From RESCLOVE@amherst.eduTue Dec 3 09:42:15 1996 Date: Fri, 01 Nov 1996 20:28:53 -0500 (EST) From: RESCLOVE@amherst.edu To: loka-l@amherst.edu Subject: Community Research News!/Loka in Mainstream!? (Loka Alert 3-6) Loka Alert 3-6 (1 November 1996) (1) COMMUNITY RESEARCH NETWORK UPDATE (2) DEMOCRATIC TECHNOLOGY IN THE MAINSTREAM!? Friends and Colleagues: This is one in an occasional series of electronic postings on democratic politics of science and technology, issued by The Loka Institute. You are welcome to post it in its entirety anywhere you feel is appropriate. (However, advance permission is required for commercial republication in any form.) If you would like to be added to, or removed from, the Loka Institute e-mail list, please send an e-mail message to that effect to Loka@amherst.edu --Dick Sclove, Executive Director The Loka Institute, P.O. Box 355, Amherst, MA 01004-0355, USA Tel. +(413) 253-2828; Fax +(413) 253-4942, E-mail: resclove@amherst.edu Web: http://www.amherst.edu/~loka ***************************************************************** CONTENTS (1) Building a Community Research Network.............. (3 pages) (2) Democratic Technology in the Mainstream!?.......... (1 page) (3) About the Loka Institute (including Internship Opportunities and Updates)...................... (2 pages) ***************************************************************** (1) BUILDING A COMMUNITY RESEARCH NETWORK (CRN) Copyright 1996 by Madeleine Scammell & Richard Sclove "I learned that there was a real thirst for collaborative research, a real need for the Community Research Network." --CRN conference participant "A phrase popularized by community activists--`Think globally, act locally'--can serve equally well as a slogan for university-based scientists who want to use their knowledge to help their neighbors....Two weeks ago, [Richard] Sclove gathered together some 50 activists, scientists, and university officials who share his beliefs to lay down plans for a Community Research Network." --_Science_ magazine, 2 Aug. 1996, pp. 572-573 Community research is rooted in the community, serves its interests, and encourages citizen participation at all levels. In the Netherlands a national network of 38 university-based community research centers, or "science shops," responds annually to 2,500 requests on such issues as analyzing the needs of disadvantaged minority groups, workplace safety, industrial pollutants, and all domains of public policy. Virtually every Dutch grassroots and nonprofit organization knows how to contact this network when research assistance is needed [1]. Although in the United States there are organizations and programs doing participatory research and other forms of community research, they are few and far between, and often they are invisible or inaccessible to those who could benefit most from their assistance. And in contrast with the Dutch network, U.S. community research practitioners have frequently been unaware of each other's work and have had little sense of themselves as part of something larger--e.g., a nationwide system or social movement. As some readers will recall, the Loka Institute has been working to establish a Community Research Network (CRN) in the U.S. modeled partly on the Dutch national network [2]. We began by assembling a national board of advisors and establishing a community research discussion list on the internet. (To subscribe, send email to with a blank subject line and "subscribe scishops [your name]" as the message text.) By February 1996, we were planning the first face-to-face meeting of members of the network. THE CONFERENCE Loka's work on the CRN caught the interest of John Gerber, director of UMass Extension (the Massachusetts cooperative extension system). Gerber saw in the CRN an opportunity to renew and revitalize the mission of U.S. land grant colleges. Last winter he and Loka director Dick Sclove enlisted the support of Paul Shuldiner in the UMass-Amherst Science, Technology & Society program to plan the CRN conference. The two UMass programs and Loka pooled ideas, funds, and staff energy. We held the conference in Amherst, Massachusetts, the weekend of July 19, 1996. The four dozen participants from across the U.S. (plus one each from Canada and the Netherlands) included representatives of such grassroots, nonprofit, and university- based organizations as: the Southwest Organizing Project, Northeast Florida Community Action Agency, the University of Wisconsin School for Workers, Chicago's Policy Research Action Group and Southeast Asia Center, the Applied Research Center in Oakland, and the Science & Environmental Health Network. (See the Appendix at the bottom of this Alert for a complete list.) As the conference progressed, conferees took control of the meeting, in the process building a strong sense of fellowship and terrific enthusiasm for creating a Community Research Network. Following are some questions posed during the conference by David Schecter of San Francisco, along with a few of the responses that resulted from small working group discussions: * What is the purpose of a Community Research Network? In promoting community research, the network can nurture new community groups looking for organizational models, and also advocate more funding for community research. It will serve a variety of community-based organizations and unaffiliated groups that have unmet research needs (reflecting inadequate resources, technical expertise, or tools for improving their lives). Ultimately, the network can alter universities by integrating social responsibility into knowledge creation. * What can we do together (i.e., as a network) that we can't do separately? Network members can keep one another from feeling isolated, as well as foster collaborative community-based projects (including transnational collaborations). Members can also coordinate their actions to promote community input into larger local, state, and national agendas. Together, network participants will be able to address *any* kind of issue and be accessible to *every* kind of grassroots, public-interest, worker, and local government organization. * What benefits should the network provide? By making existing community research programs more visible, and promoting new programs, the network will strive to provide all people with a safe place to ask questions, while bringing together those who share similar experiences or concerns. The network will aim to provide universal access to research processes and to the kind of information-sharing that leads to democratic decisionmaking and, in turn, to empowered communities. Additionally, through the network academics will be able to locate examples of academics doing community research and share "how to" questions and methodologies. At a future time the network could possibly provide funding to community research centers. * To what larger goals can the network contribute, beyond what we are capable of doing ourselves? The network will help make science socially responsive to democratically decided popular concerns, while making public institutions more accountable to their communities. The network will help bridge the gap between universities and communities and integrate knowledge with practice on a large scale. The network should also give grassroots communities a larger voice in policy, and increase political interaction generally. * * * The group set a number of key priorities for the fledgling CRN. We accorded high priority to establishing an accessible communications infrastructure (both Internet-based and not), without which we won't have a network. A number of participants are presently beginning to develop a database through which, ideally, anyone will be able to find out who is doing community- based research, what they are studying, and how to contact them. This would perhaps be part of a larger "tool kit" for use by anyone interested in community-based research. As the conference concluded, conferees signed up for three committees to continue working afterwards: Governance, Funding, and Program Development. The Governance committee volunteered to try to increase diversity within the network, in part through a second CRN planning meeting that will include only social, labor, and grassroots activists. The Loka Institute will serve as interim coordinating center and secretariat for the new network. Attendees agreed that participation in the network will not be restricted to the United States--a decision reflecting the fact that several conferees live or work in other nations, and that together we are in touch with many community research centers throughout the world. If you are interested in finding out more, please subscribe to the scishops listserv (see instructions, above) or send an e- mail request for further information to . Madeleine Scammell (Loka Institute) and Will Snyder (UMass Extension) are in the process of completing a full conference report. A subsequent Loka Alert, as well as the Loka Web page will announce the report's availability. NOTES Will Snyder of UMass Extension assisted in assembling information for this Loka Alert. [1]. Richard E. Sclove, "Putting Science to Work in Communities," _Chronicle of Higher Education_, Vol. 41, No. 29, 31 March 1995), pp. B1-B3. Available on the Loka Institute Web page or by e-mail request from . [2] See Loka Alert 3:1, "Democratic Research." Available by World Wide Web or e-mail (same instructions as note [1], above). ***************************************************************** (2) DEMOCRATIC TECHNOLOGY IN THE MAINSTREAM!? It has traditionally been extremely hard to inject the Loka Institute's central concern--i.e., democratizing science and technology--into the thinking of mainstream institutions and publications. But are there incipient cracks in the armor? Recently Loka activities, research, and opinions have found an appreciative audience in some unaccustomed haunts, including all three principal U.S. venues that discuss science and technology policy (_Science_, _Issues in Science & Technology_, and _Technology Review_): **The American Political Science Association has honored Loka director Richard Sclove's book, _Democracy and Technology_ (New York: Guilford Press), with its 1996 Don K. Price Award as "best book in the field of science, technology and politics." **"`_Democracy and Technology_, that's a good book!' Nader enthuses." --Ralph Nader, Green Party candidate for U.S. President, quoted in _The New York Times Magazine_, 20 Oct. 1996. **_Science_ magazine (the leading U.S. professional science journal) ran a 1-page story on Loka's initiative to establish a Community Research Network: Wade Roush, "U.S. Joins `Science Shop' Movement," _Science_, 2 Aug. 1996, pp. 572-573. **"Three recent books renew my hopes for a robust dialog about technology and