many in the academy appeal for intervention by external forces (the state or powerful civil society entities) in the affairs of the academy because they feel that academic freedom is being used to shield the privileged ones in its midst — those with immense cultural and procedural power.</p>
<p>Such misuse of the defence of academic freedom undermines the social compact within the academy itself. In the long run, such abuse of academic freedom threatens everyone’s academic freedom.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/141616/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Prof Jimi Adesina receives funding from the National Research Foundation, South Africa. The opinions expressed in this article are entirely his. They do not, in any way, implicate my university, the SARChI Chair that he holds, or the National Research Foundation. </span></em></p>The active and uninhibited dissemination of knowledge is vital for the advancement of knowledge.Jimi Adesina, Professor and Holder of the South African Research Chair in Social Policy, University of South AfricaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/987462018-06-25T22:18:11Z2018-06-25T22:18:11ZThe professor of the future: Digital and critical<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/224767/original/file-20180625-19385-17l2ddq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Giving a TED talk and/or tweeting are becoming expected parts of an up-and-coming digital professor's job. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(William Saito)</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>You have heard the tune. Great minds, we are told, no longer just publish top-tier research and teach, because the traditional model of scholarship has become too narrow and insular. Great minds become proselytizers of big ideas.</p>
<p>They captivate the public as influential research bloggers and attract new stakeholders like donors and media journalists through attractive digital translations of their scholarship. They manage thriving Twitter presences, and design popular MOOCs (massive open online courses).</p>
<p>All of this happens because universities and professors experience the fundamental disruption brought about by the fourth industrial revolution: Digital transformation. </p>
<p>According to “Digital Transformation in Higher Education,” a <a href="https://www.navitasventures.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/HE-Digital-Transformation-_Navitas_Ventures_-EN.pdf">2017 study by global education provider Navitas</a>, 78 per cent of all participating universities have begun to digitize some elements of their course delivery and are also creating new digital models.</p>
<p>Five years ago, I began asking myself what the digital transformation could mean for me as a professor at the Schulich School of Business at York University. </p>
<p>Over time, I “digitized” my research agenda, created a research blog with 250,000 monthly readers, designed an MBA course around my research on consumer sociology, and founded a thriving and well-funded research institute called the <a href="http://bigdesignlab.com/">Big Design Lab</a>. </p>
<p>In this article, I would like to reflect on what I’ve learned.</p>
<h2>Digital professors as thought leaders</h2>
<p>Most discussions about the digital transformation in higher education take a decidedly pro-market view. As the old models of intellectual contribution are being disrupted, their authors argue, professors must proactively use social media technology to become powerful thought leaders.</p>
<p>It is easy to see how this makes perfect sense. Digital professors can do much more for their universities because they manage bigger platforms and can attract more students, practitioners, donors and journalists to their institutions. </p>
<p>Fully fledged digital professors are not only good researchers and teachers. They are also fundraisers, student recruiters, career consultants and social media influencers — all in one body.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/224337/original/file-20180621-137708-xjp7mg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/224337/original/file-20180621-137708-xjp7mg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224337/original/file-20180621-137708-xjp7mg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224337/original/file-20180621-137708-xjp7mg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224337/original/file-20180621-137708-xjp7mg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224337/original/file-20180621-137708-xjp7mg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224337/original/file-20180621-137708-xjp7mg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Digital communication opportunities offer young scholars the possibility of distributing knowledge to vast audiences, so long as they do not relinquish the critical edge of their work.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock))</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>My own experience over the years, however, leads me to make the opposite case: Digital transformation understood in this manner is symptomatic of a problematic neoliberal push in our universities — to use research ideas to uncritically legitimize and extend moneyed interests. </p>
<p>I strongly encourage young professors to do whatever they can to avoid precisely that.</p>
<h2>Elite narratives hide systemic problems</h2>
<p>A good starting point for understanding my perspective is <a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/143004/rise-thought-leader-how-superrich-funded-new-class-intellectual">historian David Sessions’ recent <em>New Republic</em> article</a> on the rise of the thought leader.
Sessions builds on political scientist Daniel W. Drezner’s much-lauded <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-ideas-industry-9780190264604?cc=us&lang=en&">critique of the so-called ideas industry</a>, a marketplace of ideas in which the traditional public intellectual has been supplanted by a new model: The thought leader.</p>
<p>Public intellectuals, Session writes, traffic in complexity and criticism. Thought leaders burst with the evangelist’s desire to “change the world.” Yet whereas in Drezner’s view these two types of thinker balance each other out, Sessions argues, and I agree, that our current university landscape largely privileges the latter.</p>
<p>Every day, business school professors like myself are urged to promote elite narratives such as corporate social responsibility, <a href="https://hbr.org/2017/10/the-rise-of-behavioral-economics-and-its-influence-on-organizations">nudging</a>, <a href="https://www.mindful.org/wsj-business-schools-embrace-mindfulness/">mindfulness</a> or <a href="https://hbr.org/2015/01/what-resilience-means-and-why-it-matters">resilience</a>. Those narratives, according to a study that I co-authored with my Schulich colleague assistant professor of marketing <a href="http://elaveresiu.com">Ela Veresiu</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/677842">redefine systemic problems as individual mindset issues</a>.</p>
<p>By shifting responsibilities for social and economic problems away from corporations and government institutions and towards individual consumers, these and other narratives reinforce the social and economic status quo.</p>
<p>Unsurprisingly, there is a huge marketplace of ideas, conferences and think tanks for status-quo reinforcing research — whether it concerns chronic illness, poverty, global warming or financial wellbeing.</p>
<h2>Be critical AND be digital</h2>
<p>Critical sociologists such as David Harvey have long demonstrated that, <a href="http://www.cmecc.com/uploads/%E8%AF%BE%E6%9C%AC%E5%92%8C%E8%AE%BA%E6%96%87/%5B9%5D%5B%E5%A4%A7%E5%8D%AB%E5%93%88%E7%BB%B4%5D.David.Harvey.(2005).A.Brief.History.of.Neoliberalism.pdf">once neoliberal knowledge and goals become embedded in everyday culture, even institutions that wouldn’t identify as neoliberal will invariably perpetuate neoliberal principles</a>: Entrepreneurship, privatization, financialization, individualization of risks. </p>
<p>These principles are now so commonplace that the university, as cultural critic Henry Giroux argues, “<a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/9780230117297_2">now narrates itself in terms that are more instrumental, commercial and practical.</a>”</p>
<p>For this reason, the challenge in becoming a digital professor is not finding an audience of interested readers. The real challenge is withstanding the temptation of letting neoliberal agendas compromise your scholarship’s rigour, complexity and criticism. The real challenge, in other words, is NOT becoming a thought leader.</p>
<p>However, Sessions also takes his valuable critique too far. It is easy to see how the thought leader model is flawed, especially in business schools. But when all thought leader techniques — like doing a research talk in a TED format, creating a blog that speaks to business practitioners or adopting a think tank structure for a research lab — are automatically framed as surrenders to corporate influence, we also give young professors a false choice between being critical and being digital.</p>
<p>One of the most unexpected things that I have learned by doing many of these things — often under the critical gaze of my outreach-skeptical baby boomer colleagues — is how much digitally enhanced critical research can influence the corporate agenda, and how much these digitally enhanced dialogues can, in turn, inform the production of critical research.</p>
<h2>A space for skepticism and curiosity</h2>
