http://norah.dreamwidth.org/155091.html

Including:qualitative/quantitative,
truth/lie,
peace/justice,
theory/practice,
and/or,
academia/pure maths, and
diet/junk food…among other pairings.

Link to story

As an academic working in comm studies as well as sciences (and a fan! another of those aca-fen!), I appreciate your noting that the speed and close networking of fandom communication was a big part of OgiSai’s survey implosion. It speaks volumes for the hype that has been trumpeted about the internet as the “new frontier,” the “global commons,” the “new village square,” etc., that when this predicted cross-linkage of discourse and dialogue actually occurs, people are taken by surprise. The online newspaper “comments” sections, like this blog, are basically still no more dialogic or synchronous than snail-mailed letters to the editor or paper interoffice memos.

Also, your suggestion of inflexibility as a characteristic of ‘bad research’ is interesting. I’ll be thinking on this some more. It would be nice if IRBs asked about this, but my feeling is that the research design process taught to most PhDs works toward the opposite: to set up very detailed, rigidly finalized designs that respond well to questions from one’s committee, less well to the real world thereafter where the research must be carried out. But that’s the hierarchy of priorities in academia: social and bureaucratic rules trump research realities quite often.

I doubt fandom is not entirely soured for good researchers by the OgiSai’s unbelievably poor survey design and, as you beautifully termed it, their “craptastic pseudo-scientific free association masquerading as ‘evolutionary theory.’” Partly because so many fans are educated, and also because as you say, fans are highly self-studying and open to a wide range of theories. They’ve seen decent research before (they read it) and also, OgiSai was like a lot of hurricanes, intense where it happened, but quick and so localized that many fans will never have heard of them.

Also, as it happens, the majority of fans with college education skew toward the humanities end of things, with some social science and far less natural sciences, and they tend more toward a deferential respect for science than the critical stance that more familiarity might bring them. In short, there’s less pomo or science studies critique in most universities than one might expect after the vitriol of the Science Wars. (Too bad, I might possibly add.) That tendency to respect scientists slinging around credentials and long words helped OgiSai get those purported 2000 responses, I believe (the “do it for science!” appeal was pitched perfectly). It wore off pretty rapidly, of course, in the face of their inability to clarify their goals and reluctance to give any direct answers, but the willingness to be helpful ended only because of their ineptitude.

I hope to come back and digest more of your comments about biological-cultural connections; my PhD now being completed attempts to sketch out some of these, in the area of “meanings of soil” (i.e., why does “dirt”=”disgust”, along with other both positive and negative associations). The efforts to cross the 2 cultures divide, to make these “promiscuous” connections transparent not simply in the brain, but in social systems of meaning (and environmental meanings) are truly fascinating, and very new, and I would love to see them all worked out! (It would certainly have made my own research easier.)

I’d love to see you write more about slash fanfic and fandom communities. Do think about some research! Or help us ponder some “FAQ for would-be fandom researchers, including questions for fans to ask *them*”, which we appear to need and likely to be formulating. You’re right about the amazement of a community that is articulate and willing to truly jump into participatory research. I trained as an anthropologist, and laughed out loud at your comments on non-talkative informants. I’ve had that feeling working with two groups in the US – farmers, and scientists. Fandom is such a delight by comparison!