its impacts...._Democracy and Technology_ is the most ambitious in scope." --Howard Rheingold in _Wired_ magazine, November 1996, p. 219. **An article by Wil Lepkowski in _Chemical & Engineering News_ (12 August 1996, pp. 24-25) pairs ideas and a photo of Loka's Richard Sclove with those of Neal Lane, Director of the U.S. National Science Foundation. **The lead article in the July 1996 issue of _Technology Review_ (published by MIT) is Richard Sclove's "Town Meetings on Technology"--a discussion of European citizen-based technology assessment and its applicability to the U.S. **"Sclove's unifying--and, to me, incontrovertible--premise is that a democratic society worthy of the name does not allow technological innovation to erode democratic processes and institutions....That we persistently...allow this erosion to occur underscores the significance of his message." --Dan Sarewitz in _Issues in Science & Technology_, Summer 1996, pp. 87-90 (published by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences). [Sarewitz is the author of a fine new book from Temple University Press: _Frontiers of Illusion: Science, Technology and the Politics of Progress_] **"Tightly reasoned and far-ranging in examples and erudition...cogent and illuminating...seminal....Sclove writes in the hallowed and constructive tradition of Paul Goodman, Ivan Illich, Paulo Freire, Lewis Mumford, [and] E. F. Schumacher." --_Annals of the American Academy of Political & Social Science, July 1996, pp. 176-177 ***************************************************************** (3) ABOUT THE LOKA INSTITUTE The Loka Institute is a nonprofit organization dedicated to making science and technology responsive to democratically decided social and environmental concerns. TO FIND OUT MORE about the Loka Institute or to help, visit our Web page or contact us via e-mail at . To obtain Loka founder Richard Sclove's book, _DEMOCRACY AND TECHNOLOGY_, contact your local bookseller or Guilford Press (in the U.S. tel. toll free 800-365-7006; or, from anywhere, fax Guilford Press in the U.S. at +(212)-966-6708 or e-mail: info@guilford.com): "Mr. Sclove is refreshing in the way he rejects ideas so nearly universally held that most people have never thought to question them." -- _New York Times Book Review_ INTERNSHIPS: The Loka Institute has several openings for volunteer interns for the winter of 1996 and beyond. We are a small nonprofit organization, and the activities in which interns are involved vary from research assistance and writing to assisting in organizing conferences, project development and management, fundraising, managing our Internet lists, Web page updates, helping with clerical and other office work, etc. If you are interested in working with us to promote a democratic politics of science and technology, please send a hard copy resume along with a succinct letter explaining your interest to: The Loka Institute, P.O. Box 355, Amherst, MA 01004, USA. PROJECT UPDATE: Richard Sclove's _Technology Review_ article on "Town Meetings on Technology" has galvanized a set of institutional partners into planning a pilot U.S. citizen's panel ("consensus conference") on Telecommunications & the Future of Democracy. The institutional partners include: Loka, the Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities & Public Policy, the EPIIC Program (Education for Public Inquiry & International Citizenship) at Tufts University, MIT's _Technology Review_, and UMass Extension. The pilot is scheduled for April 1997 at Tufts University, and will draw on a lay panel assembled from the greater Boston area. FUNDRAISING UPDATE: We are pleased to report 1996 grant awards to date from the Aspen Institute (Nonprofit Sector Research Fund), C.S. Fund, the John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Menemsha Fund, New-Land Foundation, plus one anonymous foundation. Hampshire College in Amherst, Mass. has recently provided us with rent-free office space. We have also received generous financial donations from many Loka Alert subscribers. Thanks to one and all! TO HELP KEEP LOKA'S WORK ALIVE AND THRIVING, please write a check drawn in U.S. dollars to "Proteus/Loka" and mail it to the Loka Institute, P.O. Box 355, Amherst, MA 01004, USA. WE HAVE AN AMBITIOUS ACTION AGENDA, BUT WE CAN'T POSSIBLY IMPLEMENT IT WITHOUT A LARGER AND MORE STABLE FUNDING BASE. Contributions are tax-deductible on U.S. tax returns. For further information on contributing, contact us at Loka@amherst.edu or via the address and phone number at the top of this Alert. (Loka has recently applied for its own recognition as a I.R.S.