This post is on the BDSM Activism web board.
| Wed 24 Jun 09, 7:57 PM Degenerate  UK(M), 5 yrs    |
Hi apologies to anyone annoyed by reposting, but I thought this topic might be worth a new thread. This post is from the "Is BDSM a sexuality?" thread here: http://www.informedconsent.co.uk/posts/240512/3/... which began over on this thread (now full) http://www.informedconsent.co.uk/posts/240411/0
Thanks in advance to anyone willing to share thoughts and information on this topic. If anyone has information to contribute but can't post it, please feel free to memo privately or - I can post it here anonymously in confidence for you if that would be of interest (just memo me, but be explicit if you want me to do that) De Sign up to CAAN's statement www.caan.org.uk Edited Wed 24 Jun 09, 7:59 PM by Degenerate | ||
| 24 Jun 09, 8:17 PM Tanos UK(M), 14 yrs  |
This is in the US, but it sounds like a similar thing: http://www.caras.ws/ Regards, Tanos
www.tanos.org.uk Edited 24 Jun 09, 8:22 PM by Tanos | ||
| 25 Jun 09, 1:44 AM doulos UK(SW), 7 yrs |
It would certainly strike me as a useful project and seems to fit in with the current academic trend in creating interdisciplinary research groups. "Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard." H. L. Mencken | ||
| 25 Jun 09, 10:22 AM Degenerate UK(M), 5 yrs |
Sign up to CAAN's statement www.caan.org.uk | ||
| 25 Jun 09, 10:37 AM Degenerate UK(M), 5 yrs |
Thanks for the messages here and also the messages i have received in memo, unfortunately most of which are not for sharing. If I understand correctly there is some sort of centre for sexuality studies, which also has sub groupings such as centres for lesbian studies. In my mind this should now mean we're in a position to have a centre for BDSM studies in the UK (so it can relate to UK politics directly). How does something like this begin? Who needs to call for it - is it something lecturers set up? Do stuents call for it? how does it work, anyone know? De Sign up to CAAN's statement www.caan.org.uk | ||
| 25 Jun 09, 12:28 PM El_Presidente UK(G), 4 yrs    |
I should imagine that most 'centres for X studies' are established folowing an offer of some kind of funding from an interested party, be that government or industry. It's all well and good having interested parties demanding things, but unless they're interested parties with money to put on the table, it seems unlikely that anything will happen. I can't see the government being keen to fund it in principle, but then maybe this is something that should link into the ongoing EHRC issue (i.e. that could be one of the things that we're actually asking them for, maybe). If industry were to contribute to funding it, then what industry? The porn industry? Ann Summers? It might sound silly, but we would need to find someone with both money and a vested interest in the output. "A quote from someone like Sun-Tsu, to make me sound dead clever and cultured". | ||
| 25 Jun 09, 2:14 PM Volkerwanderung UK(M), 4 yrs |
It begins by firstly an academic researching and publishing work on the given topic. The academic would be a lecturer within an institution. Unpublished work as in undergraduate or post graduate projects that are unpublished does not count. The lead researcher or academic could potentially form a research group around the work which could develop into a centre for BDSM studies. The research group would support research projects, debates etc for undergraduate and post graduate students. Until there is people researching and publishing through peer reviewed media no University will support the venture of a BDSM studies centre. Alternatively a sub grouping of the before mentioned sexuality studies may be an appropriate start but it still comes back to the academic or researcher publishing work on the given topic. | ||
| 25 Jun 09, 4:14 PM gregoryc UK, 4 yrs |
Volkerwanderung is pretty much right about everything there. Though I'd imagine that a publication isn't the only starting point for something like this (only the most likely one). Some, perhaps most, academics will go wherever the funding boards are throwing the money so you could lead with money rather than publications. (Though you'd need a lot of it) Some people have written and published in that area, though as far as I know there aren't any in my department (I'm studying for a psychology PhD). I must admit I've been tempted to do some work in that direction, but I feel it'd be bad practice to do so. I've got too much of a vested interest in seeing publications on BDSM come out a certain way to administer studies myself and as a lowly postgrad I don't get minions that I could assign to the task. Maybe one day though. | ||
| 25 Jun 09, 4:42 PM El_Presidente UK(G), 4 yrs |
A company called NatCen is currently in the planning stage of a £7 million research project on sexual attitudes. The more optimistic among us might see that as a potential opportunity! (Edited to insert more relevant link to same site) http://www.natcen.ac.uk/natcen/pages/or_health.h... The same organisation has also published these reports on attitudes towards sexual orientation: http://www.natcen.ac.uk/natcen/pages/op_healthan... Unfortunately, you have to pay for them. "A quote from someone like Sun-Tsu, to make me sound dead clever and cultured". Edited 25 Jun 09, 4:52 PM by El_Presidente | ||
| 25 Jun 09, 5:00 PM eleventh_hour UK, 5 yrs |
It's hard to see how any sexuality study would not be based on a 'vested interest', one way or another, unless you were asexual...? I find the idea of disinterested human sciences pretty hard to swallow. So there would definitely be a value to an interdisciplinary approach on this I think - for psychologists to link up with historians, philosophers, anthropologists, sociologists, etc. I would like to help but I am not currently an academic; how important is it that the research has to be produced in an academic institutional context...? | ||
| 25 Jun 09, 6:41 PM Volkerwanderung UK(M), 4 yrs |
If it is based in an academic institution it increases the weight and status of the subject matter. Corollary the product is filtered into other realms of academia filtering through the education system and into the real world. |
- where do we fit in with those already working on other sex and sexuality related matters? How will NUS LGBT voting for solidarity with the BDSM people and CAAN affect this, or how could it?
