<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=windows-1252"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><font face="Arial">Dear all,</font><div><font face="Arial">this is just to let you know that there is a whole special issue published as a working paper series by Richard Heeks at the University of Manchester on ANT and Development with relevance for STS in Africa. </font></div><div><font face="Arial"><br></font></div><div><font face="Arial">See here: <a href="http://www.cdi.manchester.ac.uk/resources/ant4d/">http://www.cdi.manchester.ac.uk/resources/ant4d/</a></font></div><div><font face="Arial"><br></font></div><div><font face="Arial">There are papers with studies from Africa and I was part of this effort (Paper 4: Re-translating nature in post-apartheid Cape Town, Henrik Ernstson) and some are coming up in various journals. </font></div><div><font face="Arial"><br></font></div><div><font face="Arial">In his opening paper, Richard Heeks reflects on why it was so difficult to get any of the major development journals to accept a special issue on ANT and Development in 2010/11 which should be interesting to read. </font></div><div><font face="Arial"><br></font></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial; ">"ANT: A Bad Smell in Development Studies </span><span style="font-family: Arial; ">(or </span><span style="font-family: Arial; ">“</span><span style="font-family: Arial; ">Hell Hath No Fury Like an Academic Scorned</span><span style="font-family: Arial; ">”</span><span style="font-family: Arial; ">)</span></div><div><div class="page" title="Page 13"><div class="layoutArea"><div class="column"><p><font face="Arial">Collecting publication experiences from the contributors to the working paper series,
a recurrent theme was rejection. ANT in the 2010s seems to carry the Sadim touch
when it seeks to engage with development studies with a full house of rejections
from every one of the leading development studies journals for either ANT-based
papers or special issues/sections.
</font></p><p><font face="Arial">The rejection messages fell into four overall categories, adding to the overall
impression that ANT in development studies is like a bad smell that everyone would
like to just go away:
</font></p><p><font face="Arial">- “This is just description”; “What is the puzzle that ANT solves?”; “What is ANT’s
value added for development”. These are legitimate criticisms, and issues that are
in part addressed elsewhere in this paper.
</font></p><p><font face="Arial">- ANT is too old. Editors and reviewers rejected submissions because ANT is “neither
new ... nor original” and because “Actor-Network-Theory (ANT) has been around for
quite a while”. More directly, one commented, “There is a general feeling that ...
ANT (and development) is no longer quite up to the minute in terms of current
debates and concerns. ANT has indeed been an intriguing area of research but those
consulted think that the time has rather gone by to do a special issue on it”. In other
words, you should have caught the wave in the 1980s or 1990s because now the
spotlight of academic fashion has moved on. Though you could wait a decade or two
and try again in the hope that ANT will have become retro.
</font></p><p><font face="Arial">- I don’t understand ANT. Because ANT has few adherents in development studies,
papers necessarily get put out to review – and rejected – by those who do not
understand it well. These are reviewers who: think actors can only be human; think
actors can only be individuals; assume Long’s work on actor-oriented approaches to
development is the same as ANT; demand generalisations from ANT case studies;
etc. Of course this doesn’t just happen with ANT but it was notable that, of 12
editors and reviewers involved in the review processes collated here, only two
clearly demonstrated prior experience with ANT. Both of them recommended
acceptance; the only two to do so.