-recognized tax exempt organization; we will notify subscribers when we receive the I.R.S. decision.) TRAVEL & PUBLIC SPEAKING UPDATE for October 1996: o Loka's Madeleine Scammell spoke at the University of Vermont o Loka intern Len Fiorilli gave a paper at the joint Annual Meeting of European Association for the Study of Science & Technology (EASST) and the Society for Social Studies of Science (4S) in Bielefeld, Germany Loka director Richard Sclove spoke at: o The Universities of Oslo (Norway), Roskilde (Denmark), and Cambridge (England) o Plenary address to INTERFACE, the annual meeting of the Humanities & Technology Association o Briefing to the Director and Staff of the Danish Parliament's Board of Technology o Anglia Polytechnic University in Cambridge, England, along with Anne Campbell (Labour Party Member of Parliament, and a member of the House of Commons Select Committee on Science and Technology) o The EASST/4S meeting in Bielefeld, Germany UPCOMING TALKS by Sclove include: LaGuardia Community College 25th Anniversary Celebration (Long Island City, NY, Nov. 6, 6-8 pm); the EPIIC Program at Tufts University (Nov. 12, 4-6 pm); the Participatory Design Conference (PDC96, at MIT, afternoon of Nov. 13); International Conference on Technology & Democracy (University of Oslo, Norway, Jan. 17-19, 1997); the Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (Seattle, Feb. 13-18, 1997); Annual Meeting of the National Association for Science, Technology & Society (Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, Mass., March 7-9, 1997). Traffic on the LOKA INSTITUTE E-MAIL LIST (Loka-L)--which distributes Loka Alerts as a one-way news-and-opinion distribution service--is intentionally kept low (an average of one message per month), to protect overbusy people from unwanted clutter. To be added to, or removed from, the list, please send an e-mail message to that effect to . PLEASE INVITE INTERESTED FRIENDS TO SUBSCRIBE. TO PARTICIPATE MORE ACTIVELY in promoting a democratic politics of science and technology, please join the Federation of Activists on Science & Technology Network (FASTnet). Just send an e-mail message to with a blank subject line and "subscribe FASTnet" as the message text. You will receive an automated reply giving more details. FASTnet is now a moderated discussion list, which protects subscribers from receiving posts inappropriate to the list's purpose. LOKA STAFF & HELPER UPDATE: We are delighted with the return of Loka staff member Madeleine Scammell from her summer sabbatical. We are grateful for the help we received this summer from Loka interns Len Fiorilli, Lily Louie, and Eff Smith. Len has stayed on with us for the fall, playing a vital role in pushing forward Loka's Community Research Network (CRN) initiative...plus helping us navigate a string of computer and telecommunications disasters. (Yes, after enduring years of Loka's unstinting technology criticism, the machines have taken revenge!) Laurie Millman continues to contribute essentially as our Development Associate and as Chair of the CRN's Funding Committee. New intern Tim Johnston is hard at work helping us prepare a set of comparative case studies of existing community research programs. Far-flung colleagues Carolyn Raffensperger, David Schecter, and Phil Shepard have been especially active in the ongoing work of developing the CRN. And of course we receive continuous advice and assistance of all kinds from the members of our two national advisory boards and from many subscribers (over 4,000 now) on the various Loka Internet discussion lists. Thanks to all! ***************************************************************** APPENDIX List of Participants in Loka's July 1996 Community Research Network Planning Conference: Joanne Adams, Policy Research Action Group, Chicago. David Anderson, Student Pugwash USA Luis Aponte-Pares, Community Planning Center, UMass-Boston Benjamin Barber, Whitman Center, Rutgers University Cynthia Barstow, UMass Extension Elizabeth Bird, Consortium for Sustainable Agricultural Research & Education John W. Edwards, Jr., Northeast Florida Community Action Agency Frank Emspak, School for Workers of the University of Wisconsin, Madison Leonard Fiorilli, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the Loka Institute Brigit Fokkinga, Science Shop, University of Nijmegen, the Netherlands Jeanne Gauna, Southwest Organizing Project, Albuquerque John Gerber, UMass Extension Susan Goetz, Applied Research Center, Oakland, CA Robert Hackett, Bonner Foundation, Princeton, NJ Lily Louie, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and The Loka Institute Frederique Apffel Marglin, Department of Anthropology, Smith College Laurie Millman, The Loka Institute Jeffrey J. Moore, Regional Development Finance Authority and Urban Universities Network, Ohio. Michelle Murrain, School of Natural Science, Hampshire College Michael Oden, Project on Regional & Industrial Economics, Rutgers University Diane Palladino, Institute for Science & Interdisciplinary Studies, Amherst, MA Carolyn Raffensperger, Science & Environmental Health Network, Windsor, North Dakota Mirran Raphaely, UMass Extension Joan Roelofs, Department of Political Science, Keene State College Patricia Roman, Humanities & Social Science Federation of Canada Cathy Roth, UMass Extension Wade Roush, Science Magazine Barbara R. Rusmore, environmental and agricultural activist, Helena, Montana Dennis Sakurai, Southeast Asia Center and PRAG, Chicago Madeleine Scammell, The Loka Institute David Schecter, San Francisco Marcie Abramson Sclove, The Loka Institute Richard E. Sclove, The Loka Institute David Scott, Chancellor, University of Massachusett, Amherst J.C. Shaver, Cornell Cooperative Extension Philip T. Shepard, Michigan State University Paul Shuldiner, Science, Technology and Society Program, UMass- Amherst Kim Slinski, UMass Extension Marge Slinski, UMass Extension Eff J. Smith, Antioch College and the Loka Institute Deborah P. Snow, Community Technology Centers Network Will Snyder, UMass Extension Henry B. Thomas, Department of Public Administration, University of North Florida Lee Lyle Williams, Community Partnerships Center, University of Tennessee at Knoxville ####