AO: I find this quote to be very important because many of the recent discussions about Open Access and HAU focused on the open access business models, the individuals and their abuses of power, etc. but failed to talk about the broader systems of inequality on which all academic work is built upon. For example, I find it especially ironic when papers and work talking about social justice and inequalities are behind closed paywalls and cannot be read without payment or particular membership to scholarly communities. If we are true in our intent to decolonize, strive towards greater equity, etc., then we must take a look at the infrastructures that we use everyday and ensure that those are also in line with the same values of care and respect.
What we find vital in the most significant OA publishing projects is a dedication to fostering respect and care for divergent communities of scholars, as well as an attention to the engrained and often unremarked-upon inequalities that are fundamental to our disciplinary lineages, the material conditions under which we and our colleagues presently labor, and the economies of citation, prestige, and affiliation that continue to make anthropology and its kindred fields hierarchical and exclusionary places.
