My girlfriend, alas, will be disappointed by the sense of “engagement” I’m about to speak of.
I had an awkward conversation at CSCW where I completely failed to connect to someone who I was trying to honestly engage. This made me sad, and got me to thinking about other failures to engage I’ve been involved in.
- I was listening to a couple of women about the lack of women in computer science. I’d had some conversations with women students about their experiences and frustrations when I taught at James Madison. I started to share one, but was cut off by one who told me because I wasn’t a woman I could never understand and wasn’t qualified to have opinions on the topic.
- At GROUP 2007, I was chatting with an anthropologist at a dinner at GROUP 2007 who told me about their work, which was pretty fun, then asked what I do. I replied that I use theory to design systems, to which they replied “You don’t use theory, you make theory” and turned away. End of conversation.
- I’ve also been on the giving end of Fail To Engage. The fact that I use theory is funny, because I used to have trouble taking social sciences seriously because people are complicated; the theories and models felt so limited that I didn’t see their value until I started working with social science folks through the CommunityLab project between CMU, Michigan, and Minnesota. But I had a number of conversations early on where I probably sounded like a total engineering shit. [1]
Most likely, you can conjure up memories when you’ve been on both sides of this, and chances are they’re not great memories. So, my main point is that, just as asking questions is a kind of academic love, the will to engage is academic love as well.
This is not a Lieberman- or Dourish-style call for people from different disciplinary, methodological, or theoretical backgrounds to lay down their arms and embrace alternate perspectives. [2] I do think being open to this is generally good, but you have to call your shots when deciding on extended, serious engagement with other perspectives or disciplines. It can make you uncomfortable, it takes time to learn the lingo, your home tribe may not value your expeditions, and you can’t afford to engage with everything. [3]
In the context of a single conversation, though, refusing to engage is probably a net lose, especially with someone who is reaching toward the things you care about. Engaging in these contexts is a very practical kind of academic love that gives you a chance to spread your work, interact with people, and connect to ideas you otherwise might not. Those people and connections might in turn propagate your ideas into communities that might not otherwise see them ($1 to Ron Burt).
This willingness to engage is a hallmark among people I deeply respect in academia. Jon Kleinberg has a lot on his plate, but when you do talk to him, you know that he’s engaged with you. Phoebe Sengers does effective critical work around technology in part because she has a real empathy for and understanding of the things she critiques, and she’s happy to engage with people and ideas across the spectrum. Helen Nissenbaum has impact across intellectual communities because she’s willing to engage with folks who speak other languages.
We could do worse than to emulate them. [4]
- This probably still happens.
- For a parallel, funny-but-sad discussion of divisions between various races, classes, and creeds, see the lyrics for Tom Lehrer’s National Brotherhood Week.
- As Steven Wright once said, “You can’t have everything. Where would you put it?”.
- Plus, every time you blow someone off, God kills a kitten.
Wow, Dan, these stories are very strange. I have a hard time even imagining this happening… I think you were talking to some really rude people. (I just had an email exchange or two where my conclusion was “Wow, that person is just insanely rude.”)
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