<p>Surveying the digital landscape, it is clear that the corporate elites are themselves not a monolithic bloc anymore. Many executives, policy makers and entrepreneurs are increasingly tired of cheerleaders for the next big idea who simply echo what elites already believe in.</p>
<p>The much-maligned “ideas industry” has also helped me discover the value of writing research summaries in critical outlets such as the <em>The Baffler</em>, the <em>Transnational Institute</em> or, in the present case, <em>The Conversation Canada</em>. </p>
<p>In today’s world, buzzwords such as “digital transformation” can become anchors for exposing audiences to critical thought.</p>
<p>Many practitioners that I work with are open to these research findings — findings that are often critical of their activities. Those who are not are not my audience. Because my job as a professor, digital or not, is never to merely perpetuate the status quo but to give voice to less articulated alternatives.</p>
<p>Mainstream discussions of digital transformation fail to address how technology reshapes (and also constrains) the political economy of ideas. Critical treatments of thought leadership, on the other hand, reinforce luddite tendencies.</p>
<p>I encourage young professors to meet the digital transformation with both skepticism and curiosity. The definition of the digital professor that I propose is neither the thought leader who only serves the one per cent. Nor is it the public intellectual who smells hegemonic betrayal behind every TED talk or think tank initiative.</p>
<p>The real value of digital technologies in higher education is that they give us new avenues for producing and promoting scholarship that is critical of the status quo.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/98746/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Markus Giesler receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the Big Design Lab.</span></em></p>Young professors are challenged to engage in public outreach using digital technologies, without becoming mouthpieces for corporate elites.Markus Giesler, Associate Professor of Marketing, Schulich School of Business, York University, CanadaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/774202017-05-18T14:11:49Z2017-05-18T14:11:49ZAcademics can’t change the world when they’re distrusted and discredited<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168732/original/file-20170510-28071-1hvts20.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Academics find themselves in a world filled with people who aren't interested in facts.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>There have been persistent <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/2015/sep/23/academics-leave-your-ivory-towers-and-pitch-your-work-to-the-media">calls</a> for academics and scientists to venture forth from academia’s ivory towers to engage with a wider audience on the critical issues facing society. It’s a reasonable argument. Academics stepping out of their traditional roles to disseminate scientific knowledge can offer great value to <a href="http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20160530142606345">public policy debates</a>.</p>
<p>By occupying public forums and social media platforms as public intellectuals and thought leaders, academics can contribute significantly to making the world a better place.</p>
<p>But not all academics want to be public intellectuals and those who do, don’t always have the necessary <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Public-Professor-Research-Change-World/dp/1479861391">skills</a>. That can be dealt with through training, encouragement or incentives. But the real challenge for academics in the public sphere is that we’re living in a <a href="http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2017/02/pursuing-veritas-in-a-post-truth-era/">post-truth world</a>. This describes a world where objective facts – scientific evidence – doesn’t influence public opinion. Instead, appeals to emotion and personal beliefs set the agenda.</p>
<p>Populist movements are on the rise. Their supporters distrust the establishment, elites, authority and official sources – including highly qualified academics. The post-truth world is a post-expert world.</p>
<p>If, as <a href="http://www.businesshardtalk.com/single-post/2016/07/07/Why-We-Don%E2%80%99t-Trust-Experts">research</a> suggests, people trust their Twitter and Facebook friends more than institutions such as the mainstream media, then experts may have no option but to immerse themselves in popular culture. They will have to engage on social media platforms, building new alliances and finding ways to build trust. </p>
<h2>Post-truth politics</h2>
<p>Post-truth politics and the mistrust of experts are not new. Some post-colonial African leaders have been <a href="http://democracyworks.org.za/african-leaders-are-masters-at-post-truth-politics/">described</a> as post-truth strategists, “manipulating the truth, distorting facts and fashioning alternative realities to cover-up their failures, to enrich themselves and stay in power”. </p>
<p>And politicians the world over have always been adept at manipulating popular opinion and discrediting scientific evidence that contradicts their ideological agendas or thwarts their political aspirations.</p>
<p>During his time in office former South African president Thabo Mbeki’s administration snubbed scientific evidence about the treatment of HIV/Aids. This had <a href="https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/press-releases/researchers-estimate-lives-lost-delay-arv-drug-use-hivaids-south-africa/">devastating consequences</a>.</p>
<p>The country’s current president, Jacob Zuma, has also dabbled in post-truth. Zuma has referred to urban black intellectuals as “<a href="http://www.news24.com/Archives/City-Press/Zuma-scolds-clever-blacks-20150429">clever blacks</a>” on many occasions. When questioned in 2014 about corruption and the use of state expenditure for his private <a href="http://www.enca.com/elections-2014-south-africa/zuma-nkandla-not-issue-ordinary-voters">residence</a> he said that only “very clever and bright people” were concerned with the issue.</p>
<p>He has effectively driven a schism between rural black voters, where most of his support base lies, and the so–called “clever” urban black elite, many of whom are now calling for his <a href="http://www.news24.com/elections/news/the-clever-blacks-have-spoken-phosa-20160805">resignation</a>.</p>
<p>So how can academics adapt to a world in which populism trumps truth, perhaps more than ever before? </p>
<h2>Social media drives post-truth</h2>
<p>Some have <a href="https://theconversation.com/defending-science-how-the-art-of-rhetoric-can-help-68210">argued</a> that experts need to be schooled in the art of persuasive rhetoric. This will allow them to counteract junk science and anti-intellectualism. But there’s really no amount of training in persuasive communication that can prepare academics and scientists for engaging with dissenters on sites like Facebook or Twitter.</p>
<p>And it’s very <a href="http://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21706498-dishonesty-politics-nothing-new-manner-which-some-politicians-now-lie-and">evident</a> that the internet, especially social media, is the main driver of the post–truth era.</p>
<p>There’s an overwhelming amount of contradictory information on the internet. Many people find it easier to retreat into their social media echo chambers that bolster their pre-existing beliefs and value systems than to engage with new ideas. </p>
<p>Professor Mary Beard, the Cambridge University classicist, is a case in point. She took part in a BBC1 panel programme in 2013 and cited a report that claimed immigration had brought some benefits to the UK. Her statements, based on evidence-based research, unleashed a torrent of sexual taunts and horrific verbal abuse. This illustrates how evidence can clash with individuals’ beliefs and create a severe “<a href="https://daily.jstor.org/the-backfire-effect/">backfire effect</a>” that is further amplified in the post-truth digital space.</p>
<p>Dr Stella Nyanzi in Uganda illustrates the severe backlash that academics face when they take on powerful forces. Nyanzi has run afoul of Uganda’s President and First Lady with a series of radical and explicit posts on Facebook. These led to <a href="https://dailynewslagos.wordpress.com/2017/04/12/ugandan-human-rights-activist-stella-nyazi-jailed-for-calling-the-president-a-pair-of-buttocks/">her arrest</a> on charges of cyber harassment under Uganda’s Computer Misuse Act 2011. After four weeks in prison she was finally released on bail. Amnesty International has <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2017/05/uganda-stella-nyanzi-free-but-ludicrous-charges-must-be-dropped/">called</a> for all charges against her to be dropped. </p>
<p>The internet is a democratic space in that it can be accessed by almost anyone. The problem is that for every qualified academic and expert you find online, sharing information based on peer-reviewed, highly scrutinised research, there’s a snake oil salesman, pseudo-scientist, hate-mongerer and conspiracist who wants to <a href="http://theconversation.com/how-social-media-and-human-nature-have-spawned-hoaxes-and-hate-mongering-70929">spread false</a>, misleading, anti-science information to the masses. And, as Nyanzi’s case illustrates, powerful politicians might prefer those who don’t bring evidence to the table.</p>
