GULLETdigest was founded on a backbone of frustration with the ivory tower of academia, access to information behind paywalls, and how academic knowledge is created in relation to the people who are often tied in as subjects, clients, recipients, and audiences.
So, Harper developed the idea of participant-communication.
Based on the principles of participant-observation found in socio-cultural research and ethnography they learned through their anthropological experience, participant-communication is the sharing of information, knowledge, and experience through the ideals of mutual exchange, community, and sustained connection.
The concept is upheld by the ideal of co-authorship with communities that we are writing/publishing/creating with and about. This also means that we are meeting people where they are in terms of their worlds and worlding.
These are not new ideas, but Harper was frustrated with the informal and inconsistent application. By naming the accumulation of theories, knowledge, and experience across disciplines, Harper has declared a position.
Participant-communication looks like:
- long-term connection supported by digital access and digital literacy
- relationships built with the ideals of mutual exchange
- use of a variety of settings, both digital and in-person, where appropriate
- pushing conversations to new styles of contexts/settings appropriate to the community and topic
- developing a core of ethics that relate to basic ideals of decency by focusing on impact, conversation, and process, instead of a static set of rules and/or debate
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