<CPOV> CPOV on Wikipedia Signpost

[Maja van der Velden]

Maybe Donna Haraway can help:

"I will critically analyze, or "deconstruct", only that which I love  
and only that in which I am deeply implicated." (p. 151,  
Modest_Witness at ...).

Greetings,

Maja

On Dec 2, 2010, at 12:09 PM, nathaniel tkacz wrote:

> Hi Joseph,
>
> The question of what it means to be critical is indeed an  
> interesting one and one we have been thinking a bit about in the  
> intro to the reader.
>
> The emic/etic distinction in anthropology certainly resonates with  
> the distinction we made regarding normative/empirical, although it  
> seems to have quite a specific history. One can certainly use  
> _academic_ language and still be a fanboy, and vice versa. I would  
> say that language has a lot to do with it, but not necessarily  
> academic language. Anybody whose terms don't align with Wikipedia  
> and whose position is marginalised in the project can provide a  
> critical perspective. This can also happen from within, but usually  
> in different ways.
>
> As I said, there is no absolute inside or outside. For me, what's  
> important is that the very terms of debate are up for grabs, that  
> practices and knowledges can be described in multiple terms. It's  
> also important to stress that to be critical is not to reject  
> outright or be totally against. Rather, I see critique a the site of  
> possibility, as a mode of transformation. That said, I think that a  
> lot of the current language used to describe Wikipedia - as the best  
> example of peer production, social media, free culture or whatever -  
> such as collaboration, openness, participation and so on, actively  
> work against the ability to provide critical perspectives. I think  
> it's vital to challenge these terms and build more nuanced  
> perspectives.
>
> For me, the question of critique is also linked to that of power, to  
> making visible the new modes of force that operate in online projects.
>
> Best
>
> Nate Tkacz
>
> School of Culture and Communication
> University of Melbourne
>
> Twitter: http://twitter.com/__nate__
>
> Research Page: http://nathanieltkacz.net
>
> Current project: http://networkcultures.org/wpmu/cpov/about-2/
>
>
> On Thu, Dec 2, 2010 at 5:33 AM, Joseph Reagle <joseph. 
> 2008 at reagle.org> wrote:
>
> Interesting interview with Johanna and Nate [1]. The question of  
> what it means to be "critical" is an interesting one. The response  
> to this question seems to indicate it is a matter of language, that  
> is, the distance afforded by using academic terminology. Is this an  
> etic/emic distinction then? (Normative/empirical as used in the  
> article.) However, one could still be a fanboy, and use academic  
> terminology....
>
> [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2010-11-29/Interview
>
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