company:science

Must we decolonise #Open_Access? Perspectives from Francophone Africa

A long read featuring the recent work of Thomas Hervé Mboa Nkoudou and Florence Piron, on how a truly open and inclusive ‘Open Access’ movement must include those at the periphery

I recently watched the recording of the fantastic Diversity, Equity and Inclusion session at OpenCon, and I was struck by the general theme of how ‘openness’ isn’t necessarily the force for equality that we perhaps think it is, and how issues of power, exploitation, and hierarchy means that it should be understood differently according to the context in which it is applied. In the session, Denisse Albornoz used the expression of ‘situated openness’ to describe how our Northern conception of openness should not be forced on anyone or any group – it needs to be understood first in individual contexts of historical injustices and post-colonial power structures.

What stood out for me most in this session, however, (because it related most to my work) was Cameroonian Thomas Mboa’s presentation, which talked about the ‘neo-colonial face of open access’. The presentation employed some very striking critical terms such as ‘cognitive injustice’ and ‘epistemic alienation’ to Open Access.

I’ve always known that the Open Access movement was far from perfect, but at least it’s moving global science publishing in the right direction, right? Can working towards free access and sharing of research really be ‘neo-colonial’ and lead to ‘alienation’ for users of research in the Global South? And if this really is the case, how can we ‘decolonise’ open access?

Thomas didn’t get much time to expand on some of the themes he presented, so I got in contact to see if he had covered these ideas elsewhere, and fortunately he has, through his participation in ‘Projet SOHA’ . This is a research-action project that’s been working on open science, empowerment and cognitive justice in French-speaking Africa and Haiti from 2015-17. He provided me with links to four publications written in French by himself and his colleagues from the project – Florence Piron (Université Laval, Quebec, Canada), Antonin Benoît Diouf (Senegal), and Marie Sophie Dibounje Madiba (Cameroon), and many others.

These articles are a goldmine of provocative ideas and perspectives on Open Access from the Global South, which should challenge all of us in the English-speaking academic publishing community. Therefore, I decided to share some excerpts and extended quotes from these articles below, in amongst some general comments from my (admittedly limited) experience of working with researchers in the Global South.

The quotes are taken from the following book and articles, which I recommend reading in full (these are easily translatable using the free tool Google Translate Web, which correctly translated around 95% of the text).

Chapter 2 – ‘Les injustices cognitives en Afrique subsaharienne : réflexions sur les causes et les moyens de lutte’ – Thomas Hervé Mboa Nkoudou (2016), in Piron, Dibounje Madiba et Regulus 2016 (below)
Justice cognitive, libre accès et savoirs locaux – Collective book edited by Florence Piron, Marie Sophie Dibounje Madiba and Samuel Regulus (2016) (CC-BY) ▻https://scienceetbiencommun.pressbooks.pub/justicecognitive1
Qui sait ? Le libre accès en Afrique et en Haïti – Florence Piron (2017) (CC-BY) (Soon to be published in English in Forthcoming Open Divide. Critical Studies of Open Access (Herb & Schöpfel ed), Litwinbooks
Le libre accès vu d’Afrique francophone subsaharienne – Florence Piron, Antonin Benoît Diouf, Marie Sophie Dibounje Madiba, Thomas Hervé Mboa Nkoudou, Zoé Aubierge Ouangré, Djossè Roméo Tessy, Hamissou Rhissa Achaffert, Anderson Pierre and Zakari Lire (2017) (CC-BY-NC-SA)
Une autre science est possible. Récit d’une utopie concrète dans la Francophonie (le projet SOHA) – Revue Possibles, 2016 (CC-BY)

Piron et al’s (2017) article starts with a stinging critique of those of us in our Northern scholarly publishing community cliques, and our never-ending open access debates over technicalities:

“… there are many debates in this community, including on the place of open licenses in open access (is an article really in open access if it is not freely reusable in addition to being freely accessible?), on the legitimacy of the fees charged to authors by certain journals choosing open access, on the quality and evaluation of open access journals, on the very format of the journal as the main vehicle for the dissemination of scientific articles or on the type of documents to be included in institutional or thematic open archives (only peer-reviewed articles or any document related to scientific work?).

Viewed from Sub-Saharan Francophone Africa, these debates may seem very strange, if not incomprehensible. Above all, they appear very localized: they are debates of rich countries, of countries of the North, where basic questions such as the regular payment of a reasonable salary to academics, the existence of public funding for research, access to the web, electricity, well-stocked libraries and comfortable and safe workplaces have long been settled.” Piron et al. (2017)

… and their critique gets more and more scathing from here for the Open Access movement. OA advocates – tighten your seatbelts – you are not going to find this a comfortable ride.

“… a conception of open access that is limited to the legal and technical questions of the accessibility of science without thinking about the relationship between center and periphery can become a source of epistemic alienation and neocolonialism in the South”. Piron et al. (2017)

“Is open access the solution to the documented shortcomings of these African universities and, in doing so, a crucial means of getting scientific research off the ground? I would like to show that this is not the case, and to suggest that open access can instead become a neo-colonial tool by reinforcing the cognitive injustices that prevent African researchers from fully deploying their research capacities in the service of the community and sustainable local development of their country.” Piron (2017)

Ouch. To understand these concepts of ‘cognitive injustice’ and ‘epistemic alienation’, it helps to understand this ‘world system’ and the power relationship between the centre and the periphery. This is based on Wallerstein’s (1996) model, which Thomas featured in his OpenCon slides:

http://journalologik.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/thomas-768x432.png

“… a world-system whose market unit is the scientific publication circulating between many instances of high economic value, including universities, research centers, science policies, journals and an oligopoly of for-profit scientific publishers (Larivière, Haustein, and Mongeon, 2015).” Piron et al. (2017)

“… we believe that science, far from being universal, has been historically globalized. Inspiring us, like Keim (2010) and a few others (Polanco, 1990), from Wallerstein’s (1996) theory, we consider that it constitutes a world-system whose market unit is the scientific publication. Produced mainly in the North, this merchandise obeys standards and practices that are defined by the ‘center’ of the system, namely the main commercial scientific publishers (Larivière, Haustein, & Mongeon, 2015), and their university partners are the US and British universities dominating the so-called world rankings. The semi-periphery is constituted by all the other countries of the North or emerging from the South which revolve around this center, adopting the English language in science and conforming to the model LMD (license, master, doctorate) imposed since the Bologna process to all the universities of the world with the aim of “normalizing” and standardizing the functioning of this world-system. The periphery then refers to all the countries that are excluded from this system, which produce no or very few scientific publications or whose research work is invisible, but to whom the LMD model has also been imposed (Charlier, Croché, & Ndoye 2009, Hountondji 2001)”. Piron et al. (2017)

So, the continuing bias and global focus towards the powerful ‘center’ of the world-system leads to the epistemic alienation of those on the periphery, manifesting in a ‘spiritual colonisation’:

“… this attitude that drives us to want to think about local problems with Western perspective is a colonial legacy to which many African citizens hang like a ball.” Mboa (2016).

So where does Open Access fit in with this world-system?

“… if open access is to facilitate and accelerate the access of scientists from the South to Northern science without looking into the visibility of knowledge of the South, it helps to redouble their alienation epistemic without contributing to their emancipation. Indeed, by making the work of the center of the world-system of science even more accessible, open access maximizes their impact on the periphery and reinforces their use as a theoretical reference or as a normative model, to the detriment of local epistemologies.” Piron et al. (2017)

Rethinking Northern perspectives

This should be an eye-opening analysis for those of us who assumed that access to research knowledge in the North could only be a good thing for the South. Perhaps we need to examine the arrogance behind our narrow worldview, and consider more deeply the power at the heart of such a one-way knowledge exchange. Many of us might find this difficult, as:

“The idea that open access may have the effects of neocolonialism is incomprehensible to people blind to epistemological diversity, who reduce the proclaimed universalism of Western science to the impoverished model of the standards imposed by the Web of Science model. For these people, the invisibility of a publication in their numerical reference space (located in the center of the world-system) is equivalent to its non-existence. The idea that valid and relevant knowledge can exist in another form and independently of the world-system that fascinates them is unthinkable.” Piron et al. (2017)

Having spent a little time at scholarly publishing events in the Global North, I can attest that the mindset described above is common. There are kind thoughts (and a few breadcrumbs thrown in the form of grants and fellowships) towards those on the periphery, but it is very much in the mindset of helping those from the Global South ‘catch up’. Our mindset is very much as Piron describes here:

“If one sticks to the positivist view that “science” is universal – even if its “essence” is symbolized by the American magazine Science – then indeed African science, that is to say in Africa, is late, and we need to help it develop so that it looks more and more like the North”. Piron (2017)

And whilst in the North we may have a lot of respect for different cultural perspectives, genuine reciprocal exchanges of research knowledge are rare. We are supremely confident that our highly-developed scientific publishing model deserves to be at the centre of our system. This can lead to selective blindness about the rigorousness of our science and our indexed journals, in spite of the steady drip drip drip of reports of biased peer review, data fraud and other ethical violations in ‘high-impact’ Northern journals, exposed in places like retraction watch.

