THE TRUTH ABOUT DOMINATION: AN ETHNOMETHODOLOGICAL APPROACH TO DOMINANCE AS AN ESSENTIAL TRAIT
written for Dr. Charles Gattone: Seminar in contemporary theory
This paper looks at the contruction of dominance within the (seemingly) divergent cultures of sociology sub-disciplinarity and race-group positioning. Anecdotal data is used to experiment with a methodological approach in which visceral aspects of social interactions are taken into account. The negotiation of dominant-status, either for a particular ethnic group or sub-field of sociology, becomes both a study object as well as a project of the analysis.
ABSTRACT
Most sociologists would agree that one of the major strengths of sociology comes from its being a composite field, i.e. a field in which divergent perspectives, paradigms, and substantive areas are brought together. Although ethnomethodology, along other constructivist approaches to sociology, are often labeled as marginal within the field, such labeling has negative consequences for the added value of being a composite field. This is because while constructivist approaches simply add a new dimension to essentialist assessments of social phenomena, essentialism reduces constructivism to redundancy when given dominion over it. Most basically this is due to the fact that when constructivists view the social world as one of human apprehension, they are de facto bound to accounting in one way or the other for anything that essentialists can imagine. On the other hand, essentialists have no problem denying the issue of human apprehension in conceptualizing the existence of historical/material 'facts.' As such it makes more sense to raise constructivist approaches like ethnomethodology to primacy, not because more sociologists focus on them or because they attract more funding or result in more salient results, but simply because they account for a superset of social phenomena that positivists/objectivist refuse to acknowledge, at least to a sufficient extent.
The preceding argument is part of the goal of this paper; the larger project of which is to examine how the status of dominance is constructed in language and what results its conceptual application has for framing social fields. Just as we think of the (plural) field of sociology in terms of dominant approaches (positivism, macro-historical comparison, etc.) and more marginal ones (ethnomethodology, critical studies, other constructivist approaches), we apply the same logic to the (plural) social world we live in and study. Although we tout the logic of context-specificity for interpreting social phenomena, rarely do we extend that logic to the meta-level, instead preserving that meta-level as the context-free space from which to talk about the (essential) dominance and marginality of the various other contexts that remain in sight from that position. In this paper I am arguing for a radical ethnomethodological approach to the production of language/knowledge when doing sociology in which the social construction of knowledge is our first priority as sociologists no matter what other methods we employ in doing so. Rather than (or in addition to) engaging in reflexivity, in which the reference points of knowledge are treated as real for the sake of study, we should focus on actively engaging reality in its constructedness. Instead of merely talking about it being constructed, and seeking to describe the processes by which it is constructed, we should recognize our own position in co-constructing it as well, and take responsibility as active agents in that construction process, not just observers/explainers of it. This means taking our language acts seriously, whether they are published, written, or spoken. Instead of downplaying such language acts as (relatively) insignificant by comparison to other actors in the (larger) social field, we should take the view that "it doesn't get any bigger than this" and start working at the micro/local level the best we can. It may help to recall Foucault's emphasis on the power of truth/knowledge: power
lies not so much in the spreading of knowledge but in infusing it with truth. The universal, or at least trans-contextual, imagery built-in to the concept of truth is what lets it extend from the locality in which it is deployed to others.
In examining the labels, 'dominant/subordinate,' along with the logics that usually underwrite them, for this paper, I will include disjunct examples from various discourses. The example of the attribution of marginal status to ethnomethodology within a plural vision of sociology has already been mentioned but we may also think of the perilous position often feared for the legitimacy of anti-racism and counter-discrimination measures if oppressed groups were to be rendered 'dominant' in public discourses. I will show how this is the product of a persisting view that the sole purpose of equality is to legitimate exploitation and domination. Likewise I will explore how alternative conceptualizations of dominance/centrality and subordination/marginality could potentially aid struggles to reduce inequality if freed from the implicit trap in which equality is always linked to competition and the hunting-logic of 'fair game.' In doing so a working demonstration of applied ethnomethodology will be given and it is hoped that the potential sociological and social value of such constructivist approaches to the goals of positivism/progress will be realized, even though the logic of constructivism exceeds positivism's limitations.
