On the elephant in the room

Readers of this blog may (or may not) have noticed that this blog has remained silent on recent events in the profession related to climate, gender equity, sexually inappropriate behavior (up to and including allegations of criminal sexual assault against a senior member of the profession), etc. As owner and head moderator of the Cocoon, the question of whether to discuss these issues here (and if so, how) is something I have struggled with. On the one hand, I am inclined to think we all share a moral duty to contribute -- in ways large and small -- to help make our discipline a safer, more professional, more ethical place. I am also inclined to think that online discussions can play a role in this, by enabling people to debate the issues (though, of course, I also think online discussions have a tendency to devolve into counterproductive accusations, speculations, etc.). Finally, I am resolved in my personal and professional life to not remain a bystander to wrongs and injustices. Again, I think -- and yes, this is just my opinion -- that we all share moral duties not to simply sit by and let bad things happen, and that even if we can only help respond to injustices/etc. in small ways, we should do so.

While all of these considerations seem to me to point in favor of discussing recent events in the profession -- including all of the ethical questions people have been raising on other blogs -- it is unclear to me (A) how to do so in way that is consistent with the safe-and-supportive mission of this blog, and (B) how to properly weigh my sense of obligation to you all to maintain this blog's safe and supportive atmosphere against whatever obligations I/we have to help realize a more ethical, equitable profession (e.g. through discussion of recent issues). In other words, I find myself a bit stuck. Although I don't want to overdramatize the dilemma I feel here -- this is just a blog, after all -- it is nevertheless one I find myself facing.

Finally, given that this is not my blog -- I've always intended for it to be a community blog above all else -- it seems to me that the most appropriate thing to do in the situation is open the question up to you all: how do you, the Cocoon community and readership, think this blog could best approach the kinds of climate/gender/harrassment/etc. issues facing the profession (particularly in light of recent events)? Any and all thoughts (consistent with this blog's mission, of course) would be much appreciated (by me, at least:).

Comments

[Elisa Freschi]

Personally, I would appreciate posts discussing what to do positively to avoid discriminations etc. or to encourage people of discriminated groups to participate.
For instance, I really appreciated your post regarding the fact that there are much less women blogging about philosophy than men and what to do about it. Similarly, I enjoyed the discussions at newapps about how to have more women-speakers at philosophical conferences (and in both cases this lead to a change in my own behaviour).

[Joshua Stein]

I think it's probably important to look more closely at what conditions, in particular, are causing these environments; there are obviously factors at the level of the discipline (rates of publication; disparity in citations of women; etc.) as well as factors at the level of individual departments. Feminist critics have commented a lot on the former, and the contemporary discussions (U Miami; CU Boulder; inter alia) deal a lot with the latter, but it's not entirely clear how the two fit together.

It seems like just trying to spell out the details of what is going on here goes a long way to addressing what can, and needs to, be changed here.

[David Morrow]

Marcus, I also feel the dilemma, for the reasons you mentioned. I'm not sure what to do about it either. I like Elisa's suggestion: we might pursue discussions of ways to respond positively or proactively to the kinds of problems you've mentioned.

For what it's worth, NewAPPS has been wrestling with this very issue, and they have concluded that it's best simply to post links to relevant articles and keep comments closed: http://www.newappsblog.com/2014/02/newapps-comments-policy-and-recent-posts.html