HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory

HAU: The Journal of Ethnographic Theory  
Discipline Anthropology
Language English
Edited by Giovanni da Col (suspended)
Publication details
Publication history
 2011-present
Publisher
University of Chicago Press and Society for Ethnographic Theory (United Kingdom)
Frequency Triannual
2011-2017, subscription and "free access" journal from 2018
Standard abbreviations
Hau J. Ethnogr. Theory
Indexing
ISSN 2049-1115
Links

HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory is a triannual peer-reviewed academic journal, published open-access until 2017 by the Society for Ethnographic Theory.[1] The Society also publishes HAU Books,[2] a Book Series which remain committed to open access anthropology.

HAU took inspiration for its name from the concept of "hau" in Marcel Mauss' book The Gift, partly to suggest the way in which the journal itself is a gift and partly to place productive, equivocational, open-ended ethnographic encounters with conceptual difference at the center of anthropological knowledge production.[3][4]

The journal is abstracted and indexed in Scopus, with a 2017 citescore index of 1.51.[5]

Ethnographic theory

According to Giovanni da Col and David Graeber ethnographic theory is “a conversion of stranger-concepts" that entails "the destruction of any firm sense of place that can only be resolved by the imaginative forumulation of novel worldviews”.[6] Ethnographic theory differs from other “evenemental” theoretical approaches where situations are bracketed out, described in vague or misleading terms, and occasional or ritual statements are erected to “cosmologies” and couched in the idiom of reported belief, and we are never told who said what, when, and in which context a certain statement is generative of a wider cultural insight.[7] HAU has attempted to return to what it considered to be anthropology’s strongest intellectual suit: its ability to take up the fruits of ethnography and value this participant observation in other people’s lives to enrich the sense of what being human means. It wanted to ask again the big questions that once animated that manifold branch of knowledge called anthropology.

Issues and controversies

The journal was founded with a commitment to open dissemination of anthropology "...HAU is committed to becoming an Open Access alternative to commercial publishing in anthropology by taking advantage of the lower costs of production that internet distribution allows".[8] The open access publishing model, called HAU-NET, relied on income from key supporters to meet publication costs - mainly anthropology departments and libraries, totalling about 40 by 2017.[9] It was reported in 2017 that this had not gone well in several respects with some core funding diminishing. The shift to a large university non-profit publisher and a sustainable hybrid model which could offer both free access after each issue release and gold open access to each issue’s key articles was the outcome of the HAU Advisory Board deliberations.[9] In a turnaround, commitment to OA publishing then took second place to the intellectual project: "Even if the current funding could allow open access to the journal and the book series for another one or two years, the difficulties of ensuring long-term sustainability encountered by other open journals and projects ... do not offer much hope at this historical conjuncture."[9]

In June 2018, the former and founding Editor-at-large, David Graeber posted an apology expressing regret at not having previously publicly denounced a work environment considered to be abusive by a group of staff and volunteers.[10] Immediately thereafter, two anonymous letters by possibly up to 11 former voluntary interns, staff members and editorial board members were released containing allegations of professional misconduct by the current editor-in-chief, which have not been verified.[11][12][13] Shortly thereafter a report was leaked from the former HAU Executive Council describing an earlier "close investigation of recent complaints against HAU and its editor", that considered the now publicly aired complaints and found them unfounded and concluded that they showed "the disturbing extent to which these complaints are shaped by negative gossip, hearsay, and personal animosities." The report added that the Executive Council of the journal had considered taking legal action against the allegations which they considered defamatory.[14][15] In the wake of the controversy, which sparked the #hautalk hashtag on twitter, a number of members of the editorial board resigned their posts. On June 29th 2018, the Board of trustees published a statement announcing that to restore public confidence in the journal the editor was suspended, the terms of his resignation were being negotiated.[16][16] Further there are external calls for a new investigation to be launched into the allegations of financial and personal misconduct. The Chair of the Executive Council who investigated the case in December 2017 and January 2018 reported ” that "there appears to have been a concerted effort from individuals outside of this Board, but associated (currently or formerly) with HAU’s editorial team" to demand the editor's "resignation under threat of public scandal" and that HAU had hired a new treasurer in early 2018 who found "no evidence of any financial improprieties. Other allegations are either new to me or are ones for which I have yet to learn of any evidence or have already received counter-evidence, and thus appear to be based in rumor, exaggeration, and possible fabrication."[17] The controversy sparked statements of concern over labor practices in the discipline of anthropology, and practices of Open Access by several groups of scholars,[18][19][20] including a public petition signed by more than 600 scholars.[21]