</font></p><p><font face="Arial">-Thisisaboutpractice;developmentstudiesisn’tinterestedinpractice. Editors
and reviewers can be quite narrow in their interpretation of what development
studies covers: “Because your paper focuses on “how” issues, we do not feel that
[leading development journal] would be the best outlet”: they declined to review it,
and suggested it go to Development in Practice instead."</font></p>
</div>
</div>
</div></div><div><font face="Arial">Best regards,</font></div><div><font face="Arial">Henrik</font></div><div><br></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial; ">See here: </span><span style="font-family: Arial; "><a href="http://www.cdi.manchester.ac.uk/resources/ant4d/">http://www.cdi.manchester.ac.uk/resources/ant4d/</a></span></div><div><font face="Arial"><br></font></div><div><font face="Arial"><img id="74848de8-03fc-433c-818a-dec2dd270c6b" height="480" width="591" apple-width="yes" apple-height="yes" src="cid:7421A4A3-BD73-46DD-892E-7550574DECB1@gateway.2wire.net"></font></div><br><br><div>
<div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; border-spacing: 2px; font-size: 11px; "><div style="display: inline !important; "><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: medium; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; border-spacing: 2px; font-size: 11px; "><div style="display: inline !important; "><b><br class="Apple-interchange-newline">*New publication* </b></div></span></span></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: medium; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; border-spacing: 2px; font-size: 11px; "><div style="display: inline !important; "><b>I</b></div></span></span><font color="#222222" face="arial, sans-serif" style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; "><b style="font-size: 11px; ">n ANTIPODE - </b><span style="font-size: 11px; ">'</span></font><a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/anti.12051/abstract"><font size="2">Provincializing Urban Political Ecology—Towards a Situated UPE through African Urbanism</font></a><font color="#222222" face="arial, sans-serif" style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; "><span style="font-size: 11px; ">' (2013)</span></font></div><div><br></div></div></span></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; "><b>Henrik Ernstson</b> (PhD)<div style="font-weight: normal; "><div>Department of History & <a href="http://africanstudies.stanford.edu">African Studies</a>, Stanford University (Wallenberg Stig Hagström scholar, 2013-2015)</div><div><a href="http://www.africancentreforcities.net/" target="_blank">African Centre for Cities</a>, University of Cape Town (Honorary Visiting Scholar)</div><div><div><a href="http://bit.ly/KTH-EnvHum">KTH Environmental Humanities</a>, KTH Institute of Technology (Research Fellow on leave)</div><div><div><div><div>Mobile: (US) +1-510-502-8394 / (SA) +27 79 082 4332.</div><div><div></div></div></div><div><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><b><span style="font-family: arial; font-weight: normal; "><div></div></span></b></font></div><div>Twitter: @rhizomia</div><div><b style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; "><span style="font-family: arial; font-weight: normal; ">Complete academic <a href="http://bit.ly/pPtwlh" target="_blank">publication list</a>.</span></b></div></div><div>Blog: <a href="http://www.rhizomia.net/" target="_blank">http://www.rhizomia.net</a> </div><div><b style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; "><span style="font-family: arial; font-weight: normal; ">Projects: </span></b><a href="http://www.situatedecologies.net">http://www.situatedecologies.net</a> :: <a href="http://www.situatedecologies.net/supe">Situated Urban Political Ecologies Platform</a> :: Book project: <a href="http://www.situatedecologies.net/archives/portfolio/groundingurbannatures">Grounding Urban Natures</a></div></div></div></div><div style="font-weight: normal; "><div><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><b style="font-weight: normal; "><span style="font-family: arial; font-weight: normal; "><br></span></b><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; "><b>*Other recent publications*</b><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></font><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; ">1. </span></font><a href="https://dl.dropbox.com/u/3605089/My_publications/Ernstson%20and%20S%C3%B6rlin%202012%20Ecosystem%20Services%20as%20Technology%20of%20Globalization%20-%20Ecol%20Economics.pdf" target="_blank">Ecosystem Services as Technology of Globalization</a> (2013); 2. <a href="https://dl.dropbox.com/u/3605089/My_publications/Ernstson%202013%20The%20Social%20Production%20of%20Ecosystem%20Services%20-%20Landsc%26UrbPlanning.pdf" target="_blank">The Social Production of Ecosystem Services</a> (2013). 3. <a href="https://dl.dropbox.com/u/3605089/My_publications/Ernstson%202012%20Re-translating%20nature%20in%20post-apartheid%20Cape%20Town%20-%20ANT4D.pdf" target="_blank">Re-translating Nature in Post-Apartheid Cape Town</a> (2013); 4. <b><span style="font-weight: normal; "><div style="display: inline !important; "><a href="http://goog_117322317/" target="_blank">Transformative collective ac</a><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="http://bit.ly/jVegWh" target="_blank">tion</a>... (2011).</font></div></span></b></div></div></div>
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