Thursday, May 17, 2007
CULTURE AS INHABITABLE BUBBLES: INSIDE THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE MACRO-IMAGINARY
CULTURE AS INHABITABLE BUBBLES: INSIDE THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE MACRO-IMAGINARY
written for a seminar on the sociology of culture led by Hernan Vera
This paper outlines an approach to macro-imagery and macro-consciousness as embodied in the visceral experiences of individuals at the micro-level. The construction of the macro is viewed in terms of practices of consumption in intellectual life and the resulting implications for empowerment and addiction are considered.
INTRODUCTION
In the popular Dutch comedy movie, Flodder, a lower-class (white) family is transplanted into an upper-class (white) neighborhood as part of a social program. The comedy of the film is the result of the various transgressions and juxtapositions that take place as members of the family come in contact with other residents of their new neighborhood. In one of the various sexual transgressions portrayed in the narrative, Sjonnie Flodder has sex with one of the neighborhood wives in her husband's hobby-room where he, a high-ranking military officer, models military battles using toy soldiers. When Sjonnie asks her if they should move to another room, the woman expresses that rebellion against this aspect of her husband's personality is an important part of her sexual pleasure and the scene continues by showing the vigor of the ensuing sex act in terms of the shaking table as the man's toy soldiers and models are disheveled and thrown in all directions.
This scene can be read as an assault on macro-consciousness. While macro-consciousness is often
depicted in films in terms of military strategists poised pensively around a large table-model, it is usually as a necessary and legitimate part of a war effort or similar collective endeavor. In this scene, macro-theorizing is presented as modeling in its childish sense; as something that men do for their own selfish pleasure. Macrostructural reality is not presumed to exist outside of its material embodiment within microsocial interactions. Instead it is literally reduced to a set of painstakingly arranged toys no more representative of a macro-reality out there than the sexual exchange taking place on the table is representative of a deeper relationship. In this scene macro reality is relativized as just another social activity accomplished in the realm of everyday life.
SOCIAL SCIENCE AND THE CONSUMPTION OF MACRO-IMAGES
The notion that macro-historical, macro-structural, and other macro- realities are not realities at all, but
instead are products of human imagination, is not palatable to many sociologists. Many of us have a sense that there are things happening in social life that go beyond the context in which they are happening. At the same time we rarely consider how our theorizing of the macro we imagine is radically situated within the materiality of our bodies and the environments directly accessible to them. Instead we appropriate the label 'imaginary' to describe some representations as false in order to allow other 'true' representations to pass as real. In this way, 'good' sociological accounts of society are rarely seen as products of sociological imaginations but rather as simply accounts of what is going on in the [macro] world out there, which is assumed to exist prior to its re-presentation/re-construction by scientists.
Although various critics have pushed us to conceptualize the radical situatedness of social activities, the
position afforded to the macro is contested by at least two different perspectives. The first, which I will term group-positioning, conceives of micro-social life occurring as a result of or vis-a-vis historically determined group-relations rooted in histories and structures of domination such as racism, nationalism, classism, sexism, and so forth. The second, which I will term ethnomethodological, conceives of all reality and social structure as accomplishments of social interaction within the [micro] sphere(s) of everyday life. Although both perspectives posit a radical situatedness of social activities and meaning-making, the group-positioning view imagines situatedness in reference to historical (and structural) conditions outside of the immediacy of micro-social realities. The ethnmethodological view, other the other hand, imagines the situatedness of social action in direct relation to the material context of its achievement. Thus, while group-positioning allows us to make reference to a macro-reality out there, ethnomethodology pushes us to locate the source of everything influencing micro-interactions,
including any macro-phenomenon, in interaction-events.