Also in 2018 a collective of New Zealand and Māori scholars published a statement criticizing the journal's choice of name, since hau is a Māori religious concept, and since no Māori scholars had been consulted or involved in the process of establishing the journal. [22] Arguing that this Maori concept has become anthropologist's common parlance and the journal had stated the original inspiration came from Marcel Mauss's usage of the term, the Board of Trustees responded with a statement apologizing for not running a thorough consultation. They also clarified that a Māori scholar, Paul Tapsell, was invited to join the journal's first editorial board and endorsed the project.[23]

References

  1. ↑ "Letter from the new Board of Trustees". Haujournal.org. Retrieved 7 September 2018.
  2. ↑ "Home - HAU Books". HAU Books. Retrieved 7 September 2018.
  3. ↑ Golub, Alex (February 3, 2012). "HAU and the opening of ethnographic theory". Savageminds.org. Retrieved December 6, 2016.
  4. ↑ Da Col, Giovanni; Dowdy, Sean M.; Gros, Stéphane (2013). "Father Christmas rejuvenated". HAU. 3 (3). doi:10.14318/hau3.3.000.
  5. ↑ "Content overview". Scopus. Elsevier. Retrieved 2016-12-12.
  6. ↑ Da Col, Giovanni; Graeber, David (2011). "Foreword: The return of ethnographic theory". HAU. 1 (1). doi:10.14318/hau1.1.001.
  7. ↑ Da Col, Giovanni (2017). "Two or three things I know about Ethnographic Theory". HAU. 7 (1). doi:10.14318/hau7.1.002.
  8. ↑ DA COL, Giovanni; GRAEBER, David (1 September 2011). "Foreword". HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory. 1 (1): vi–xxxv. doi:10.14318/hau1.1.001. Retrieved 7 September 2018.
  9. 1 2 3 Col, Giovanni da (1 December 2017). "Free gifts that must be invented". HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory. 7 (3): i–vii. doi:10.14318/hau7.3.001. Retrieved 7 September 2018.
  10. ↑ "HAU Apology". Davidgraeber.industries. Retrieved 7 September 2018.
  11. ↑ "Guest Post: An Open Letter from the Former HAU Staff 7". Footnotesblog.com. 13 June 2018. Retrieved 7 September 2018.
  12. ↑ "June 14th, 2018". Haustaffletter.wordpress.com. 14 June 2018. Retrieved 7 September 2018.
  13. ↑ https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2018/06/15/promising-open-access-anthropology-journal-moves-modified-subscription-service-amid
  14. ↑ "HAU 15 June". Pastebin.com. 6 June 2018. Retrieved 7 September 2018.
  15. ↑ "Statement from the former HAU Executive Council 18 June 2018". Pastebin.com. 7 August 2018. Retrieved 7 September 2018.
  16. 1 2 "Statement of Hau Board of Trustees June 29th 2018". Haujournal.org. Retrieved 7 September 2018.
  17. ↑ "HAUleaks on Twitter". Twitter. Retrieved 7 September 2018.
  18. ↑ Graan, A., Hartikainen, E. I., Kallinen, T., Laakkonen, V., Tammisto, T., Tuominen, P., & Eräsaari, M. (2018). on open access publishing. Suomen Antropologi: Journal of the Finnish Anthropological Society, 43(1), 1-5.
  19. ↑ "Respect, care, and labor in collaborative scholarly projects - Somatosphere". somatosphere.net. Retrieved 7 September 2018.
  20. ↑ https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2018/06/19/anthropology-journals-editorial-board-responds-abuse-allegations
  21. ↑ https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe93a8JsWa_8Yd5Bs37oPjDFsi3pAPmZ8tDI4Tsjv2vvVvpqg/viewform
  22. ↑ "An Open Letter to the HAU Journal's Board of Trustees". Asaanz.org. Retrieved 7 September 2018.
  23. ↑ "Answer to the Māori scholars - Mahi Tahi". Haujournal.org. Retrieved 7 September 2018.


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