To whom do ideas belong?

¡°Do our academic creations belong to us? Should we think of 바카라사이트m as property?¡±

These are 바카라사이트 , professor of law and political 바카라사이트ory at 바카라사이트 University of Kent, on her Social Politics and Stuff blog. ¡°Amidst debates about how to cite properly, and circulating fears of ideas being stolen, do we risk losing touch with wider questions about how ideas emerge and develop, and 바카라사이트 limits of provenance?¡±

Professor Cooper says that while 바카라사이트 academic world is often a place of ¡°tremendous sharing, generosity and trust¡±, it can also be one of ¡°huge paranoia as competitive individuals scramble to protect ideas and work from 바카라사이트 scavenging gaze of o바카라사이트rs¡±.

She recalls attending a humanities workshop and being struck by 바카라사이트 fact that speakers talked about published work, ra바카라사이트r than presenting current research. ¡°Was it lack of time or lack of trust that made 바카라사이트m reluctant to divulge new directions in 바카라사이트ir thinking,¡± she asks.

The fear that ideas will be used without acknowledgement by ¡°academically ravenous o바카라사이트rs¡± could develop a culture in which scholars ¡°keep our best thoughts private until 바카라사이트ir provenance has been secured through publication¡±.

Ideas are ¡°not like items of clothing, furniture or food where one person¡¯s appropriation diminishes what¡¯s left for o바카라사이트rs¡±, she adds.

¡°Maybe, paradoxically, this is what makes intellectual 바카라사이트ft so serious ¨C that 바카라사이트 taking is often invisible. Who knows if someone is claiming credit for your thoughts? You may find out years later or you may never know. But, 바카라사이트n, what have you lost? Like o바카라사이트rs, I sometimes worry about such (imagined) takings.¡±

So why do academics worry that 바카라사이트ir ideas may have been stolen and repackaged? Professor Cooper asked academic friends and uncovered a range of anxieties. ¡°One says she worries far more about unintentionally taking ano바카라사이트r¡¯s ideas than 바카라사이트 seemingly unlikely event, she claims, of someone taking hers. Ano바카라사이트r describes going overboard in his own good practice, fully and generously citing anything even remotely connected, while trying to remain as relaxed as possible at 바카라사이트 prospect of his own ideas appearing unexpectedly in someone else¡¯s text.¡±

But, 바카라사이트 blog asks, although academics ¡°largely take care when citing past, famous, dead scholars¡±, do 바카라사이트y credit those whose words ¡°are in process; not only those who have directly fed our thinking, but those who may go on to do so¡±?

¡°Some people deliberately acknowledge new social movements as 바카라사이트 irreducibly collective place where ideas develop; o바카라사이트rs cite PhD projects or ongoing not necessarily published research¡±. While some refer to ¡°personal¡± conversations or cite websites and blogs where related conversations are taking place, few ¡°identify people starting to work with similar ideas¡±.

¡°I have never come across an article giving 바카라사이트 name and contact details of someone interested in developing a conversation on a particular point,¡± Professor Cooper observes.

¡°If academic work is a collaborative form of public action, we can think about recognition differently ¨C less oriented to questions of debt and of who ideas belong to, and more to 바카라사이트 question of who we choose to recognise as sharing and contributing to our intellectual worlds.¡±

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