[CITASA] CRCP, CRAC, CROF

Thu Jan 8 13:16:31 EST 2009

FWIW, here's my take (and since we're disclosing: as the award's
instigator, a committee member last year, and-incidentally-an interloper
in the comm. field): 

Comm, viewed as a loose collection of schools and departments, is very
under-reified compared to the core Soc Sci disciplines.  It has no
strong methodological center.   Instead, it (1) had a more-or-less
unifying object in the mass media and broadcasting in particular; and
(2) has the system of recognition built around the professional
associations.  I'll posit that this isn't news to anyone here.

The CROF award scratches the question of what happens to #2 after #1
goes away.  What's the specific purchase of a Comm school on the
convergent digital environment?  Not so obvious in my view.  There has
been a lot of institutional innovation in the last decade or so to
accommodate/anticipate these changes, and certainly more to come as
J-Schools get clobbered and universities retrench.  New subjects and
forms of expertise are all over the place, inside and outside the
university.

Academic professional associations are almost by definition efforts to
reify their disciplines.  The reorganization of the larger 'field' in
which they operate is a major challenge in this respect.   There are two
basic choices: circle the wagons around an existing professional cadre,
or reach out and try to incorporate the new forms and locations of
expertise.   Represent the discipline or the field.  Institutional
inertia almost always favors the first direction.   From my perspective,
the CROF award is a small but non-trivial step by ICA in the second.
These things are always the products of compromise, but note that these
are ICA-wide awards, not marginalized in a section.   Professional
recognition is the only currency ICA has, and it's chosen to spend it
here on a series of things that fall outside the usual reward system.

My own view is that the collaboration prize is the most challenging.
I'd definitely second Barry's call for some creative nominations on
that.

Cheers,

Joe

Joe Karaganis

SSRC

From: Brasher, Brenda E [mailto:bbrasher at tulane.edu] 
Sent: Thursday, January 08, 2009 11:28 AM
To: Joe Karaganis; Barry Wellman
Cc: citasa at list.citasa.org
Subject: RE: [CITASA] CRCP, CRAC, CROF

I think the basic concept of the award is flawed. 

In an initiative apparently designed to give off an impression of
inclusivity, it furthers the reification of a socially constructed
academic field.

Brenda
Dr. B. E. Brasher
Department of Sociology
Tulane University
New Orleans, LA
USA
bbrasher at tulane.edu

-----Original Message-----
From: citasa-bounces at list.citasa.org on behalf of KARAGANIS
Sent: Thu 1/8/2009 8:12 AM
To: Barry Wellman
Cc: citasa at list.citasa.org
Subject: Re: [CITASA] CRCP, CRAC, CROF

I thought of it more as the 'What is the Field? Award'--or, more
narrowly,
the 'What is the Discipline in Relation to the Field? Award.'  Not a
trivial
question for a discipline-based professional association to ask, as we
discovered last year.

Minor addendum: the nomination process is online only (
http://www.icahdq.org/cfp ).  I am guessing that snail mail submissions
will
be frowned on.

J

On 1/7/09 9:27 PM, "Barry Wellman" <wellman at chass.utoronto.ca> wrote:

> Thanks Joe for announcing.
>
> The award I got was interesting. I call it The Marginal Man (sic)
Award.
> Officially, it is for a researcher who has "made important
contributions
> to the field of communications from outside the discipline of
> communications."
>
> There are no fixed criteria, but obviously someone in
> Comm Sci who was trained in Comm Sci is not eligible.
>
> The committee will debate whether someone such as Manuel Castells
(trained
> in Sociology, employed at Annenberg Comm, USC) or Elihu Katz (trained
in
> Sociology employed at Annenberg Comm, U Penna) is eligible. These are
just
> examples -- don't read much into me.
>
> Of course, the winner doesn't have to be a sociologist. People have
> suggested to me Larry Lessig, Lee Rainie, Howard Rheingold -- altho I
> haven't seen the formal nomination letters -- not due for some weeks.
>
> Although nominations should be sent to ICA headquarters (nice letters
+
> CV), you should know that I'm on the selection committee, altho I
declined
> the honour of being chair. (Having already accepted the honour of
> co-chairing the CITASA Career Award committee).
>
> I've retained the Governor of Illinois as my consultant on the
selection
> process;-)
>
>  Barry Wellman
>
_______________________________________________________________________
>
>   S.D. Clark Professor of Sociology, FRSC              NetLab Director
>   Department of Sociology                        University of Toronto
>   725 Spadina Avenue, Room 388                  Toronto Canada M5S 2J4
>   http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman            fax:+1-416-978-3963
>
>   Updating history:     http://chass.utoronto.ca/oldnew/cybertimes.php
>
>
_______________________________________________________________________
>
>
> On Wed, 7 Jan 2009, Joe Karaganis wrote:
>
>> Date: Wed, 7 Jan 2009 14:57:25 -0500
>> From: Joe Karaganis <karaganis at ssrc.org>
>> To: citasa at list.citasa.org
>> Subject: [CITASA] CRCP, CRAC, CROF
>>
>> Hi Everyone,
>>
>>
>>
>> Just a note that nominations are being accepted for three
International
>> Communication Association prizes (which  we created last year).
>> CITASA's own Barry Wellman received the first Communication Research
as
>> an Open Field award.
>>
>>
>>
>> Nominations have to come from ICA members, but there are no
restrictions
>> on nominees.   See http://www.icahdq.org/aboutica/awards.asp for more
>> details.  Any help spreading the word would be welcome.
>>
>>
>>
>> The deadline is Jan 31, with prizes awarded at ICA in May.
>>
>>
>>
>> Happy New Year to you,
>>
>>
>>
>> Joe
>>
>>
>>
>> Joe Karaganis
>>
>> SSRC
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> COMMUNICATION RESEARCH AS COLLABORATIVE PRACTICE
>>
>> The CRCP prize is awarded to researchers who engage in innovative
forms
>> of collaboration to address emergent problems in media and
>> communication. It is designed to encourage collaborative
communications
>> research combining the efforts of researchers, practitioners, and
other
>> interested parties in the production of new knowledge.
>>
>> Collaboration that falls outside the usual incentive structures of
the
>> academy and that overcomes risks associated with building new kinds
of
>> partnerships will be a focus of this reward. The award carries a cash
>> prize of $500.
>>
>>
>>
>> COMMUNICATION RESEARCH AS AN AGENT OF CHANGE
>>
>> The CRAC prize of $500 is awarded to research that has a demonstrable
>> impact on practice outside the academy, with clear benefits to the
>> community. How communication research may serve as an agent of change
>> and social benefit is open to definition with the application for the
>> award.
>>
>>
>>
>> COMMUNICATION RESEARCH AS AN OPEN FIELD
>>
>> The CROF prize of $500 is awarded to researchers who have made
important
>> contributions to the field of communications from outside the
discipline
>> of communications. It rewards and supports dialogue with other fields
>> and institutional locations in which vital new understandings of the
>> communications environment and the public sphere are being produced.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://list.citasa.org/pipermail/citasa_list.citasa.org/attachments/20090108/acf3b72b/attachment.html>