Emily Drabinski

Yes, but how will change happen if individuals continue to work in that system? It's tough decision and there are risks, but at the same time there are individuals making the change.

I mean, it's complicated. But I don't believe individual choices can come close to undoing oligopolies in publishing, or corporate takeovers of higher ed. For me, it's akin to imagining my recycling will stop climate change.

Part of the story, sure, and definitely important for aligning my own behavior with my politics and values, but unlikely to change the course of systems.

Yeah. I guess for me, like recycling, I feel compelled to carry my values with me in all parts of life. Even if it's not going to be the big change, it's a small factor and some personal consolation.

I think individual actions are important, and also agree with Emily that structural change requires collective action

We have to #organizeyourworkplace and #organizeyourscholcomm too! :)

#organizeyourscholcomm should totally exist. i could help with it after our bargaining campaign is done.

I don't see Shannon's comment as blaming or calling for individual researchers to change a whole system, but to think, be critical of where they publish. Researchers should be critical. They should be thinking about how their radical politics writing is inaccessible.

And sure, I can see how it is akin to recycling but that shouldn't mean we dont recycle. People should at least think and archive research! Scholcomm folks, radical politics folks, those working in the commons --- if they aren't modeling better practices, will anyone?

I don’t disagree with you, except that I think the effects of these individual choices are less far-reaching/critical than other people do. It’s just a difference in orientation, I think.

I don't think that individual choices are far reaching. They open up individual research. They can potentially encourage others to do the same. That's not high impact but it still matters. The individual responsibility to uphold their own values does lie with an individual.

Yes, it matters! Aligning our behavior with our politics and values is important. That those choices are constrained by political economies bigger than us is also true. As someone who has made all kinds of publishing choices, I think it's complicated.

It is complicated! But Shannon was just commenting that researchers should give it more thought. And they should think. It wasn't a call to must publish OA (I'd like a result of that thinking to make a plan to archive per agreements), so I was surprised to see your disagreement.

I wasn't disagreeing, just noting that we often focus on individuals when i think they're the wrong target. You're probably right that I didn't need to pick that bone vis @shannonmattern's tweet! Apologies Shannon!

Totally! I didn't mean to suggest that only scholars bear responsibility! It's a whole ecosystem including publishers, libraries, faculty review committees, accreditors, etc.

Oh, I know you have a deep appreciation for systems! I just so often see the critique of profit-driven scholarly publishing circle around scolding individuals for their bad choices, which I find frustrating.

You're right. I regret that the way I framed my initial comment might perpetuate that misconception :(