North/South research collaborations are rarely equitable – southern partners often complain of being used as data-gatherers rather than intellectual equals and partners in research projects, even when the research is being carried out in their own country.

“These [Northern] partners inevitably guide the problems and the methodological and epistemological choices of African researchers towards the only model they know and value, the one born at the center of the world-system of science – without questioning whether this model is relevant to Africa and its challenges”. Piron et al (2017).

These issues of inequity in collaborative relationships and publication practices seem inextricably linked, which is not surprising when the ultimate end goal of research is publishing papers in Northern journals, rather than actually solving Southern development challenges.

“In this context, open access may appear as a neocolonial tool, as it facilitates access by Southern researchers to Northern science without ensuring reciprocity. In doing so, it redoubles the epistemic alienation of these researchers instead of contributing to the emancipation of the knowledge created in the universities of the South by releasing them from their extraversion. Indeed, by making the work produced in the center of the world-system even more accessible, free access maximizes their impact on the periphery and reinforces their use as a theoretical reference or as a normative model, to the detriment of local epistemologies, which generates situations absurd as, for example, the use of a theoretical framework related to wage labor in the Paris region to analyze the work of women in northern Mali” Piron (2017)

“The resulting consequences are, in particular, the teachers of the Southern countries who quote and read only writers from the North and impose them on their students and the libraries of our universities who do everything to subscribe to Western scholarly journals while they do not deal with our problems. (Mboa Nkoudou, 2016 )”

This is also a striking example:

“It is very sad to note that geographers in Ouagadougou are more familiar with European work on the Sahel than those at the Higher Institute of Sahel in Maroua, Cameroon.” Piron (2017)

The lack of equity in research knowledge exchange and collaboration is also caused by another one-way North to South flow: funding. Research in the South is often dependent on foreign funding. Big Northern donors and funders therefore set the standards and agendas in research, and in how the entire research funding system works. Southern partners rarely get to set the agenda, and researchers rarely get to develop the research questions that guide the research. They have to learn to jump through administrative hoops to become credible in the eyes of the Northern donor (for more information see ‘Who drives research in developing countries?‘).

Southern institutions are also compelled, via league tables such as the World Unviersity Rankings, to play the same game as institutions in the North. Institutions are ranked against each other according to criteria set in the North, one of which is citations (of course, only citations between journals in the Web of Science or Scopus, which is overwhelmingly Northern). And so to stay ‘competitive’, Southern institutions need their researchers to publish in Northern journals with Northern language and agendas.
Northern agendas and local innovation

Whilst it is tempting to think that the issues and criticism described above is mostly a problem for the social sciences and humanities, there are also real issues in the ‘hard’ sciences – perhaps not so much in their epistemological foundations – but in very practical issues of Northern research agendas. For example, Northern research, being based in Europe and the US, is overwhelmingly biased towards white people, in diversity of leadership, diversity of researchers, and most importantly in the whiteness of clinical trial subjects. This is problematic because different ethnic populations have different genetic makeups and differences due to geography, that mean they respond differently to treatments (see here, here and here). Are African and Asian researchers informed of this when they read research from so-called ‘international’ journals?

Furthermore, these Northern agendas can also mean that research focuses on drugs, equipment and treatments that are simply not suitable for developing country contexts. I was reminded of a discussion comment recently made by a Pakistani surgeon on the Northern bias of systematic reviews:

“There is a definite bias in this approach as almost all of the guidelines and systematic reviews are based on the research carried out in high income countries and the findings and the recommendations have little relevance to the patients, health care system and many a time serve no purpose to the millions of patients based in low resourced countries. e.g. I routinely used Phenol blocks for spasticity management for my patients which were abandoned two decades ago in the West. Results are great, and the patients can afford this Rs 200 phenol instead of Rs 15,000 Botox vial. But, unfortunately, I am unable to locate a single systematic review on the efficacy of phenol as all published research in the last decade was only on the use of Botox in the management of spasticity.” Farooq Rathore (HIFA mailing list, 2016).

Similarly, I’ve read research papers from the South that report on innovative approaches to medical treatments and other problems that utilise lower-cost equipment and methodologies (in fact, as is argued here, research in low-resource environments can often be more efficient and innovative, containing many lessons we, in the North, could learn from). This point is also made by Piron et al:

“… the production of technical and social innovations is rich in Sub-Saharan French-speaking Africa, as evidenced by the high number of articles on this subject in the Sci-Dev magazine, specializing in science for development, or in the ecofin site, an economic information agency turned towards Africa. But these are mostly local innovations that mobilize local resources and often recycled materials to, for example, introduce electricity into a village, better irrigate fields or offer lighting after sunset. The aim of these innovations is to contribute to local development and not to the development of international markets, unlike innovations designed in the North which, while targeting the countries of the South, remain highly marketable – just think of milk powder or GMO seeds. The issue of open access to scientific publications is a very secondary issue for local innovators in such a context”. (Piron et al. 2016)

These examples of innovation aside, there are many cases where the ‘epistemic alienation’ described above leads to ‘the exclusion or contempt of local knowledge’ (Mboa, 2016), even amongst researchers in the global South.

“In fact, Western culture abundantly relayed in the media and textbooks is shown to be superior to other cultures. This situation is pushing Africans to multiply their efforts to reach the ideal of life of the “white”. This situation seems to block their ability to think locally, or even to be reactive. Thus, faced with a given situation specific to the African context, many are those who first draw on the resources of Western thinking to propose elements of answers.” Mboa (2016)

Free and open access as ‘showcasing products’

The Research4Life (R4L) programme also comes in for criticism from Piron et al. which will come as a shock to Northern publishing people who often use the ‘… but they’ve got Research4Life’ line when faced with evidence of global research inequalities.

“… while pretending to charitably provide university libraries in the Global South with free access to pre-defined packages of paid journals from the North, this program, set up by for-profit scientific publishers, maintains the dependence of these libraries, limits their understanding of the true network of open access publications and, above all, improves the market for the products sold by these publishers.” Piron et al (2017)

“… this program encourages the continued reliance of these libraries on an external program, designed in the North and showcasing Northern products, while it may disappear as soon as this philanthropic desire is exhausted or as soon as trading partners will not find any more benefits.”

Whilst I still think R4L is a great initiative (I know many researchers in the Global South who are very appreciative of the programme), it’s difficult to disagree with the conclusion that:

‘… this program mainly improves the opportunities of Northern publishers without contributing to the sustainable empowerment of university libraries in the South … this charity seems very hypocritical, let alone arbitrary, since it can stop at any time.” Piron (2017)

Of course, the same could be said of Article Processing Charge (APC) waivers for developing country authors. Waivers are currently offered by the majority of journals from the big publishers (provided according to the same HINARI list of countries provided by Research4Life), although sometimes you have to dig deep into the terms and conditions pages to find them. Waivers are good for publishers to showcase their corporate social responsibility and provide diversity of authorship. However, they are unsustainable – this charity is unlikely to last forever, especially as they rely on the pool of Southern authors being relatively limited. It should also be noted that developing countries with the most active, growing researcher communities such as Nigeria, South Africa and India do not qualify for either R4L access or APC waivers.

Speaking of APCs, something I observe regularly amongst Southern researchers is a confusion over the ‘Gold’ OA author-pays model, and this too is noted:

“In northern countries, many researchers, especially in STEM (Björk and Solomon, 2012) [ 7 ], believe (wrongly) that open access now means “publication fees charged to authors” … this commercial innovation appears to be paying off, as these costs appear to be natural to researchers.” Piron (2017)

This also appears to be paying off in the Global South – authors seem resigned to pay some kind of charge to publish, and it is common to have to point out to authors that over two-thirds of OA journals and 99% of subscription journals do not charge to publish (although, the rise of ‘predatory’ journals may have magnified this misunderstanding that pay-to-publish is the norm).

