Wowsers - first time ever? Trend in the making?

(Jacquie) #1

I’m thinking of this in relation to keto research.

This is fascinating - crowdfunding of an academic research project that was turned down by the Canadian federal government, possibly because it was investigating “political correctness”. Harper era or Trudeau era - I can’t tell.

It’s conceivable that this is the beginning of a new way to fund all academic research! (I hope, I hope).

Look at the shite - the hoops to jump through - on the government application form. I wouldn’t have lasted 5 minutes in that environment:

It’s already over its target amount with almost a month to go.

#2

Very interesting. I recently completed my MBA at a Canadian university, and spent a bit of time in Netherlands at University of Erasmus for my MBA…I was there just a few months ago! And in my studies there I delved deep into the big 5 deyoung aspects, and so on. So, reading that this research was in conjunction with that university and on this topic I was caught off guard and shocked to see it again in this context. We live in a small world indeed!

I have to admit. My skin crawled a bit during the studies of this subject. I found it categorized people…men versus women…developed nation versus non developed…Italians versus Dutch versus Vietnamese versus Americans versus British etc. Some strong categorization of culture…as in “this race (I will in no way say who) tend to be less scientific in their approach and will make decisions based on relationships”…and then “this race (I will not say who) are known to be the most disciplined and hardest workers”. It didn’t sit right with me at all. It felt very racist. In fact, I put my hand up in class (as did others) and voiced my concern. It was creepy frankly.

So…very interesting this funding got cut off. Well, it is very possible that someone on the acceptance committee with origins from race X (I will not mention the possibilities) saw some language that was categorizing them as “inefficient”, “not truthful”, “easy to be manipulated”, etc…and called “yeah, right…bullshit!”

(Tom) #3

I recall Robb Wolf was and is a proponent of crowd funding research. Faster, potentially more efficient, and potentially less subject to the whims/biases of those holding the purse strings.

#4

Just clarifying that my like was from the idea of crowdfunding nutritional science research and not the specific study.

(Jacquie) #5

Interesting. I had twinges of “I wonder what’s really going on with the research” also, but to me the more important thing was the crowdfunding. It does raise the question though of whether “the crowd” would be agenda-driven and “the authorities” would not. Genuinely messy stuff.

(Tom) #6

Especially when a person gets all post-moderny and begins to look at the connection between the very concept of “author” and “authority” (am I referring to the words? The people? The ones who wrote them both?) and from whence such notions of power are derived.

#7

Yeah I agree. The crowd funding is open to everyone and as a tax payer we all get a say on how our money is used. Hidden funding systems using tax payer money does not seem fair. And crowd funding is way cheaper to support.

(Jo Lo) #8

Tim Noakes calls it “the wisdom of the crowds” and has great confidence that it will change the world in a good way.