conference policy recommendations | orgtheory.net
▻https://orgtheory.wordpress.com/2015/06/05/conference-policy-recommendations
First, some theory. Attending an academic conference is like being a teenager again. This is why they can be so awful. You hang around trying to attach yourself to a group—preferably the cool kids, but in the end any group will do—and then these groups hang around waiting for something to happen. Absent planning, groups exist in a permanent state of failing to decide what to do. Where should we go to dinner? Are we still waiting for someone? I heard there was a good party nearby somewhere. Where’s Ann, wasn’t she here a minute ago? Why amn’t I invited to where those people are going? Can’t I just go somewhere and get high? Why doesn’t anyone have a car? Does anyone know someone with a connection? I don’t want to have to go to my room.
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remember that Anatol Rapoport, Pierre Bourdieu, and Erving Goffman all agree that in a situation like this the simplest strategy is the best one: just do your thing, and act like that’s what’s obviously supposed to be happening.