It may be tempting to think of these inequalities as an unfortunate historical accident, and that our attempts to help the Global South ‘catch up’ are just a little clumsy and patronising. However, Piron argues that this is no mere accident, but the result of colonial exploitation that still resonates in existing power structures today:

“Open access is then easily seen as a means of catching up, at least filling gaps in libraries and often outdated teaching […] Africa is considered as lagging behind the modern world, which would explain its underdevelopment, to summarize this sadly hegemonic conception of north-south relations. By charity, Northern countries then feel obliged to help, which feeds the entire industry surrounding development aid [….] this model of delay, violently imposed by the West on the rest of the world through colonization, has been used to justify the economic and cognitive exploitation (Connell, 2014) of colonized continents without which modernity could not have prospered.” Piron (2017)

To build the path or take the path?

Of course, the authors do admit that access to Northern research has a role to play in the Global South, provided the access is situated in local contexts:

“… African science should be an African knowledge, rooted in African contexts, that uses African epistemologies to answer African questions, while also using other knowledge from all over the world, including Western ones, if they are relevant locally.” Piron (2017)

However, the practical reality of Open Access for Southern researchers is often overstated. There is a crucial distinction between making content ‘open’ and providing the means to access that content. As Piron et al. 2017 say:

“To put a publication in open access: is it, to build the path (technical or legal) that leads to it, or is it to make it possible for people to take this path? This distinction is crucial to understand the difference in meaning of open access between the center and the periphery of the world-system of science, although only an awareness of the conditions of scientific research in the Southern countries makes it possible to visualize it, to perceive it.”

This crucial difference between availability and accessibility has also been explained by Anne Powell on Scholarly Kitchen. There are many complex barriers to ‘free’ and ‘open’ content actually being accessed and used. The most obvious of these barriers is internet connectivity, but librarian training, language and digital literacy also feature significantly:

“Finding relevant open access articles on the web requires digital skills that, as we have seen, are rare among Haitian and African students for whom the web sometimes comes via Facebook … Remember that it is almost always when they arrive at university that these students first touch a computer. The catching up is fast, but many reflexes acquired since the primary school in the countries of the North must be developed before even being able to imagine that there are open access scientific texts on the web to make up for the lack of documents in the libraries. In the words of the Haitian student Anderson Pierre, “a large part of the students do not know the existence of these resources or do not have the digital skills to access and exploit them in order to advance their research project”. Piron (2017)

Barriers to local knowledge exchange

Unfortunately, this is made even more difficult by resistance and misunderstanding of the internet and digital tools from senior leadership in Africa:

“Social representations of the web, science and copyright also come into play, especially among older academics, a phenomenon that undermines the appropriation of digital technologies at the basis of open access in universities.” Piron et al. (2017)

“To this idea that knowledge resides only in printed books is added a representation of the web which also has an impact on the local resistance to open access: our fieldwork has allowed us to understand that, for many African senior academics, the web is incompatible with science because it contains only documents or sites that are of low quality, frivolous or entertaining. These people infer that science in open access on the web is of lower quality than printed science and are very surprised when they learn that most of the journals of the world-system of science exist only in dematerialized format. … Unfortunately, these resistances slow down the digitization and the web dissemination of African scientific works, perpetuating these absurd situations where the researchers of the same field in neighboring universities do not know what each other is doing”. Piron et al. (2017)

This complaint about in-country communication from researchers in the South can be common, but there are signs that open access can make a difference – as an example, in Sri Lanka, I’ve spoken to researchers who say that communicating research findings within the country has always been a problem, but the online portal Sri Lanka Journals Online (currently 77 open access Sri Lankan journals) has started to improve this situation. This project was many years in the making, and has involved training journal editors and librarians in loading online content and improving editorial practices for open access. The same, of course, could be said for African Journals Online, which has potential to facilitate sharing on a larger scale.

Arguably, some forms of institutional resistance to openness in the Global South have a neocolonial influence – universities have largely borrowed and even intensified the Northern ‘publish or perish’ mantra which focuses the academic rewards system almost entirely on journal publications, often in northern-indexed journals, rather than on impact on real world development.

“The system of higher education and research in force in many African countries remains a remnant of colonization, perpetuated by the reproduction, year after year, of the same ideals and principles. This reproduction is assured not by the old colonizers but by our own political leaders who are perpetuating a system structured according to a classical partitioning that slows down any possible communication between researchers within the country or with the outside world, even worse between the university and the immediate environment. For the ruling class, the changes taking place in the world and the society’s needs seem to have no direct link to the university.” Mboa (2016)

Mboa calls this partitioning between researchers and outsiders as “a tight border between society and science”:

“African researchers are so attached to the ideal of neutrality of science and concern of its ‘purity’ that they consider contacts with ordinary citizens as ‘risks’ or threats and that they prefer to evolve in their ‘ivory tower’. On the other hand, ordinary citizens feel so diminished compared to researchers that to talk to them about their eventual involvement in research is a taboo subject …” Mboa (2016)

Uncolonising openness

So what is the answer to all these problems? Is it in building the skills of researchers and institutions or a complete change of philosophy?

“The colonial origin of African science (Mvé-Ondo, 2005) is certainly no stranger to this present subjugation of African science to northern research projects, nor to its tendency to imitate Western science without effort. Contextualization, particularly in the quasi-colonial structuring of sub-Saharan African universities (Fredua-Kwarteng, 2015) and in maintaining the use of a colonial language in university education. Considering this institutionalized epistemic alienation as yet another cognitive injustice, Mvé-Ondo wonders “how to move from a westernization of science to a truly shared science” (p.49) and calls for “epistemological mutation”, “rebirth”, modernizing “African science at the crossroads of local knowledge and northern science – perhaps echoing the call of Fanon (1962/2002) for a “new thinking” in the Third World countries, detached from European model, decolonized.” Piron et al. (2017)

For this to happen, open access must be about more than just access – but something much more holistic and equitable:

“Can decentralized, decolonised open access then contribute to creating more cognitive justice in global scientific production? Our answer is clear: yes, provided that it is not limited to the question of access for scientific and non-scientific readers to scientific publications. It must include the concern for origin, creation, local publishing and the desire to ensure equity between the accessibility of the publications of the center of the world system and that of knowledge from the periphery. It thus proposes to replace the normative universalism of globalized science with an inclusive universalism, open to the ecology of knowledges and capable of building an authentic knowledge commons (Gruson-Daniel, 2015; Le Crosnier, 2015), hospitable for the knowledge of the North and the South”. Piron et al. (2017)

Mboa sees the solution to this multifaceted problem in ‘open science’:

“[Cognitive injustice comes via] … endogenous causes (citizens and African leaders) and by exogenous causes (capitalism, colonization, the West). The knowledge of these causes allowed me to propose ways to prevent our downfall. Among these means, I convened open science as a tool available to our leaders and citizens for advancing cognitive justice. For although the causes are endogenous and exogenous, I believe that a wound heals from the inside outwards.” Mboa (2016).

Mboa explains how open science approaches can overcome some of these problems in this book chapter, but here he provides a short summary of the advantages of open science for African research:

“It’s a science that rejects the ivory tower and the separation between scientists and the rest of the population of the country. In short, it’s a science released from control by a universal capitalist standard, by hierarchical authority and by pre-established scientific classes. From this perspective, open science offers the following advantages:

it brings science closer to society;
it promotes fair and sustainable development;
it allows the expression of minority and / or marginalized groups, as well as their knowledge;
it promotes original, local and useful research in the country;
it facilitates access to a variety of scientific and technical information;
it is abundant, recent and up to date;
it develops digital skills;
it facilitates collaborative work;
it gives a better visibility to research work.

By aiming to benefit from these advantages, researchers and African students fight cognitive injustice. For this, open access science relies on open access, free licenses, free computing, and citizen science.” Mboa (2016).