<p>How, then, do academics and scientists fight distrust and denigration whilst bringing cutting edge, evidence based research to public policy debates? </p>
<h2>Adapt or die?</h2>
<p>Rapid advancements in digital technology and communications dictate that the “genie is out of the bottle”. So withdrawing when your research and evidence is attacked online may not really be an option. Just like Nyanzi, Beard chose to escalate her intellectual interaction on Twitter – as <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/blog/weird-and-wonderful-world-academic-twitter">many academics</a> are doing. She pushed back at her detractors and has been described as a <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/09/01/troll-slayer">“troll slayer”</a>.</p>
<p>It’s evident that even academics who’ve been wary of public engagement may not have the luxury of remaining invisible any more. They will have to rethink their traditional roles, functions and develop new ways of being. This may come more naturally as younger researchers – millennials – move into the academy. This generation tends to be more at ease with the cut and thrust of social media than the current crop of “baby boomers”.</p>
<p>There are however, clearly complex challenges – and even dangers – for the academic as a public intellectual in the post-truth information age.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/77420/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lyn Snodgrass does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Populist movements are on the rise. Their supporters distrust the establishment, elites, authority and official sources. The post-truth world is a post-expert world.Lyn Snodgrass, Associate Professor and Head of Department of Political and Conflict Studies, Nelson Mandela UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/659792016-10-05T07:29:09Z2016-10-05T07:29:09ZRemembering Sol Plaatje as South Africa’s original public educator<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/139433/original/image-20160927-14618-7iac11.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Sol Plaatje never stopped learning, nor teaching.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/flowcomm/13902788208/in/photolist-nsKpmb-nbxpmu-nbxqyY-6MtoQj-6n9wpR-nqZmNo-nbx5o9-nsKGCW-nuNE4F-nbxkbx-nbxkFv-nt584A-nt2pST-nbxmPc-nbxikv">Flowcomm/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="http://www.thepresidency.gov.za/pebble.asp?relid=7894">Solomon Tshekisho Plaatje</a> was born 140 years ago in what is today South Africa’s Free State province. When he was 40 years old, he published <em>Native Life in South Africa</em>, his great expose of the ruinous effects of the 1913 <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/topic/natives-land-act-1913">Natives’ Land Act</a>. This legislation almost completely stripped black South Africans of the right to own land.</p>
<p>Plaatje, known as Sol, came from a family that had been associated with Christian missions for three generations. He was also a proud member of the Barolong clan and treasured his African identity and culture. He lived through times of tumultuous change in South Africa, including the <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/article/second-anglo-boer-war-1899-1902">Anglo Boer War</a> and the creation of the <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/topic/union-south-africa-1910">Union of South Africa</a>. </p>
<p>He transcended his own tribal and religious identities to embrace a vision of a common South Africa. He stood up against the forces of white supremacy and segregation and advocated for a united, inclusive nation based on justice, equality and the rule of law. All of this during the darkest of days and at great personal cost. </p>
<p>In honour of <em>Native Life’s</em> centenary, it’s worth revisiting Plaatje’s legacy as one of his country’s greatest public intellectuals. It’s also a good opportunity to reflect on how a man with only four years of formal schooling became a brilliant public educator who promoted a common and inclusive South Africanness. </p>
<h2>Early years</h2>
<p>Plaatje is best known as a leader of the South African Native National Congress, which later became the now-governing African National Congress (ANC). He was also a novelist and journalist. But many may not know that teaching was his first job – and enduring vocation.</p>
<p>He was just 14 or 15 when he was appointed as “pupil-teacher” at the Pniel mission station where he’d completed only three grades of school. He later finished another school year in the city of Kimberley.</p>
<p>Despite his limited formal schooling, Plaatje received what historian Tim Couzens <a href="http://www.oerafrica.org/FTPFolder/guyana/CCTI%20CD/CCTI%20CD/ukzncore2a/documents/core2a.insight.htm">described</a> as “the very best education”. His mother, grandmother and aunts steeped him in Setswana culture and oral tradition. They sparked his fascination with African history, folklore and proverbs, which he later evocatively captured in his 1929 novel <em><a href="http://www.penguinrandomhouse.co.za/book/mhudi/9780143185406">Mhudi</a></em>. It was the first English language novel published by a black South African. </p>
<p>A prodigious polyglot, Plaatje used the limited opportunities at Pniel to increase his repertoire. One day he overheard the missionary’s wife, Elizebeth Westphal, speaking English to a lady in the kitchen. He <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2636726?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">said</a> to her “I want to be able to speak English and Dutch and German as you do”. She gave him extra lessons and introduced him to English literature and classical music. He mastered other South African languages as he encountered them. </p>
<p>During his brief time at school in Kimberley, Plaatje was exposed to a very diverse spectrum of children from the mining town.</p>
<p>The resident priest at the All Saints mission school <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Sol-Plaatje-biography-Brian-Willan/dp/0869752529">described</a> the pupils as being </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Cape Dutch [that is, “Coloured”], Bechuana, Zulus, Fingoes, Malays, Indians; and classified in order of creed …. Dutch Reformed, Anglican, Wesleyan, Independent, Roman Catholic; and in addition to Christians, Mahommedans, and Brahmin…‘ </p>
</blockquote>
<p>This thriving polyglot, racially integrated, ecumenical and interfaith school community perhaps gave Plaatje an early taste - not realised in his lifetime - of what an integrated South Africa might mean and how South Africans might learn from each other.</p>
<h2>Lifelong and life-wide learning</h2>
<p>Plaatje was an indefatigable self-directed learner throughout his life. He practised lifelong learning long before it became a <a href="http://uil.unesco.org/fileadmin/keydocuments/LifelongLearning/en/LLPSCollection.pdf">policy buzzword</a>. In his various professions - post office messenger, court interpreter, journalist, politician, author, translator - he found and learnt from mentors, books and life experiences. He made the knowledge his own to share with others. Almost instinctively, he combined the role of public educator with everything else that he did.</p>
<p>In his first adult job in Kimberley as post office messenger, one of the few positions available to educated Africans in the Cape Colony, Plaatje learnt the importance of bearing the message from sender to receiver. From this he perhaps gained insight into the power and importance of the word in connecting people.</p>
<p>He continued this “in-between” role when appointed court interpreter in Mafeking in 1898. The job was about more than just translating. It involved mediating the world of the English and Dutch magistrates and prosecutors to African plaintiffs and vice versa. He made possible, through his voice and person and the virtue of listening, a dialogue between these worlds. </p>
<h2>A pioneer</h2>
<p>Plaatje was also a pioneer of African independent journalism. He launched and edited a number of newspapers such as <em><a href="http://hpra-atom.wits.ac.za/atom-2.1.0/index.php/koranta-ea-becoana-tsala-ea-becoana-and-tsala-ea-batho">Koranta ea Becoana</a></em> (1901-1906). These newspapers published articles in English and Setswana, targeting the country’s small minority of mission-educated Africans. His titles gave this group a public voice and educated them about current affairs. </p>
<p>Plaatje’s newspapers also attacked unjust laws and racial discrimination in the Cape Colony and later the Union of South Africa. He also wrote very widely in English medium newspapers like the <em>Diamond Fields Advertiser</em> and <em>The Star</em>, educating their white readerships about black experiences and perspectives. </p>
<p>Plaatje’s journalism gave him a national profile and he was elected as Secretary General of the newly formed <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/dated-event/formation-south-african-native-national-congress">South African Native National Congress</a> (SANNC) in 1912. A response to the white-dominated Union of 1910, the SANNC united Africans across tribal, regional and language divisions. Later to become the ANC, it gave them a national political voice and identity. </p>
<p>Plaatje travelled to England as part of the congress’s delegation to protest against the Land Act. He joined a second delegation in 1919, where he visited North America as well. On these visits, he addressed hundreds of gatherings to present the “native case”.</p>
