Max Planck said that "science advances one funeral at a time". By this he meant that the death of prominent / dominant figures in a field freed up others to claim the limelight for their personalities and ideas. These days, it also means that getting grants to do interesting stuff might get a little bit easier.
Of course, you don't have to die to get out of the way; an inactive retirement will be just as effective, as, usually, will be a significant promotion – say to an executive Dean position, or Rector / VC. In a recent piece in the Economist, In death, there is life, there was a report of such ideas being put to the test. You can read about it here. The Economist reckoned there was something in it, both in the sense that new people and ideas can push through, and that the abandoned co-workers of the former guru do not fare quite so well without her.
As I read it, I wondered how well this thesis holds for environmental education. Now that its founding fathers (and they were all men) are all gone, one way or another, has this contributed to the broadening of ideas that we see around us in 'the field' (and which some persist in seeing as a lowering of standards)? Or would this have happened anyway through an organic development of ideas where savvy, media-smart, quick on the feet, youngsters exploit the opportunities that have come their way to carve out such a myriad of narrowly-defined methodological niches as to completely befuddle those amongst us who thought post-positivism was a radical step.
Whilst I know that there are some who think that a recent edition of JEE is evidence that the methodological genie is now fully out of the bottle, I admire these zealots for their creativity and imagination, whilst thinking that some (at least) are borderline certifiable. What I really do marvel at, however, for the sheer hutzpah, are those who rail against neoliberalism whilst ruthlessly carving out a slot for themselves in the unregulated market place of ideas, exploiting for their own aggrandisement the narcissism of minor differences. Completely hypocritical, but quite brilliant.
Responses
For the record, those of us railing against neoliberalism are also heavily involved in the collective processes of building alternative political economies to those espoused in places like The Economist. Give it a whirl:
https://www.jacobinmag.com/
As a junior scholar, my experience with the EE community is that there's far less policing of norms by village elders than in other fields (science education, for example). This is a good thing, I think, for perhaps broadening the diversity of the theoretical, conceptual, methodological, axiological, etc. approaches will have the effect of moving EE out of the niche that it's been stuck in for too long. I report on the continued growth of the EE SIG tomorrow at AERA. Surely we're all doing something right, now?
Just some quick thoughts over my morning coffee (that arrived to my house via globalized trade networks). #livingthehypocrisy