But in order for open science to succeed, digital literacy must be rapidly improved to empower students and researchers in the South:

“Promoting inclusive access therefore requires engaging at the same time in a decolonial critique of the relationship between the center and the periphery and urging universities in the South to develop the digital literacy of their student or teacher members.” Piron et al. (2017)

It also requires improving production of scientific works (‘grey’ literature, as well as peer-reviewed papers) in the South for a two-way North/South conversation:

“Then, we propose to rethink the usual definition of open access to add the mandate to enhance the visibility of scientific work produced in universities in the South and thus contribute to greater cognitive justice in global scientific production.” Piron (2017)

And providing open access needs to be understood in context:

“… if we integrate the concern for the enhancement of the knowledge produced in the periphery and the awareness of all that hinders the creation of this knowledge, then open access can become a tool of cognitive justice at the service of the construction of an inclusive universalism peculiar to a just open science.” Piron, Diouf, Madiba (2017)

In summary then, we need to rethink the way that the global North seeks to support the South – a realignment of this relationship from mere access to empowerment through sustainable capacity building:

“Africa’s scientific development aid, if it is needed, should therefore be oriented much less towards immediate access to Northern publications and more to local development of tools and the strengthening of the digital skills of academics and librarians. These tools and skills would enable them not only to take advantage of open access databases, but also to digitize and put open access local scientific works in open archives, journals or research centers.” Piron (2017)

So what next?

Even if you disagree with many the above ideas, I hope that this has provided many of you with some food for thought. Open Access must surely be about more than just knowledge flow from North to South (or, for that matter the academy to the public, or well-funded researchers to poorly funded researchers). Those on the periphery must also be given a significant voice and a place at the table. For this to happen, many researchers (and their equivalents outside academia) need training and support in digital skills; some institutional barriers also need to be removed or overcome; and of course a few cherished, long-held ideas must be seriously challenged.

“These injustices denote anything that diminishes the capacity of academics in these countries to deploy the full potential of their intellectual talents, their knowledge and their capacity for scientific research to serve their country’s sustainable local development”. Piron et al., (2016).

What do you think…?

▻http://journalologik.uk/?p=149
#édition_scientifique #OA #open_access #Afrique #Afrique_francophone #décolonisation #post-colonialisme

ICC submission calls for prosecution of EU over migrant deaths

https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/83c399592711158889efd02812154d0ac411ff7b/0_70_4598_2760/master/4598.jpg?width=620&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=6f71846765335b6deb9db0d5e4305d93#.jpg

Member states should face punitive action over deaths in Mediterranean, say lawyers.

The EU and member states should be prosecuted for the deaths of thousands of migrants who drowned in the Mediterranean fleeing Libya, according to a detailed legal submission to the international criminal court (ICC).

The 245-page document calls for punitive action over the EU’s deterrence-based migration policy after 2014, which allegedly “intended to sacrifice the lives of migrants in distress at sea, with the sole objective of dissuading others in similar situation from seeking safe haven in Europe”.

The indictment is aimed at the EU and the member states that played a prominent role in the refugee crisis: Italy, Germany and France.

The stark accusation, that officials and politicians knowingly created the “world’s deadliest migration route” resulting in more than 12,000 people losing their lives, is made by experienced international lawyers.

The two main authors of the submission are Juan Branco, who formerly worked at the ICC as well as at France’s foreign affairs ministry, and Omer Shatz, an Israeli lawyer who teaches at Sciences Po university in Paris.
Most refugees in Libyan detention centres at risk – UN
Read more

The allegation of “crimes against humanity” draws partially on internal papers from Frontex, the EU organisation charged with protecting the EU’s external borders, which, the lawyers say, warned that moving from the successful Italian rescue policy of Mare Nostrum could result in a “higher number of fatalities”.

The submission states that: “In order to stem migration flows from Libya at all costs … and in lieu of operating safe rescue and disembarkation as the law commands, the EU is orchestrating a policy of forced transfer to concentration camps-like detention facilities [in Libya] where atrocious crimes are committed.”

The switch from Mare Nostrum to a new policy from 2014, known as Triton (named after the Greek messenger god of the sea), is identified as a crucial moment “establishing undisputed mens rea [mental intention] for the alleged offences”.

It is claimed that the evidence in the dossier establishes criminal liability within the jurisdiction of the ICC for “causing the death of thousands of human beings per year, the refoulement [forcible return] of tens of thousands migrants attempting to flee Libya and the subsequent commission of murder, deportation, imprisonment, enslavement, torture, rape, persecution and other inhuman acts against them”.

The Triton policy introduced the “most lethal and organised attack against civilian population the ICC had jurisdiction over in its entire history,” the legal document asserts. “European Union and Member States’ officials had foreknowledge and full awareness of the lethal consequences of their conduct.”

The submission does not single out individual politicians or officials for specific responsibility but does quote diplomatic cables and comments from national leaders, including Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron.

The office of the prosecutor at the ICC is already investigating crimes in Libya but the main focus has been on the Libyan civil war, which erupted in 2011 and led to the removal of Muammar Gaddafi. Fatou Bensouda, the ICC prosecutor, has, however, already mentioned inquiries into “alleged crimes against migrants transiting through Libya”.

The Mare Nostrum search and rescue policy launched in October 2013, the submission says, was “in many ways hugely successful, rescuing 150,810 migrants over a 364-day period”.

Criticism of the policy began in mid-2014 on the grounds, it is said, that it was not having a sufficient humanitarian impact and that there was a desire to move from assistance at sea to assistance on land.

“EU officials sought to end Mare Nostrum to allegedly reduce the number of crossings and deaths,” the lawyers maintain. “However, these reasons should not be considered valid as the crossings were not reduced. And the death toll was 30-fold higher.”

The subsequent policy, Triton, only covered an “area up to 30 nautical miles from the Italian coastline of Lampedusa, leaving around 40 nautical miles of key distress area off the coast of Libya uncovered,” the submission states. It also deployed fewer vessels.

It is alleged EU officials “did not shy away from acknowledging that Triton was an inadequate replacement for Mare Nostrum”. An internal Frontex report from 28 August 2014, quoted by the lawyers, acknowledged that “the withdrawal of naval assets from the area, if not properly planned and announced well in advance – would likely result in a higher number of fatalities.”

The first mass drownings cited came on 22 January and 8 February 2015, which resulted in 365 deaths nearer to the Libyan coast. It is alleged that in one case, 29 of the deaths occurred from hypothermia during the 12-hour-long transport back to the Italian island of Lampedusa. During the “black week” of 12 to 18 April 2015, the submission says, two successive shipwrecks led to the deaths of 1,200 migrants.

As well as drownings, the forced return of an estimated 40,000 refugees allegedly left them at risk of “executions, torture and other systematic rights abuses” in militia-controlled camps in Libya.

“European Union officials were fully aware of the treatment of the migrants by the Libyan Coastguard and the fact that migrants would be taken ... to an unsafe port in Libya, where they would face immediate detention in the detention centers, a form of unlawful imprisonment in which murder, sexual assault, torture and other crimes were known by the European Union agents and officials to be common,” the submission states.

Overall, EU migration policies caused the deaths of “thousands civilians per year in the past five years and produced about 40,000 victims of crimes within the jurisdiction of the court in the past three years”, the report states.

The submission will be handed in to the ICC on Monday 3 June.

An EU spokesperson said the union could not comment on “non-existing” legal actions but added: “Our priority has always been and will continue to be protecting lives and ensuring humane and dignified treatment of everyone throughout the migratory routes. It’s a task where no single actor can ensure decisive change alone.

“All our action is based on international and European law. The European Union dialogue with Libyan authorities focuses on the respect for human rights of migrants and refugees, on promoting the work of UNHCR and IOM on the ground, and on pushing for the development of alternatives to detention, such as the setting up of safe spaces, to end the systematic and arbitrary detention system of migrants and refugees in Libya.

“Search and Rescue operations in the Mediterranean need to follow international law, and responsibility depends on where they take place. EU operations cannot enter Libya waters, they operate in international waters. SAR operations in Libyan territorial waters are Libyan responsibility.”

The spokesperson added that the EU has “pushed Libyan authorities to put in place mechanisms improving the treatment of the migrants rescued by the Libyan Coast Guard.”

▻https://www.theguardian.com/law/2019/jun/03/icc-submission-calls-for-prosecution-of-eu-over-migrant-deaths
#justice #décès #CPI #mourir_en_mer #CPI #cour_pénale_internationale

ping @reka @isskein @karine4

Ajouté à la métaliste sur les sauvetages en Méditerranée :
►https://seenthis.net/messages/706177

Rapid #permafrost thaw unrecognized threat to landscape, global warming researcher warns — ScienceDaily
▻https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/04/190430121755.htm

https://www.sciencedaily.com/images/2019/04/190430121755_1_540x360.jpg

Le dégel rapide du #pergélisol est une menace non reconnue pour le paysage
▻https://newsbeezer.com/canadafr/un-chercheur-met-en-garde-contre-le-rechauffement-climatique-en-raison-d

Les scientifiques étudient depuis longtemps comment le dégel progressif du pergélisol survenant pendant des décennies sur des centimètres de sol de surface influera sur le rejet de carbone dans l’atmosphère. Mais Turetsky et une équipe internationale de chercheurs envisagent quelque chose de très différent : l’effondrement rapide du pergélisol qui peut transformer le paysage en quelques mois seulement par le biais d’affaissements, d’inondations et de glissements de terrain.