<p>His publication in 1916 of <em>Native Life in South Africa</em> was part of this campaign. This and his travels took his role as public educator to an international audience. Although these delegations were ultimately unsuccessful, they laid roots for the later anti-apartheid movement.</p>
<p>Plaatje returned from his travels disappointed by the failure of the delegations to effect change and heavily in debt. He resumed his journalism and travelled the country showing films – a novel technology – to black African audiences. These showed the progress that black Americans had made in politics and education. </p>
<p>Again, this was an effort to educate and connect people. But, in a rapidly urbanising and industrialising South Africa, Plaatje’s messages of educational self-help and moral improvement did not resonate as they once had. </p>
<p>In his final years he increasingly turned to literary concerns: a book about Setswana proverbs and folktales, and a translation of Shakespeare into Setswana. These works bear testimony to his profound and visionary engagement in a dialogue between the oral and the written, Setswana and English, the past and the present.</p>
<h2>A fitting tribute</h2>
<p>Plaatje died of pneumonia in 1932. His riches lay not in material wealth but in the range and depth of his contribution to society. </p>
<p>As his daughter Violet recited as his funeral:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>For here was one devoid of wealth/But buried like a lord. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Perhaps the greatest testament to these gifts, for a man who valued education and learning so deeply, is the living memorial just around the corner from his Kimberley house at 32 Angel Street: the brand new <a href="http://www.spu.ac.za/">Sol Plaatje University</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/65979/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Rule does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>How did Sol Plaatje, a man with only four years of formal schooling, become one of South Africa’s most brilliant and committed public educators?Peter Rule, Senior Lecturer, Adult Education, University of KwaZulu-NatalLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/639832016-08-19T02:12:47Z2016-08-19T02:12:47ZShould writing for the public count toward tenure?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/134683/original/image-20160818-12284-12nzrwu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Why scholars need to talk about their research with the lay public.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/experts/lee-badgett/lee-badgett/">AIDSVaccine</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Many pressing issues have been calling for attention these days – <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/03/health/death-rates-rising-for-middle-aged-white-americans-study-finds.html">the unprecedented increase in mortality rates</a> among white Americans, the <a href="http://blacklivesmatter.com/">Black Lives Matter movement</a> and the upending of the Republican Party. </p>
<p>At the root of many of these issues are complex sociological reasons. For example, there is good reason to believe that the rising mortality among white Americans is related to the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/22/opinion/why-are-white-death-rates-rising.html?_r=0">declining economic fortunes</a> of white working-class men over the past four decades. </p>
<p>But how is the general public to understand these issues? And how are they to know how best to respond to such concerns?</p>
<p>Surely, hundreds, if not thousands, of articles and university press books could provide insights. The problem is this bounty of expert knowledge can hardly be accessed by the general public, politicians or practitioners.</p>
<p>I am the director of the <a href="https://www.umass.edu/pep/">Public Engagement Project</a> at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. I lead a peer mentoring group that provides training to scholars on how to be public intellectuals, work with practitioners and policymakers, and influence social change. </p>
<p>But the challenge is that such public engagement does not count within the academy. Faculty evaluations rarely consider articles written for the popular media.</p>
<p>Now, in a move of far-reaching significance, the American Sociological Association aims to start a conversation among university scholars and administrators about how to include “public communication” in the assessment of a scholar’s contributions. </p>
<p>On August 20 – the first day of its annual meeting in Seattle that will draw 6,000 sociologists from around the country – the ASA plans to release a seminal report, titled <a href="http://www.asanet.org/sites/default/files/tf_report_what_counts_evaluating_public_communication_in_tenure_and_promotion_final_august_2016.pdf">“What Counts? Evaluating Public Communication in Tenure and Promotion.”</a> </p>
<p>I see this report as critical. When we include public communication – not just peer-reviewed scholarly communication – in evaluating faculty, we encourage them to share their knowledge with the members of society who could most benefit from it.</p>
<h2>The problem</h2>
<p>It was late in my Ph.D. training at the University of California Berkeley that it dawned on me how the knowledge produced in my discipline was not getting out of the proverbial ivory tower. </p>
<p>During a heated argument about the American economy, my brother took issue with my assertion that for many Americans real wages had stagnated since the late 1970s. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/134675/original/image-20160818-12303-6rz0te.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/134675/original/image-20160818-12303-6rz0te.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134675/original/image-20160818-12303-6rz0te.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134675/original/image-20160818-12303-6rz0te.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134675/original/image-20160818-12303-6rz0te.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=520&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134675/original/image-20160818-12303-6rz0te.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=520&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134675/original/image-20160818-12303-6rz0te.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=520&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Is academic knowledge stuck inside the ivory tower?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/cushinglibrary/4032791258/in/photolist-79n7kL-79hQwT-axCaWs-4pQGFy-79mQCq-6QLy3A-pdwNdb-79meCh-6z9XMd-79meSJ-79nfiq-79ho12-79meRE-79hYWP-79nfnu-axCaR1-79ifpV-oXojuH-79meTS-oXosJQ-79ifrD-bnb9Ax-79i8sg-79mZbd-79meMQ-79n7iL-8pLQNK-79meBf-79nsiS-79nfjj-pTLTuA-qxHVfG-79meEG-6xyNy8-8KX1EC-79hYU2-79meTd-79ioyH-axCaPC-8w13FU-6ixgvR-79iJ18-h8ZTkY-79nfmh-96hnw8-9Ga8Dx-9GaFip-egq2av-8ig9un-8ig8QZ">Cushing Memorial Library and Archives, Texas A&M</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The year was 2000 – before the 2008 recession, before Occupy Wall Street, before Bernie Sanders. The changes in the economy and the social policies that had for decades been driving the stagnation at the bottom of the income distribution and growth at the top were <a href="http://press.princeton.edu/titles/5877.html">well-established</a> within sociology. </p>
<p>But it was not so well-known outside of the discipline. The reaction of my well-educated, well-read and normally agreeable brother attested to that.</p>
<p>It was at that moment that I realized that the fruits of my profession – all those painstakingly researched facts and carefully considered analyses – were not reaching even reasonably well-informed people. </p>
<p>Since cofounding the Public Engagement Project in 2007, I have seen this problem over and over again. Crucial research-based information on, for instance, housing discrimination, health impacts of chemicals in our everyday environment or the causes and consequences of health inequities, remains largely unknown to the outside public and politicians. This is information that could inform and have an impact on policy.</p>
<p>So, how did we end up in this situation?</p>
<p>There are many forces at play. An important one is that research universities only reward peer-reviewed research. They do not teach scholars – or count the time it takes – to communicate with anyone else.</p>
<h2>Where are the academics?</h2>
<p>This disconnect between research – often publicly funded – and the society that stands to benefit from it has not gone unnoticed. </p>
