"In", "for", or "with"? (was Re: [ILAT] LSA 2006)

[Anggarrgoon]

Me again,
I have run into problems with this notion of "community" - in 
particular, it quickly becomes problematic in areas with patrilects, or 
clan/family groups, and areas where the "community" is not isomorphic to 
the "language" or "speech community". For example, if I am employed by a 
particular family to work on their language, they might not want the 
work that I do to be more widely available, and that includes to other 
speakers of the same language.
Sometimes the elders in the community want to work with a linguist, but 
the younger people don't. It's often the younger people in charge of the 
community council, and they are the people who have most of the 
experience negotiating with government bodies and who as a consequence 
have most of the power in current social structures. BUT traditionally, 
and until quite recently, it would be the elders who would make 
decisions about who had access to cultural information, including language.
So if I take the full community consultation route, I am disregarding 
the wishes of those who have the knowledge to impart and who want it 
recorded in the first place. Here "community" is just another external 
social construct.
This is not a hypothetical example, it comes up all the time.
Claire