Le pergélisol fond si rapidement dans l’#Arctique que les scientifiques perdent leur équipement)
▻https://reporterre.net/Le-pergelisol-fond-si-rapidement-dans-l-Arctique-que-les-scientifiques-p

https://reporterre.net/IMG/arton17517.jpg

#climat

Edith Heard ou la révolution épigénétique
Laure Cailloce, Le Journal du CNRS, le 19 février 2019
▻https://lejournal.cnrs.fr/articles/edith-heard-ou-la-revolution-epigenetique

https://lejournal.cnrs.fr/sites/default/files/styles/visuel_principal/public/assets/images/myop_alce_s2549_91770.jpg?itok=oK29Dl2b

L’épigénétique suscite beaucoup de fantasmes. Les notions de réversibilité et d’héritabilité, notamment, donnent lieu à bon nombre d’interprétations. Les marques épigénétiques pourraient être influencées par notre environnement – l’alimentation, l’air que nous respirons, le stress que nous subissons – et être transmissibles à nos enfants et à nos petits-enfants… Quelle est votre position de chercheuse sur cette question ?

E. H. : J’imagine que vous faites référence à cette étude conduite par des épidémiologistes sur les conséquences de la famine vécue aux Pays-Bas durant la Seconde Guerre mondiale. Les enfants, et peut-être les petits-enfants, des femmes enceintes qui, à l’époque, avaient passé plusieurs semaines à ingérer quelques centaines de calories par jour seulement, auraient aujourd’hui des problèmes de santé liés à un métabolisme dysfonctionnel. La faute, selon cette étude, à des changements intervenus dans les modifications épigénétiques du fait de la malnutrition, qui auraient été transmis aux enfants, puis aux petits-enfants de ces femmes dénutries.

Autre exemple : certaines personnes vont jusqu’à affirmer que le stress subi par les survivants de la Shoah se serait transmis aux générations suivantes via les marques épigénétiques. Mais il n’y a à ce jour aucune preuve solide de cela au niveau de la biologie moléculaire. Et l’on sait tous que le comportemental, la façon dont on tisse des liens avec nos descendants, est un puissant vecteur de transmission. Tous ces fantasmes autour de l’épigénétique sont à la fois stimulants pour les chercheurs, car ils montrent l’intérêt de la société pour nos travaux, et handicapants, car ils induisent des attentes auxquelles nous ne pouvons pas toujours répondre et qui pourraient créer de la frustration par rapport à notre discipline. Aujourd’hui, la science en est toujours à établir les bases moléculaires de l’épigénétique. C’est du 100 % fondamental.

Vous êtes mondialement connue pour vos travaux sur l’inactivation du chromosome X. Pouvez-vous nous expliquer de quoi il s’agit ?

E. H. : Comme vous le savez, les mammifères femelles portent deux chromosomes X, hérités de chacun de leurs parents, tandis que les mâles ont un chromosome Y hérité de leur père et un chromosome X hérité de leur mère. Problème : le Y porte très peu de gènes, une centaine à peine qui sont importants pour les caractères sexués masculins, et le X plus d’un millier ! Pour compenser ce déséquilibre entre mâles et femelles, un processus de désactivation de l’un des deux chromosomes X s’est donc mis en place chez les femelles. C’est un programme 100 % épigénétique qui éteint un chromosome entier !

#CNRS #Science #Recherche #Génétique #Epigénétique #héritabilité #chromosome_X #femelle #mâle #mère #père #féminin #masculin

Femmes en recherche au Québec : où en sommes-nous ?
Fanny Eugène, ACFAS, le 8 février 2019
▻https://www.acfas.ca/publications/decouvrir/2019/02/femmes-recherche-au-quebec

Les femmes, les Autochtones et les personnes racisées sont encore sous-représentés au sein du corps professoral des universités et des collèges canadiens, les femmes racisées formant le groupe où cette sous-représentation est la plus marquée. De plus, bien que les femmes soient plus présentes qu’il y a dix ans, elles demeurent fortement minoritaires dans le secteur des sciences naturelles, des technologies, de l’ingénierie et des mathématiques (STIM). Cette sous-représentation ne se limite pas aux carrières dans l’enseignement supérieur : les femmes occupent seulement 23% de tous les emplois en STIM au Canada. Cette situation n’a que très peu évolué au cours des deux dernières décennies, en raison notamment de la faible proportion des femmes parmi la relève étudiante dans ces domaines.

#Femmes #Science #Discriminations #Sexisme #Recherche #Université #Canada #Québec

#Maintien_de_l'ordre en France : le criminologue Alain Bauer dénonce un #armement inadapté utilisé par des policiers non formés
▻https://www.francetvinfo.fr/economie/transports/gilets-jaunes/maintien-de-l-ordre-en-france-il-faudrait-interdire-la-grenade-de-desen

https://www.francetvinfo.fr/image/75n911558-9ea4/1500/843/16951903.jpg

Pour le criminologue, il faut aussi revoir le lanceur de balles de défense (LBD). « L’ancien ’Flash-Ball’ tirait à environ 160 km/h, avec un diamètre plus grand que l’actuel LBD qui tire lui à 330 km/h et dont le projectile a la circonférence d’un oeil, comme si ça avait été fait exprès. Il y a donc à revoir cet armement », a-t-il assuré.Si des manifestants ont été gravement blessés, c’est aussi en raison du manque de #formation d’une partie des policiers mobilisés lors de ces manifestations, selon Alain Bauer. « Ces armes sont utilisées par des gens qui ne sont ni formés, ni entraînés, ni en capacité de les utiliser dans de bonnes conditions », dénonce-t-il.

Aurions-nous tout faux au sujet de la #dépression ? - ★ ZINZIN ZINE ★
▻http://www.zinzinzine.net/tout-faux-depression.html

Annotations :

L’exception du deuil semblait avoir créé une faille dans l’affirmation voulant que les causes de la dépression seraient déjà scellées dans votre crâne. Cela laissait entendre qu’il existait des causes dans l’environnement extérieur, et qu’elles devaient être appréhendées et résolues dans cet environnement. Ce fut un débat que la #psychiatrie traditionnelle (à quelques exceptions près) ne voulu pas avoir. Donc, iels répondirent d’une manière simple – en réduisant petit à petit l’exception du deuil. À chaque nouvelle édition du manuel, iels réduisirent la période de deuil permise avant d’être étiqueté·e comme souffrant de maladie mentale – jusqu’à ce qu’elle ne soit plus que de quelques mois et pour ensuite finir par disparaître complètement. (...)

#travail #médicaments #Science

Des abeilles et des hommes
Laure Cailloce, Le Journal du CNRS, le 21 janvier 2019
▻https://lejournal.cnrs.fr/articles/des-abeilles-et-des-hommes

https://lejournal.cnrs.fr/sites/default/files/styles/visuel_principal/public/assets/images/1174567_72dpi.jpg?itok=E49oZvc7

Difficile en revanche d’affirmer avec certitude où et quand les hommes ont commencé à pratiquer l’apiculture au moyen de ruches domestiques, en plus de la collecte du miel issu des ruches sauvages… « À l’âge du bronze, soit à partir de 2000 avant notre ère en Europe de l’Ouest, on va fabriquer énormément d’objets en bronze avec la technique dite à la “cire perdue”, qui nécessite une grande quantité de cire. Cette intensification a probablement nécessité l’exploitation de ruches domestiques », avance Martine Regert. C’est en tout cas en Égypte que l’on retrouve, dès 2400 avant notre ère, les premières représentations de ruches domestiques, dans le temple solaire d’Abou Gorab. Les ruches qui y sont figurées sont des cylindres en céramique, une technique très employée en Égypte, puis sur tout le pourtour méditerranéen : en Grèce, dès le Ve siècle avant notre ère, ou encore en Espagne dès le 3e siècle.