<p>For example, in 2014, New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof called on faculty to make their voices heard. In his column <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/16/opinion/sunday/kristof-professors-we-need-you.html?_r=0">“Professors, We Need You!”</a>, Kristoff wrote,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Some of the smartest thinkers on problems at home and around the world are university professors, but most of them just don’t matter in today’s great debates.” </p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/134667/original/image-20160818-12295-1kz0yhu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/134667/original/image-20160818-12295-1kz0yhu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134667/original/image-20160818-12295-1kz0yhu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134667/original/image-20160818-12295-1kz0yhu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134667/original/image-20160818-12295-1kz0yhu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134667/original/image-20160818-12295-1kz0yhu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134667/original/image-20160818-12295-1kz0yhu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Where are the academics?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/smullis/5675785267/in/photolist-9DxTdF-9K2C9s-rpwSC9-fbwv49-6wSC6Z-c3S3xq-eqVTd4-6wWNgu-fxgy7B-qEqPQY-nnienN-4ffJSL-s3ZEz8-uzJvY-c3S2Dj-fxvL19-2xfWVx-snhxJB-48pxQ-9DM219-5LniRB-bXoqfz-eLxdYi-ejjB5j-cP7Cks-cP7xN7-eLxdHZ-7GUVCj-8bLvzt-c4sLUN-a7b9jn-nFJtug-eLJBzj-eLJCeb-9P6MBW-npt86v-eLJCdh-eUi1LH-obfyne-nscEJz-ofvBBz-fbyWhJ-eUuodo-bFe1XY-54Hgmk-nLtecZ-o2CG8z-7ZABrV-nJFNua-qsuGSN">Steve Mullis</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Scholars such as <a href="http://stevenpinker.com/why-academics-stink-writing">Steven Pinker</a> and <a href="http://www.megankatenelson.com/is-there-a-future-for-creative-academic-writing-in-academia/">Jill Lepore</a> have argued that faculty must learn to seize, rather than shy away from, the power of story and idiom. Such creative tools need not diminish heft, as professors often fear. Instead, they can help communicate complexity.</p>
<p>In fact, many initiatives inside and outside the academy are now seeking to address the absence of professors in public dialogue and debate.</p>
<p>The National Science Foundation requires grantees to spell out the <a href="https://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2002/nsf022/bicexamples.pdf">“broader impacts”</a> of projects. And private foundations are supporting new channels of communication between academics and decision-makers. <a href="http://www.centerforcommunicatingscience.org/">Other initiatives</a>, <a href="https://contemporaryfamilies.org/">all over the country</a>, are aiming to shore up the public communication capacities of scholars, including this very publication, The Conversation.</p>
<p>A challenge though has been our disciplinary training which emphasizes “methodological and theoretical” contributions. That makes it hard for us to explain the broad significance of our work to noninitiates.</p>
<p>Academics can become mired in academic jargon, or just fall silent.</p>
<p>But like any new skill, mastering writing for the public requires community, commitment, courage, and a lot of practice. </p>
<p>The Public Engagement Project at the University of Massachusetts offers an example of crucial peer support. A group of seven to nine faculty, drawn from across the disciplines, engage each year in peer mentoring of colleagues during a semester-long Public Engagement Project Faculty Fellowship. </p>
<h2>Why it matters</h2>
<p>The process of learning a new language can be humbling. But the benefits are tangible.</p>
<p>For example, one Fellow, who prepared a policy memo to share with lawmakers, was asked to provide scientific advice to her national senator. Her public outreach also resulted in her appointment to the U.S. EPA’s Science Advisory Board. </p>
<p>In another example, a general interest <a href="https://theconversation.com/are-we-eating-too-much-arsenic-we-need-better-tests-to-know-40732">article</a> written by a chemistry professor reached more readers than the scholar had in all the preceding decades of work. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/134684/original/image-20160818-12281-1sh0d9v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/134684/original/image-20160818-12281-1sh0d9v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134684/original/image-20160818-12281-1sh0d9v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134684/original/image-20160818-12281-1sh0d9v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134684/original/image-20160818-12281-1sh0d9v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134684/original/image-20160818-12281-1sh0d9v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134684/original/image-20160818-12281-1sh0d9v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The benefits of taking work to a lay audience are significant.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/poptech/4826930613/in/photolist-8mxhiB-8mC143-a5BhGt-8mwgqR-8mzf8w-8mwutg-8myAUB-hTFssS-8mBJV1-8mBHDJ-8mADBo-cWcvgy-8myRb6-8mx95c-fcjW9o-8mAz83-8mzrXs-8mwp4X-8myssT-8myTwn-8mycZi-8mA6id-8mzdr3-8myEZ2-8mxx3z-8mxrav-8mzJUu-8mxExM-8mx82B-cc6Y3N-8mzcN9-cE8eYG-8my6je-8mBZkC-b61xdH-8mzH9W-8mxZvP-8mzAvf-8mybWK-8mC5td-8mA933-hTEVKF-8mzMQ1-8mC2HG-8mywGz-8mARoj-8mwWt4-8mAm1w-8mzmJQ-8mzwVS">PopTech</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In my own work on adolescent sexuality, culture and families, I have found that my <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/24/opinion/sunday/24schalet.html">articles</a> for general audiences resulted in much greater visibility for my academic publications.</p>
<p>Furthermore, as a result of writing for practitioners and lay readers, new ideas emerged for future research projects, and other opportunities came up for public engagement. </p>
<p>What was most rewarding was that I found a way to reach parents with information that could improve their relationships with their teenage children. </p>
<p>A significant benefit that I have seen in my work with the Public Engagement Project Fellows is that it helps scholars clarify their thinking. In a recent <a href="https://theconversation.com/heres-why-academics-should-write-for-the-public-50874">article</a>, researchers Jonathan Wai and David Miller report similarly: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“not only did the process [of writing for the public] improve the quality of our writing, but it also brought more clarity to the way we were thinking about scientific problems.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In her book, <a href="http://nyupress.org/books/9781479861392/">“The Public Professor: How to Use Your Research to Change the World,”</a>, economist and <a href="https://www.umass.edu/pep/steering-committee">publicly engaged scholar</a> Lee Badgett details numerous stories of academics who are able to “speak truth to power” through public communication. </p>
<h2>But does it count?</h2>
<p>We know faculty public engagement matters for society. From my experience, I also also know that it matters for individual faculty. They report a greater sense of purpose, fulfillment, a better mastery of their topic area and new chances for future funding. </p>
<p>But does the public engagement work they do – the hours they spent crafting an op-ed or a policy brief, and cultivating relationships with policymakers, practitioners or the news office – matter in the eyes of those tasked with assessing their productivity and their value?</p>
<p>The answer all too often is no.</p>
<p>That is where, the American Sociological Association’s August 20 report, “What Counts?,” comes in. The report draws attention to the place where the rubber meets the road in any academic’s career – namely, the process of being granted tenure. The report proposes that universities consider how to include the work of faculty who engage in public communication in tenure and promotion cases and in overall faculty assessment.</p>
<p>Tenure is the make-or-break of academic life – a process through which a faculty member either gets promoted or loses a job. What counts in this process are publications in peer-reviewed journals or university press books. </p>
<p>Public communication is seen, at best, as a nice, but unnecessary bonus. </p>
<h2>Research matters</h2>
<p>“What Counts” does not tell individual sociologists, members of tenure and promotion committees, or administrators that faculty should engage in public communication. </p>
<p>What it does is recognize that many faculty do already engage in public communications, and that such work has much to contribute to the world and the discipline.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/134674/original/image-20160818-12309-1yodhfo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/134674/original/image-20160818-12309-1yodhfo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134674/original/image-20160818-12309-1yodhfo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134674/original/image-20160818-12309-1yodhfo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134674/original/image-20160818-12309-1yodhfo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134674/original/image-20160818-12309-1yodhfo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134674/original/image-20160818-12309-1yodhfo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Whose voice counts is important as well.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/richardsummers/4106004896/in/photolist-eykgLV-6vvcho-aqYRuD-6vvgmf-5R86X3-6WAq6H-eykgCv-f8nL4u-5APCnP-6vr8pk-ezchiS-sohETV-5ANWz6-6vr7nX-fGPt2P-5mTr8q-6vvhhE-6vr17a-6vr1cF-eykhXH-5qgxb7-ewYqb1-7rf7xg-7fQmcS-eShRDq-ezcgFQ-earxnC-eyosYA-6vr2sT-ez9bQc-ezcfSh-8aLCVR-5mPdhv-4aLVBN-5ATTFL-ez95nB-6vvh4J-eykgLn-6ws4hB-6vr8ji-6vr2dt-ez93hT-ewYqfb-ez9bWt-8ZxFCf-6vvfc9-5mTn9h-6vu1iS-eyoqHN-ez94yp">Banalities</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It urges leaders in the discipline to start a conversation about counting this work in tenure and promotion. It outlines three criteria for evaluation: The first criterion is the content of the writing. The second is quality and rigor. And the third is public impact.</p>
<p>Finally, the ASA report notes that women and minority scholars are less likely to gain access to high-status news outlets and more likely to be attacked when they take public positions on contentious issues. </p>
<p>So, “What Counts?” also asks the question of “Who Counts?”</p>
