Naspir was launched in December 2002 at the British International Studies Association annual conference at the London School of Economics.
Membership is open to anyone, academic and non-academic, who endorses its stated purpose of promoting politics and international relations scholarship which supports non-violent action against oppression. The oppression may be domestic or international, and may take many forms, including physical violence or denial of economic, social, cultural or political rights. Those carrying out the oppression may be states, corporations or other non-state actors. As what we choose to study and how we choose to study it are unavoidably political, the traditional academic pretence of neutrality is unsustainable. Scholarly standards are enhanced by explicit acknowledgement of that situation and by accounting for how one deals with it. Scholarship is a form of activism, but there is more to activism than scholarship.
Our membership has grown steadily to over 400 - mainly but not solely based in the UK; fairly evenly divided between academics, students, activists and interested citizens; and with academics and students from a wide range of disciplines, though mainly politics and international relations.
We aim to undertake activities under our own auspices and also to encourage the activities of others by giving those undertaking them space, legitimation and a sense of community. We do not have our own publications but encourage and highlight publications by members and non-members which support our stated purpose.
Structure
We have usually had a Steering Group elected annually, around the beginning of each calendar year which has varied in size over the years. At present we do not find one to be necessary as we operate in a decentralised way and have a minimal number of formal positions - convenor, webmaster and moderator - held by Eric Herring (University of Bristol), with Doug Stokes (University of Kent) sharing the role of moderator. The Steering Group will be reinstated if it is thought that would be valuable.
Naspir's relationships to BISA and the PSA
We established the BISA Naspir Working Group in 2003. It has no formal membership. Instead, its membership is ad hoc, consisting of whoever participates in its activities within BISA. The same is true of Naspir's presence within the Political Studies Association, the PSA Specialist Group on Political Activism. Thus far, we have been far more active within BISA than PSA.
Both BISA and PSA have expressed concerns about the possibility that Naspir's political activities might result in problems for their charitable status as defined by the Charities Commission of the UK. Our review of the Charities Commission's criteria suggests that their concerns may be unwarranted. There was also an underlying concern that, even if our statement of purpose and activities would fall within the Charities Commission's criteria, there was potential for costly legal dispute and political controversy which they wished to avoid.
As the condition of recognition, BISA required the statement of purpose the Working Group to read 'scholarship concerning [rather than 'which supports'] non-violent action against oppression.' As its condition of recognition, while accepting our original statement of purpose, PSA required our group to be called the PSA Specialist Group on Political Activism, rather than our proposal of the PSA Naspir Specialist Group.
After deliberation, we decided on balance to accept the conditions of recognition while noting that the option to return to these issues remains. Since then, Naspir's BISA and PSA groups have focused exclusively on academic activities (principally conference panels) with anything more 'political' being carried out in the name of Naspir itself.
Related organisations
Naspir members have also been involved in establishing a number of successful related organisations in the last few years, including the Consortium for the Study of Terrorology and Political Violence, BISA Critical Studies on Terrorism Working Group and the PSA Anarchist Studies Network Specialist Group.
Collective decisionmaking
We have been able to develop without a proliferation of rules and procedures. Central to this achievement has been our willingness in nearly all cases to abide by the following rule, acceptance of which is a condition of membership: members must not insult each other or question their motivation or character, and must focus in a calm, rational, non-abusive manner on the issue and not the person.
We have four collective decisionmaking procedures:
1. Forum deliberation. Members have shown admirable reasonableness in discussing issues and finding ways forward together that take into account differences of opinion.
2. The 7 day no objection procedure: a member may propose something and if there is no objection within 7 days, the proposal is adopted. This tends to be used for items which are not particularly urgent or controversial.
3. The 3 day no objection procedure: a member may propose something and if there is no objection within 3 days, the proposal is adopted. This tends to be used for items which are urgent but uncontroversial.
4. Voting using our poll facility. This has been used relatively rarely and when deliberation has not produced an agreed way forward.
Funding
Until recently we have had minimal running costs, all in relation to our webspace, and they have been paid by ad hoc donations from members. However, in 2007 we moved to this professional-standard website and forum facilities and our BISA and PSA groups both bid successfully for conference-related funds. Eric Herring is acting as ad hoc treasurer in relation to those activities. We will have an annual budget statement and are establishing a formal donations facility.
Thanks
We would like to record our sincere thanks to Bill Stevens of SCS Web Design for his extremely generous and principled donation of a huge amount of time and professional expertise in establishing this customised website. We are extremely grateful.
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