#CNRS #Science #Histoire #Préhistoire #Moyen_Age #abeilles #ruches #apiculture #miel

Ajouter à la compilation #archéologie :
►https://seenthis.net/messages/633249

Avec la réforme de la justice, « les justiciables aisés auront une justice à leur service, les classes populaires en seront exclues »
▻https://www.crashdebug.fr/actualites-france/15434-avec-la-reforme-de-la-justice-les-justiciables-aises-auront-une-jus

Des algorithmes remplaçant les juges pour trancher des litiges mineurs ; des procès à distance, et déshumanisés, via la visioconférence ; des gardes à vue décidées par des policiers sans accord écrit d’un juge ; des plateformes numériques privées pour régler à l’amiable des litiges ; un accès à la justice trop onéreux pour les classes populaires… Science-fiction ? Aucunement : il s’agit de la réforme de la justice portée par la Garde des Sceaux Nicole Belloubet et discutée à l’Assemblée nationale. Sa « justice du 21ème siècle » commence à ressembler à un cauchemar pour l’égalité des droits et la démocratie. Le Syndicat des avocats de France, comme de nombreux acteurs du monde judiciaire, est vent debout contre ce projet. Basta ! s’est entretenu avec sa présidente, Laurence Roques.

Basta ! : Vous accusez le projet de loi (...)

#métaliste de liens sur des projets qui visent à intégrer les #réfugiés dans les universités

En général, sur l’accès aux études universitaires des réfugiés :
▻https://seenthis.net/messages/746028

Les Hautes écoles face à l’accueil des réfugiés, dans le #monde :
▻https://seenthis.net/messages/593418

Refugees Welcome Map
►https://seenthis.net/messages/475877
#cartographie #visualisation

#Science_for_refugees
►https://seenthis.net/messages/474982#message474983
#science4refugees

Universities are failing refugees. They must do more to prevent a ’lost generation’ :
▻https://seenthis.net/messages/813004

#études_universitaires #université #asile #migrations #intégration_professionnelle #éducation #accès_aux_études #solidarité #universités-refuge

Avec la réforme, « les justiciables aisés auront une #Justice à leur service, les #Classes_populaires en seront exclues »
▻https://www.bastamag.net/Avec-la-reforme-les-justiciables-aises-auront-une-justice-a-leur-service-l

Des algorithmes remplaçant les juges pour trancher des litiges mineurs ; des procès à distance, et déshumanisés, via la visioconférence ; des garde-à-vues décidées par des policiers sans accord écrit d’un juge ; des plateformes numériques privées pour régler à l’amiable des litiges ; un accès à la justice trop onéreux pour les classes populaires… Science-fiction ? Aucunement : il s’agit de la réforme de la justice portée par la Garde des Sceaux Nicole Belloubet et discutée à l’Assemblée nationale. Sa « justice (...)

#Décrypter

/ #Entretiens, Classes populaires, #Inégalités, Justice, A la une, #Services_publics

Le Burkina teste les moustiques mutants pour mater le palu
Célian Macé, Libération, le 18 novembre 2018
▻https://www.liberation.fr/planete/2018/11/18/le-burkina-teste-les-moustiques-mutants-pour-mater-le-palu_1692844

Gene drives could end malaria. And they just escaped a UN ban.
Dylan Matthews, Vox, le 7 décembre 2018
▻https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2018/12/7/18126123/gene-drive-malaria-convention-biological-diversity

Méfiance... les occidentaux utilisent l’Afrique comme terrain d’expérimentation... Voir par exemple :

Forcer les gènes et l’Afrique Enquête sur le forçage génétique des moustiques
Zahra Moloo, Jef Klak, le 26 septembre 2018
►https://seenthis.net/messages/724717

et autres liens sur ce post

#Science #Afrique #Burkina_Faso #Colonialisme #Malaria #Moustiques #OGM #Paludisme #Génétique

Top #ios & iPhone #mobile App Development Companies
▻https://hackernoon.com/top-ios-iphone-mobile-app-development-companies-7b14a5e62de?source=rss--

Looking for iOS/iPhone development company? It must be not that easy as you expected. I searched for the information from a couple of well-known websites. Have a look at the list of Top iPhone and iOS App Development Companies given below.1. ScienceSoft (USA, Finland, Belarus)Company size: 500–1000 employees | Year founded: 1989ScienceSoft develops web, mobile, and desktop applications. The company has been delivering software solutions for enterprise and middle-market customers across multiple target industries. Also, ScienceSoft partnered with Microsoft, IBM, Oracle, Magento, ServiceNow, Episerver and more tech leaders to ensure that our clients will benefit from steady reliability and originality across solutions. ScienceSoft featured on The Silicon Review listing among 10 Fastest (...)

#mobile-app-development #ios-app-development #ios-development-company

Violences sexuelles : dans l’enseignement supérieur et la recherche aussi, #SupToo !
Lettre ouverte d’une centaine d’universitaires français.e.s, Médiapart, le 6 décembre 2018
►https://blogs.mediapart.fr/les-invites-de-mediapart/blog/061218/violences-sexuelles-dans-l-enseignement-superieur-et-la-recherche-au

Pour aller avec, un blog BD de plusieurs professeures (en Science) qui dénoncent le sexisme dont elles font régulièrement l’objet dans leur métier (elles peuvent aussi mettre en image les sales histoires qui VONT sont arrivées) :

Did this really happen ?
▻https://didthisreallyhappen.net

https://didthisreallyhappennet.files.wordpress.com/2018/04/14_01_blog.jpg?w=620

#Femmes #Science #Sexisme #Violences_sexuelles #Université #BD

#Burkina : controverse autour de #moustiques #OGM contre le #paludisme
▻http://www.burkinaonline.com/wp/burkina-controverse-autour-de-moustiques-ogm-contre-le-paludisme

http://www.burkinaonline.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/e635c3d14426a8ac127b5325751cbce90d15f081-592x296-300x150.jpg

Le Collectif citoyen pour l’agro-écologie, regroupant une soixantaine d’organisations, est radicalement contre le projet, estimant que « le risque zéro n’existe pas, surtout avec des manipulations génétiques ».

« Le lâcher des moustiques génétiquement modifiés comporte un risque de catastrophe #sanitaire effroyable. La modification du #génome d’une espèce vivante peut entraîner un changement de comportement de cette espèce. La #technologie à laquelle #TargetMalaria veut in fine arriver est un forçage #génétique qui va amener les moustiques à disséminer un trait de caractère qui va descendre et contaminer toute la descendance de l’espèce ».

Alors, comme ça, le PDG du CNRS est donc persuadé que le problème majeur de la science française, c’est de se payer « des stars ». Avec plein d’argent pour eux et des paillettes ?

Antoine Petit (CNRS) et les stars de la science
Sylvestre Huet, Le Monde, le 22 octobre 2018
▻http://huet.blog.lemonde.fr/2018/10/22/antoine-petit-cnrs-et-les-stars-de-la-science

#CNRS #Recherche #Science #France

Matrimoine littéraire de #Science-Fiction – Eva D Serves
▻http://evadserves.ovh/index.php/2018/10/26/matrimoine-litteraire-sf

Cet article vise à promouvoir le #matrimoine littéraire dans le genre de la science fiction. Il est écrit en collaboration avec Gabylc (de la chaine youtube Des Livres et des Loutres) et sera mis à jour au fil du temps.

NB : Les descriptions biographiques et les synopsis de #livres sont tirés de Babelio et de Wikipédia (ce qui est amené à changer)

On a beaucoup parlé du Prix Nobel de Physique cette année, puisqu’il a été décerné à un Français, mais aussi à une Canadienne (de 60 ans, dans une petite université, qui n’est pas prof titulaire et qui n’avait pas de page wikipedia la semaine dernière. Ce n’est pas pour la diminuer que je dis ça mais au contraire pour montrer que malgré sa valeur, elle n’a pas obtenu les titres et les honneurs auxquels « on » a en général droit, surtout si « on » est un homme).
▻https://seenthis.net/messages/726591

On a moins parlé du Prix Nobel de Chimie 2018, décerné à une américaine, un américain et un britannique. Pourtant, l’américain en question, George P. Smith, de l’université du Missouri, est un membre de Jewish Voice for Peace, de Mid-Missourians for Justice in Palestine, et de Missouri Right to Boycott, régulièrement dénoncé par le lobby sioniste américain pour son soutien de la cause palestinienne et de la campagne BDS ! Il a écrit des articles dans Mondoweiss, participé à des manifestations, organisé des conférences et des protestations sur le campus, au moins depuis 2012 :

Columbia, MO, mobilizes against Israeli assault on Gaza
George Smith, Mondoweiss, le 28 novembre 2012
▻https://mondoweiss.net/2012/11/columbia-mo-mobilizes-against-israeli-assault-on-gaza

Voilà comment il se décrit sur le site de Mondoweiss :

I’m a retired biology professor and a member of Mid-Missourians for Justice in Palestine as well as Jewish Voice For Peace. I’m not religious or Jewish by birth. But my wife is Jewish and our sons are bar-mitzvahed, and I’m very engaged with Jewish culture and politics.