<p>For when we return to such pressing issues, like the rise of Donald Trump and the Black Lives Matter movement, what stands out is the question of whose voice counts and who feels not heard. This question pertains not only to people in the streets and at the rallies, but also to experts.</p>
<p>Research matters. It can help us understand and act in the world – in a more informed way.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/63983/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amy Schalet is a member of the American Sociological Association Subcommittee on the Evaluation of Social Media and Public Communication in Sociology, which wrote the report, “What Counts? Evaluating Public Communication in Tenure and Promotion." She has received funding from The Ford Foundation.</span></em></p>The American Sociological Association is starting a conversation to include “public communication” – work often largely ignored – in the assessment of a scholar’s contributions. Why does it matter?Amy Schalet, Associate Professor of Sociology, Director of the Public Engagement Project, UMass AmherstLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/464512015-10-13T10:46:18Z2015-10-13T10:46:18ZWhy more scientists are needed in the public square<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/97300/original/image-20151005-28772-1ti19jn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">UCSF neuroscience grad student Sama Ahmed, whose three-minute talk on 'how to know your species' won first place at the campuswide contest, will compete for the Grad Slam championship in Oakland May 4. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/uc-grad-slam-tests-scholars-communication-skills">Susan Merrell/UCSF</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In this presidential election season, one thing is certain: candidates will rarely – if ever – be asked what they would do to keep this nation at the forefront of science and innovation.</p>
<p>That’s a shame.</p>
<p>The public dialogue about science is perhaps the most vital and most fraught national conversation not taking place in our country, and the ramifications are profound.</p>
<p>Ultimately, the way we address science and innovation will determine what our children learn in school, what college graduates bring to the larger world, how public lands and natural resources are cared for and whether people receive adequate health care. And the list goes on.</p>
<p>As the president of one of our country’s leading research university systems, I believe it is now incumbent on the academic community to ensure that the work and voices of researchers are front and center in the public square.</p>
<h2>Calling all scientists</h2>
<p>When the voices of scientists are not heard in the dialogue, there is a price to pay.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/97304/original/image-20151005-28783-18j3xun.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/97304/original/image-20151005-28783-18j3xun.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=760&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97304/original/image-20151005-28783-18j3xun.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=760&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97304/original/image-20151005-28783-18j3xun.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=760&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97304/original/image-20151005-28783-18j3xun.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=956&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97304/original/image-20151005-28783-18j3xun.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=956&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97304/original/image-20151005-28783-18j3xun.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=956&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A grateful public.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Salk_Thank_You.jpg">March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation</a></span>
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<p>Just think how many thousands more victims, mostly children, would have suffered needlessly if Jonas Salk had not broken new ground when he went public with his discovery of his polio vaccine back in the 1950s.</p>
<p>As Stanford University’s Charlotte DeCroes Jacobs made clear in her recent excellent biography, <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/jonas-salk-9780199334414?cc=us&lang=en&">Jonas Salk, A Life</a>, the fanfare brought Salk the everlasting disdain of some of his scientific colleagues, but it proved to serve the greater public good.</p>
<p>It is important that scientists be seen as regular people asking and answering important questions.</p>
<p>Our country needs more scientists who are willing and able to step out in the public arena and to weigh in, clearly and strongly – such as atmospheric physicist <a href="http://www-ramanathan.ucsd.edu/about/">Veerabhadran Ramanathan</a> of UC San Diego, who discovered the greenhouse effect of halocarbons in 1975. </p>
<p>Dr Ramanathan is a member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences that <a href="http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/2015/jun/18/pope-francis-UCSD/">influenced Pope Francis </a>to speak out on global climate change.</p>
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<p>We need more scientists who can explain what they are doing in language that is compelling and understandable to the public – for example, astrophysicist and Hayden Planetarium Director<a href="http://www.haydenplanetarium.org/tyson/"> Neil deGrasse Tyson</a>, whose use of television and social media earned him the <a href="http://www.nasonline.org/programs/awards/?referrer=https://www.google.com/">US National Academy of Sciences Public Welfare medal</a> this year for “exciting the public about the wonders of science.”</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"650084616091504640"}"></div></p>
<p>Those of us in the academic community who are not scientists should also be prepared to support public engagement by scientists, and to incorporate scientific knowledge into our public communications. </p>
<p>I know from conversations I have had with other higher education leaders that I am not the only one who believes this is important.</p>
<h2>Understanding mysteries of research</h2>
<p>Too many people in this country – and that includes some among our elected leadership – still do not understand how science works or why robust, long-range investments in research vitally matter.</p>
<p>The truth is in the numbers. In the 1960s, the United States devoted nearly 17% of discretionary spending to research and development, <a href="http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/nsb0803/start.htm?CFID=18451611&CFTOKEN=42234921&jsessionid=f030ea890c79923b21615c3b96b6155b134a">reaping decades of economic growth</a> from this sustained investment. By 2008, the figure had fallen into the single digits. This occurs at a time when the private sector has cut back on its research investment and other nations <a href="http://www.scienceprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/SciProgResearchandDevelopment-101.pdf">have made significant gains </a>in their own research capabilities. </p>
<p>China, for example, <a>is projected to outspend</a> the United States in research within the next decade. East Asia as a whole already does. </p>
<p>At the University of California, we pride ourselves not only on the quality of our research, but also on its contribution to improving aspects of the world we live in.</p>
<p>It is <a href="http://ucanr.edu/delivers/">UC’s research</a>, for example, that has made California among the most robust agricultural regions of the world. </p>
<p>To hasten the development of science from the lab bench to the market place, UC is investing our own money in our own good ideas. </p>
<p>This past summer, we launched the first <a href="http://primeuc.org/">primeUC</a> competition, which will award US$300,000 to winning start-ups in the health sciences. And last year, our Board of Regents approved <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/university-of-california-approves-venture-capital-fund-to-back-its-own-startups-1411072435">the creation of a new $250 million fund</a>, designed to provide seed money for direct investment into student and faculty inventions. </p>
<p>It also is possible to have some fun in demonstrating the broad, societal significance of research.</p>
<h2>Introducing Grad Slam</h2>
<p>Last May, I had the opportunity to emcee the first-ever University of California system-wide Grad Slam.</p>
<p>The Grad Slam asked UC graduate students to take their years of academic toil and research, and present their work to an audience in just three minutes, free of jargon or technical lingo.</p>
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<p>Think of these presentations as TED talks on steroids or the ultimate in elevator speeches. Each of our 10 campuses held a local competition, and the finals took place at our system-wide headquarters in Oakland. Several of those finalists are featured on <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/uc-grad-slam-2015">The Conversation’s website</a>.</p>
<p>While it was a fun event, the purpose was very serious.</p>
<p>Good, sound science depends on hypotheses, experiments and reasoned methodologies. It requires a willingness to ask new questions and try new approaches. It requires one to take risks and experience failures.</p>