Il a donné, en avril de cette année, alors qu’il est à la retraite, des cours dans son université sur l’occupation en Palestine. Il a aussi publié un article dans la Columbia Tribune :

Gaza, then and now
George Smith, Columbia Tribune, le 16 avril 2018
▻http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/20180416/gaza-then-and-now

Voici comment il y décrit le mouvement BDS :

Palestinian civil society’s call for the global community of conscience to ostracize Israeli businesses and institutions until Israel repudiates Dayan’s abhorrent syllogism and the Palestinian people, including the exiles, achieve full equality with Jews in their shared homeland.

https://www.nobelprize.org/uploads/2018/10/smith-2_3-464x696.jpg

#Palestine #BDS #Boycott_universitaire #Prix_Nobel #Science #Chimie #George_Smith

Forcer les gènes et l’Afrique
Enquête sur le forçage génétique des moustiques

Par Zahra Moloo

Traduction par Amandine Semat
Texte original : « The hubris of western science » paru dans Africa is a Country, 1er août 2018 (version légèrement modifiée pour Jef Klak avec l’auteure).

►https://jefklak.org/forcer-les-genes-et-lafrique

La lutte contre le paludisme va d’échec en échec ces dernières années ; en 2016, il a tué près d’un demi-million de personnes. Pour y remédier, des laboratoires et fondations internationales financées par des géants de l’industrie vont tester une nouvelle méthode : le forçage génétique. L’idée est de modifier génétiquement les moustiques vecteurs de la maladie, pour en propager quelques milliers dans l’environnement. Les gênes dont ils sont porteurs sont censés éradiquer des populations entières d’insectes en quelques générations. Si ces moustiques sont fabriqués dans les éprouvettes du Royaume Uni, c’est au Burkina Faso, au Mali ou au Kenya qu’ils seront relâchés. Or, tout comme pour les autres OGM, les conséquences sur la flore et la faune sont impossibles à prévoir. Le fantasme d’une technoscience occidentale toute puissante continue sa fuite en avant, sous couvert de santé publique. Au détriment des populations autochtones, de leurs capacités de décision et de leurs savoirs, systématiquement occultés.

http://jefklak.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Une_CMoustiques_Klak4.jpg

Une moustiquaire de nouvelle génération pour l’Afrique - SciDev.Net Afrique Sub-Saharienne
▻https://scidev.net/afrique-sub-saharienne/paludisme/actualites/moustiquaire-nouvelle-generation.html

http://www.avecnet.eu/media/3129/gambiae-banner.jpg

“Si nous avions étendu notre essai à l’ensemble du Burkina Faso, nous aurions réduit le nombre de cas de paludisme de 1,2 million.”
Steve Lindsay - Université de Durham

▻https://www.scidev.net/afrique-sub-saharienne/sante/paludisme
▻http://www.avecnet.eu/outcomes/developing-new-tools
#paludisme #Afrique_Sub_Saharienne #moustiquaire #moustique #épidémie

Ca a l’air intéressant, je lirai ca plus tard...

Procrastination : c’est la taille (de l’amygdale) qui compte
Pierre Ropert, France Culture, le 29 aout 2018
▻https://www.franceculture.fr/sciences/procrastination-cest-la-taille-de-lamygdale-qui-compte

Selon des chercheurs allemands, notre capacité à la procrastination dépend beaucoup de la taille de l’amygdale, une zone du cerveau impliquée dans notre capacité à la prise de décision.

Non, les plus procrastinateurs d’entre nous ne sont pas ceux qui ont le plus gros poil dans la main, mais la plus grosse amygdale dans le cerveau, à en croire une équipe de chercheurs allemands. Dans une étude publiée dans la revue Psychological Science, intitulée The Structural and Functional Signature of Action Control, les scientifiques racontent comment ils ont cherché à comprendre si la procrastination peut trouver une explication anatomique, et non pas uniquement psychologique.

Pour ce faire, les chercheurs ont soumis 264 volontaires à une IRM, après leur avoir fait remplir un questionnaire sur leur tendance à remettre ou non les choses au lendemain. Les scientifiques se sont attardés sur l’amygdale et le cortex cingulaire, deux zones du cerveaux liées à la prise de décision. Ils ont ainsi constaté que non seulement l’amygdale était plus grosse chez les personnes les plus "paresseuses", mais également que, chez elles, les connexions entre les deux zones étaient moins importantes.

Or l’amygdale a pour rôle de nous prévenir des conséquences négatives de nos actions, quand le cortex cingulaire, lui, utilise les données envoyées par l’amygdale pour choisir les actions à accomplir. Il "priorise" ainsi certaines actions sur les autres, ainsi que les émotions ressenties. En d’autres termes : si certaines personnes ont tendance à procrastiner, c’est parce que leur amygdale, plus développée, leur fait voir avant tout les conséquences négatives de leurs actions. Et si la connexion entre le cortex cingulaire et l’amygdale est plus faible, alors il devient plus difficile de choisir quelles actions réaliser.

Heureusement, si avoir une amygdale plus importante ou un cortex cingulaire un peu moins connecté tiennent du péché capital, la paresse n’est plus si mal vue. Ainsi, une étude de la Florida Gulf Coast University stipule que les personnes ayant un QI élevé sont plus paresseuses que les autres, alors qu’une autre étude menée par le professeur Eisuke Hasegawa montrait que les éléments considérés comme paresseux sont nécessaires à la société.

En février 2018, l’émission "Une histoire particulière" consacrait deux documentaires à la procrastination. Dans l’épisode "Cherchons F/H paresseux pour un poste de directeur", la psychologue Gwenaëlle Hamelin, spécialiste du stress au travail et du burn out, expliquait ainsi que "faire moins est une stratégie gagnante". Et Bill Gates l’affirmait lui-même : "Je choisis une personne paresseuse pour un travail difficile, car une personne paresseuse va trouver un moyen facile de le faire."

Déjà en 2012, dans l’émission La Grande Table, il était question de l’ouvrage du philosophe américain John Perry, La Procrastination : l’art de reporter au lendemain, où il développait un plaidoyer en faveur de la procrastination structurée, un "défaut" susceptible de transformer son récipiendaire en foudre de guerre. Le philosophe Mathieu Potte-Bonneville voyait dans ce livre "une tentative de déculpabilisation de la procrastination" : "John Perry se prétend procrastinateur, et essaie de voir comment il est possible de s’en servir. Il explique qu’explorer sa propre procrastination lui a permis de retrouver l’estime de lui-même et l’estime des autres. La procrastination, c’est aussi une expérience profondément désespérante, un dégoût de soi, un revers noir de la satisfaction du travail bien fait, et le livre constitue à cet égard une tentative de déculpabilisation. Il s’agit de montrer que le procrastinateur est extraordinairement actif contrairement à ce qu’il croit, car pour ne pas faire ce qu’il a à faire, eh bien il fait tout un ensemble d’autres choses. John Perry produit une méthode de procrastination structurée, qui permet de classer les corvées par ordre d’importance, et de se consacrer aux tâches les moins importantes pour éviter de s’occuper des plus urgentes. Ce livre ne se veut pas profond, il n’est pas question d’une recherche des causes. On l’affirme comme un fait, un peu comme la différence entre gaucher et droitier. Le moralisme se pose une question que résume Ovide : « Je vois le meilleur, je l’approuve, et je fais le pire ». Le procrastinateur est celui qui sait que ça n’est pas bien de procrastiner, d’ailleurs il n’en est pas heureux, mais il n’arrive pas à faire autrement. On peut l’expliquer par l’environnement dans lequel nous sommes pris et qui nous dit qu’il faut impérativement se réaliser et prendre des initiatives. Aujourd’hui, on a une épidémie de dépressions liée à ce que l’injonction dans le monde du travail est : soyez proactif. Plutôt que de sombrer dans la dépression, on développe une activité frénétique, dont on peut se demander si elle est du côté de la productivité ou de l’improductivité. Plus que l’absentéisme, le présentéisme en entreprise est un gros problème car les gens sont là mais font autre chose que ce qu’ils devraient faire. Si la philosophie permet d’échapper à la procrastination, la littérature permet d’en explorer les affres et l’expérience. C’est Marcel Proust qui en parle le premier : La recherche du temps perdu, qu’est-ce que c’est sinon l’immense odyssée de quelqu’un qui n’a pas vécu ce qu’il avait à vivre, et qui ne peut le vivre qu’en décidant de l’écrire ?"