<p>But good, sound science also requires clear explanation, succinct presentation and contextual understanding. Telling the story is half the battle, and Grad Slam is perfect practice.</p>
<h2>‘An eternal guide to truth’</h2>
<p>On the flip side, our country needs more politicians who understand science and recognize it as more than window dressing for photo ops at school science fairs or opportunities to come before the cameras in white lab coats.</p>
<p>Scientists, of course, should not lose their focus on conducting research in the lab or the field, sharing knowledge with their peers, and supervising the postdocs and graduate students who will serve as the scientists of tomorrow.</p>
<p>In today’s world, however, society will benefit from scientists who also are able to raise the profile of science in the public dialogue.</p>
<p>In the rim of the dome of the National Academy of Sciences, there is an inscription <a href="http://www.nasonline.org/about-nas/visiting-nas/nas-building/the-great-hall.html">that reads</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>To science, pilot of industry, conqueror of disease, multiplier of the harvest, explorer of the universe, revealer of nature’s laws, eternal guide to truth.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/97303/original/image-20151005-28777-1q464ow.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/97303/original/image-20151005-28777-1q464ow.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/97303/original/image-20151005-28777-1q464ow.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97303/original/image-20151005-28777-1q464ow.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97303/original/image-20151005-28777-1q464ow.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97303/original/image-20151005-28777-1q464ow.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97303/original/image-20151005-28777-1q464ow.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97303/original/image-20151005-28777-1q464ow.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The nation’s home of science in America.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:National_Academy_of_Sciences,_Washington,_D.C._07_-_2012.JPG">Another believer</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
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<p>This is a fine, noble and trenchant statement of what science is all about. It is a statement that must be made to come alive in the nation’s public conscience, and in the public and political narrative.</p>
<p>For more than 200 years, science and research have been the source of our country’s greatest strengths, and the promise of its bright future.</p>
<p>Now more than ever, it is incumbent on scientists to put their knowledge on the table, and for others in the academic community to support them in that endeavor.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/46451/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Janet Napolitano served in President Barack Obama’s cabinet as Secretary of Homeland Security.</span></em></p>The president of one of the country’s leading research university systems argues that the academic community has to make sure researchers and scientists engage with the general public.Janet Napolitano, President, University of California, Office of the PresidentLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/320722014-10-06T01:54:39Z2014-10-06T01:54:39ZNaomi Klein or Al Gore? Making sense of contrasting views on climate change<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/60689/original/xcqjt8f4-1412294757.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">For Klein, it's all about mobilising the grassroots. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://flic.kr/p/p3KtHm">Stephen Melkisethian</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Earth is “fucked” and our insatiable growth economy is to blame. So argues Naomi Klein in her intentionally provocative best-seller <a href="http://thischangeseverything.org/">This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate</a>.</p>
<p>Klein is the latest among an influential network of like-minded authors who have declared that modern society is at war with nature in a battle that threatens the survivial of the human species. Examples include US writer/activist <a href="http://www.billmckibben.com/bio.html">Bill McKibben</a>, Canadian broadcaster <a href="http://www.davidsuzuki.org/david/">David Suzuki</a>, and Australian philosopher <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/clive-hamilton-195">Clive Hamilton</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/60791/original/b8wtn9jz-1412351060.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/60791/original/b8wtn9jz-1412351060.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/60791/original/b8wtn9jz-1412351060.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/60791/original/b8wtn9jz-1412351060.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/60791/original/b8wtn9jz-1412351060.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/60791/original/b8wtn9jz-1412351060.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/60791/original/b8wtn9jz-1412351060.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Klein: To fight climate change, we have to end capitalism.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Naomi_Klein_Warsaw_Nov.20_2008_Fot_Mariusz_Kubik_12.jpg">Mariusz Kubik</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<p>Deeply skeptical of technological and market-based approaches to climate change, they urge the need for a new consciousness spread through grassroots organizing and protest. “Only mass movements can save us now,” Klein writes. She argues that “profound and radical economic transformation” is needed to avoid certain catastrophe. </p>
<p>The more than 300,000 people who turned out for last month’s <a href="http://qz.com/269303/watch-this-drone-capture-the-enormity-of-the-peoples-climate-march/">People’s Climate March</a> in New York are just the start. </p>
<p>For Klein, human survival demands that we engage in a furious battle against the status quo, one equal in intensity to the efforts that ended slavery and European colonialism. “Both these transformative movements forced ruling elites to relinquish practices that were still extraordinarily profitable, much as fossil fuel extraction is today,” she writes. </p>
<p>An abolitionist-style climate movement would allow a global alliance of left-wing activists to achieve a diverse range of social justice goals, argues Klein. These include repealing free trade agreements, easing immigration rules, establishing indigenous rights, and guaranteeing a minimum income level.</p>
<p>Ultimately, for Klein, climate change is our best chance to right the “festering wrongs” of colonialism and slavery, “the unfinished business of liberation.”</p>
<p>As a public intellectual and aspiring movement leader, Klein sees her mission as winning a “battle of cultural worldviews,” opening up the space for a “full throated debate about values,” telling new stories to “replace the ones that have failed us.”</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/60684/original/kwb6j54n-1412270799.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/60684/original/kwb6j54n-1412270799.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=902&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/60684/original/kwb6j54n-1412270799.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=902&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/60684/original/kwb6j54n-1412270799.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=902&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/60684/original/kwb6j54n-1412270799.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1134&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/60684/original/kwb6j54n-1412270799.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1134&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/60684/original/kwb6j54n-1412270799.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1134&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Bill McKibben’s views align with Klein’s.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_McKibben#mediaviewer/File:Bill_McKibben_at_RIT-3.jpg">Hotshot977</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
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<p>In these new stories, Klein and her intellectual confederates value solutions that they see as coming from the natural world. They eschew technologies such as nuclear power or genetic engineering, arguing on behalf of a transition to smaller scale, locally controlled solar, wind, and geothermal energy technologies and organic farming. </p>
<p>In this egalitarian future where people grow their own food, produce their own energy, share jobs working 3-4 days/week, and deliberate in small groups, traditional definitions of economic growth would cease, with progress defined instead in terms of health, happiness, and community. </p>
<p>Ultimately, the hoped-for grand bargain on climate change will be that as rich nations “de-grow” their economies, they will share their surplus wealth and renewable technologies with China, India and other developing countries. In return these countries will choose a different, less consumer-driven path.</p>
<h2>Public intellectuals, disruptive ideas</h2>