Articles cités:

The physical sacrifice of thinking: Investigating the relationship between thinking and physical activity in everyday life
Todd McElroy, David L Dickinson, Nathan Stroh, and Christopher A Dickinson
Journal of Health Psychology 21:1750-1757 (2015)
▻http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1359105314565827

Lazy workers are necessary for long-term sustainability in insect societies
Eisuke Hasegawa, Yasunori Ishii, Koichiro Tada, Kazuya Kobayashi & Jin Yoshimura
Scientific Reports 6:20846 (2016)
▻https://www.nature.com/articles/srep20846

The Structural and Functional Signature of Action Control
Caroline Schlüter, Christoph Fraenz, Marlies Pinnow, Patrick Friedrich, Onur Güntürkün, and Erhan Genç
Psychological Science, in press (2018)
▻http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0956797618779380

#Procrastination #Paresse #Science #Psychologie vs. #Anatomie #Amygdale

Fish tales : Combating #fake_science in popular media - ScienceDirect
▻https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0964569115000903

Ocean & Coastal Management
Volume 115, October 2015, Pages 88-91
(article accessible)

Abstract
What role should scientist play in correcting bad science, fake science, and pseudoscience presented in popular media? Here, we present a case study based on fake documentaries and discuss effective social media strategies for scientists who want to engage with the public on issues of bad science, pseudoscience, and fake science. We identify two tracks that scientists can use to maximize the broad dissemination of corrective and educational content: that of an audience builder or an expert resource. Finally, we suggests that scientists familiarize themselves with common sources of misinformation within their field, so that they can be better able to respond quickly when factually inaccurate content begins to spread.

Deux citations en exergue :

1. Introduction
“A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes.”
∼Almost certainly not Mark Twain.

“Falsehood will fly, as it were, on the wings of the wind, and carry its tales to every corner of the earth; whilst truth lags behind; her steps, though sure, are slow and solemn, and she has neither vigour nor activity enough to pursue and overtake her enemy.”
∼Thomas Francklin, Sermons on Various Subjects, 1787

Et les cas pratiques étudiés (et contrés) : la preuve de l’existence des sirènes et d’un complot gouvernemental pour la masquer suivie de la preuve de la survie d’un mégalodon (requin géant - jusqu’à 20 mètres, le plus grand prédateur marin, disparu au Miocène…)

2. Mermaids and megalodons: the rise and fall of the fake discovery documentary
In May, 2012, Animal Planet, a Discovery Communications property, released Mermaids: The Body Found. The fictitious documentary, which presents the case that mermaids are not only real, but that there is an active government conspiracy to hide their existence, aired with a minimal post-credit disclaimer and was proceeded by heavy promotional material suggesting that the program evidence-based. To project credibility, Mermaids featured actual government organizations, particularly the United States’ National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), implicating real scientists in a fake conspiracy. NOAA experienced a backlash from this production and issued a statement distancing itself from the show (NOAA, 2012). Several NOAA scientists reported being verbally accosted as a result of their perceived complicity in the “mermaid conspiracy” (personal communications to Shiffman and Thaler).

Mermaids: The Body Found launched a new generation of fake documentaries, produced with the trappings of educational programming, including high production value, stunning visuals, and compelling narration. Since then, Discovery Communications’ networks have aired a follow-up to the initial fake mermaid documentary, which went on to become Animal Planet’s highest grossing show (ABC News, 2013), as well as two that promote the claim that the extinct Carcharocles megalodon (Pimiento and Clements, 2014) is extant and predating on humans. These fake documentaries followed a very particular style, weaving real science, natural history, and current events with fabricated images, CGI video, and interviews with actors playing experts, witnesses, and government officials. In each case, the fake documentaries created conflict by inserting real government agencies into the narrative as antagonists, and implicated working scientists in fictional conspiracies.

Exploring museum collections online: Some background reading
▻https://lab.sciencemuseum.org.uk/exploring-museum-collections-online-some-background-reading-da
▻https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1200/0*lSMymVAifKTVawvD%2E

John Stack
Digital Director of the Science Museum Group
Jan 23
Exploring museum collections online: Some background reading

In 2017 the Science Museum Group relaunched its online collection website. The website consolidated a number of existing websites publishing digitised collection material — organised by subject or area of collection — into a single presence.

Over 282,000 objects and archival records were published and over 27,000 of these were illustrated with at least one image.

This represents about 6% of the object collection (estimated to total 406,000 objects) and only a tiny fraction of the archival collection (estimated to be around 7 million items).

#musées #collections_en_ligne #open_sources #archives_en_ligne

OCW Course Index | MIT OpenCourseWare | Free Online Course Materials
▻https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/index.htm

tous les cours du MIT en accès libre :

Aeronautics and Astronautics
Anthropology
Architecture
Athletics, Physical Education and Recreation
Biological Engineering
Biology
Brain and Cognitive Sciences
Chemical Engineering
Chemistry
Civil and Environmental Engineering
Comparative Media Studies/Writing
Concourse
Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences
Economics
Edgerton Center
Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Engineering Systems Division
Experimental Study Group
Global Studies and Languages
Health Sciences and Technology
History
Linguistics and Philosophy
Literature
Materials Science and Engineering
Mathematics
Mechanical Engineering
Media Arts and Sciences
Music and Theater Arts
Nuclear Science and Engineering
Physics
Political Science
Science, Technology, and Society
Sloan School of Management
Supplemental Resources
Urban Studies and Planning
Women’s and Gender Studies
Writing and Humanistic Studies

#recherche #enseignement #mooc via @maliciarogue

Des études concernant le #prix_libre ?
J’ai vécu le prix libre, au départ comme une initiative proposée uniquement dans certains lieux (libertaires), par certains groupes qui portent des idéologies radicales (anar). Mais ça semble se démocratiser.
Alors je me demande quelles dérives sont possibles, et surtout quelles ficelles le prix libre utilise, donc je recherche des sources d’études sociales et économiques.

J’ai déjà trouvé celle là, plutôt libérale :
▻https://boingboing.net/2012/04/23/pay-what-you-like-pricing-stud.html
PNAS :

We investigate the role of identity and self-image consideration under “pay-what-you-want” pricing. Results from three field experiments show that often, when granted the opportunity to name the price of a product, fewer consumers choose to buy it than when the price is fixed and low. We show that this opt-out behavior is driven largely by individuals’ identity and self-image concerns; individuals feel bad when they pay less than the “appropriate” price, causing them to pass on the opportunity to purchase the product altogether.

Source : ▻http://www.pnas.org/content/109/19/7236.full.pdf
Science :

...scientists tested pay-what-you-want (PWYW) pricing in three experiments. In the first, some boat tour riders were given the option to pay $15 for a photo of themselves, while others were asked for $5, and still others were asked for PWYW. More people bought photos under the $5 plan, about 64%, than when they could name their own price, about 55%. (Only 23% opted for the $15 photos.) Scientists think that when people have to decide on a fair price, fear of looking cheap keeps some from purchasing altogether, they report online today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. In a second trial, researchers found that attendees at an amusement park paid five times more for a photo of themselves on a ride (such as the one above) under PWYW pricing if told that half the proceeds would go to charity. And in the third experiment, guests at a restaurant with PWYW pricing either paid someone directly for their meal or paid anonymously by slipping money into a box near the door on their way out. Customers paid about 13% more when they were anonymous than when they paid someone directly. In all cases, the team says, PWYW seems to work because we want to feel good about ourselves when doing it.

reliée à celle là :
▻http://www.numerama.com/magazine/22458-la-libre-fixation-du-prix-par-l-acheteur-payerait-plus-qu-imposer-le

Le résumé publié dans le magazine Science n’apporte pas d’autre explication que la culpabilité que ressentirait le payeur anonyme.

Il est amusant de voir que le modèle de Humble Bundle reprend les « ficelles » données par l’étude. Ainsi, le prix moyen donné par les clients est communiqué pour déculpabiliser ceux qui ne souhaitent pas donner plus.

Tous s’accorde pour analyser l’expérience de RadioHead et non pas le prix de la cantine végane du coin… si t’es pas populaire, t’es rien.
▻http://www.numerama.com/magazine/10864-l-experience-radiohead-a-fait-un-enorme-carton-financier.html