<p>In a <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/enhanced/doi/10.1002/wcc.317">paper just published</a> at Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews Climate Change, I analyze how public intellectuals such as Klein and McKibben shape debate over climate change. I compare their arguments to other prominent public intellectuals such as UK economist <a href="http://www.lse.ac.uk/GranthamInstitute/profile/nicholas-stern/">Nicholas Stern</a>, former <a href="http://www.algore.com/">US Vice President Al Gore</a>, The New York Times’ writer <a href="http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/author/andrew-c-revkin/">Andrew Revkin</a>, and Oxford University anthropologist <a href="http://www.keble.ox.ac.uk/academics/about/professor-steve-rayner">Steve Rayner.</a></p>
<p>Gore and Stern differ from Klein in arguing that climate change can be tackled primarily through market-based policies like <a href="http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/al-gore-put-price-carbon-131955992.html">carbon pricing</a>, rejecting the idea that we must choose between growing the economy and fighting climate change.</p>
<p>In contrast, Rayner was among the first public intellectuals to argue that climate change is more accurately framed as an <a href="http://thebreakthrough.org/archive/a_new_approach_on_global_clima">energy innovation and societal resilience problem</a>. He has also <a href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v449/n7165/full/449973a.html">strongly questioned</a> the pursuit of a binding international agreement to limit emissions. </p>
<p>Similarly, as Revkin <a href="http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/09/22/humanitys-long-climate-and-energy-march/">recently noted</a>, contrary to the arguments of Klein, renewable energy sources alone are not likely to meet the “intertwined challenges of expanding energy access [among the world’s poor] while limiting global warming.” Like Rayner, he argues that we need to rethink our assumptions, and broaden the menu of policy options and technologies considered.</p>
<p>On the need to diversify approaches, Stern along with Columbia University economist <a href="http://jeffsachs.org/">Jeffrey Sachs</a> have <a href="http://newclimateeconomy.net/content/press-release-economic-growth-and-action-climate-change-can-now-be-achieved-together-finds">offered similar arguments</a>, but place much stronger faith than either Rayner or Revkin in the ability of a global international agreement to decarbonize the world economy, <a href="http://unsdsn.org/what-we-do/deep-decarbonization-pathways/">guided by timetables, temperature targets, carbon budgets, research and development investments</a> and <a href="http://newclimateeconomy.net/content/press-release-economic-growth-and-action-climate-change-can-now-be-achieved-together-finds">carbon pricing signals</a>.</p>
<p>In defining what climate change means, these public intellectuals and others help create a common outlook, informally guiding the work of like-minded advocates, funders, journalists, and governmental officials. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/60681/original/c23npn3t-1412269935.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/60681/original/c23npn3t-1412269935.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/60681/original/c23npn3t-1412269935.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/60681/original/c23npn3t-1412269935.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/60681/original/c23npn3t-1412269935.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/60681/original/c23npn3t-1412269935.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/60681/original/c23npn3t-1412269935.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/60681/original/c23npn3t-1412269935.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Public intellectuals and their views on climate change. Zoom for more detail.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Matthew Nisbet</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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<p>Given the complexity of climate change as a social problem it is possible for competing narratives and explanations about its social implications and solutions to exist. </p>
<p>So it is not surprising that among public intellectuals there is disagreement over what the issue means for society, leading to intense clashes among those who look to one discourse over another to guide their work. </p>
<p>Revkin, for example, <a href="http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/08/more-on-tar-oil-pipelines-and-presidents/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0">has criticized</a> the grassroots campaign against the Keystone XL oil pipeline as distracting from the “core issues involving our energy future and is largely insignificant if your concern is averting a buildup of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.”</p>
<p>He has also argued the need to chart a path to a “<a href="http://nyti.ms/1kwU4pX">Good Anthropocene</a>”. In this new “Age of Us”, humans have generated considerable ecological and social risks, but at the same time, in the face of this uncertainty, possess the ability to create a better future through technological innovation and resilience strategies.</p>
<p>Not surprisingly, Bill McKibben dismisses Revkin’s outlook on climate change as “<a href="http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/08/more-on-tar-oil-pipelines-and-presidents/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0.">relentlessly middle seeking</a>.” Incredible Hulk actor Mark Ruffalo, who opposes the pipeline, has called Revkin a “<a href="http://ensia.com/voices/why-its-good-to-debate-strategies-to-address-climate-change/">climate coward</a>.” </p>
<p>For his part, Clive Hamilton <a href="http://clivehamilton.com/the-delusion-of-the-good-anthropocene-reply-to-andrew-revkin/">argues that</a> Revkin and other public intellectuals promoting the possibility of the “good Anthropocene” are “unscientific and live in a fantasy world of their own construction.”</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/60685/original/zkssb9zf-1412270883.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/60685/original/zkssb9zf-1412270883.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=901&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/60685/original/zkssb9zf-1412270883.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=901&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/60685/original/zkssb9zf-1412270883.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=901&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/60685/original/zkssb9zf-1412270883.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1132&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/60685/original/zkssb9zf-1412270883.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1132&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/60685/original/zkssb9zf-1412270883.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1132&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Gore: We can fight climate change and grow the economy.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d1/AlGoreGlobalWarmingTalk.jpg">Breuwi</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<p>These disagreements over the social implications of climate change reflect differing values, intellectual traditions, and visions of the “good society.” They are embedded in contrasting beliefs about nature, risk, progress, authority, and technology. </p>
<p>In this battle among competing ideas, climate change becomes “a synecdoche – a figurative turn of phrase in which something stands in for something else — for something much more important than simply the way humans are changing the weather,” <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/enhanced/doi/10.1002/wcc.317">notes Kings College London’s Mike Hulme</a> (a public intellectual himself). </p>
<p>Reading Klein, it is clear that she is not confident that the mass movement she calls for and the deep structural reforms that “change everything” are achievable. Instead, like radical intellectuals of movements past, her utopian vision serves an important political function, creating space for <a href="http://ensia.com/voices/a-new-model-for-climate-advocacy/">more pragmatic, less revolutionary social innovations</a>.</p>
<p>Many who are inspired by Klein’s arguments will take to the streets, to social media, and to campuses to wage battle for their worldviews. For the rest of us, we should carefully engage with Klein’s ideas, seeking out with equal enthusiasm and critical reflection the arguments of other public intellectuals in the climate debate. </p>
<p>The goal is not to choose among competing perspectives, but to grapple with their tensions and uncertainties. Through this process, as we call on our political leaders to act and work with others on solutions, we can hold our own convictions and opinions more lightly; identifying what is of value among the ideas offered by those on the left, right, and in the center.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/32072/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matthew Nisbet has received research grants from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Nathan Cummings Foundation, and the MacArthur Foundation. His own outlook on the social implications of climate change is closest to that of the Ecomodernists (see table).</span></em></p>Earth is “fucked” and our insatiable growth economy is to blame. So argues Naomi Klein in her intentionally provocative best-seller This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate. Klein is the latest…Matthew C. Nisbet, Associate Professor of Communication, Northeastern UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.