In this paper I am taking the ethnomethodological perspective in order to privilege the situatedness of the macro within the micro. By doing so, I am not making any claims about the inefficacy of the macro-realities of group-positioning approaches or otherwise, except to maintain the critical stance that reifying the macro too easily impedes the project of conceptualizing the situatedness of its production and consumption. However, it is important to highlight my use of 'situatedness' to refer to processes in which macro-reality is produced, exchanged/negotiated, consumed, imagined, and ultimately experienced; not to refer to an organized set of social positions that influence actions and experiences through and during their construction processes. Only by situating the macro as a certain type of image, i.e. a product of (and for) imagination, can we move from theorizing the macro as reality at a certain scale or level toward theorizing it as a way of seeing and orienting toward others within everyday social life, and as various images and imaginary forms of a realm inaccessible by means of direct empirical observation.
Although it is worth mentioning that macro-thinkers often move between the macro-level images they
cultivate and empirical observations as well as the accounts of others, it is also important to recognize that macro-images are rarely produced in isolation from macro-dialogue with others and/or access to the language of macro-representation. As such, macro-images and their narration are, at least in part, produced and consumed within an economy of the macro for the macro; much in the same way currency markets develop, negotiate, and exchange currencies without reference to goods and services. It is not enough to consider a particular macro-image or (narrative) set of images either in relation to the empirical realities it claims to represent, or to the discourses of macro-images among macro-thinkers. Instead I propose we should consider both aspects in terms of a situated micro-economy of the exchange and negotiation of knowledge. In other words, how do thinkers of the macro interact with other such thinkers (and their texts) as well as with other people and aspects of their social environments in the negotiation, production, consumption, application, etc. of the macro?
In this paper I am specifically oriented toward the economic issues of production and consumption, with special attention for consumption, in order to engage Ritzer's (2005) ideas about revolutionizing the means of consumption and the enchantment of a disenchanted world. I propose that like any other commodified good or service, the practices and images of macro-thinking can and should be studied in terms of their consumption and re-production. Additionally macro-images also serve as lenses through which all sorts of people, things, and events are viewed and appropriated; and as such we may also speak of them as means of consumption for these other things to which they are applied. Although academic sociology is hardly the only field in which the macro is re-produced and consumed, it is a useful field to examine for its proximity.
written for a seminar on the sociology of culture led by Hernan Vera
This paper outlines an approach to macro-imagery and macro-consciousness as embodied in the visceral experiences of individuals at the micro-level. The construction of the macro is viewed in terms of practices of consumption in intellectual life and the resulting implications for empowerment and addiction are considered.
INTRODUCTION
In the popular Dutch comedy movie, Flodder, a lower-class (white) family is transplanted into an upper-class (white) neighborhood as part of a social program. The comedy of the film is the result of the various transgressions and juxtapositions that take place as members of the family come in contact with other residents of their new neighborhood. In one of the various sexual transgressions portrayed in the narrative, Sjonnie Flodder has sex with one of the neighborhood wives in her husband's hobby-room where he, a high-ranking military officer, models military battles using toy soldiers. When Sjonnie asks her if they should move to another room, the woman expresses that rebellion against this aspect of her husband's personality is an important part of her sexual pleasure and the scene continues by showing the vigor of the ensuing sex act in terms of the shaking table as the man's toy soldiers and models are disheveled and thrown in all directions.
This scene can be read as an assault on macro-consciousness. While macro-consciousness is often
depicted in films in terms of military strategists poised pensively around a large table-model, it is usually as a necessary and legitimate part of a war effort or similar collective endeavor. In this scene, macro-theorizing is presented as modeling in its childish sense; as something that men do for their own selfish pleasure. Macrostructural reality is not presumed to exist outside of its material embodiment within microsocial interactions. Instead it is literally reduced to a set of painstakingly arranged toys no more representative of a macro-reality out there than the sexual exchange taking place on the table is representative of a deeper relationship. In this scene macro reality is relativized as just another social activity accomplished in the realm of everyday life.
SOCIAL SCIENCE AND THE CONSUMPTION OF MACRO-IMAGES
The notion that macro-historical, macro-structural, and other macro- realities are not realities at all, but
instead are products of human imagination, is not palatable to many sociologists. Many of us have a sense that there are things happening in social life that go beyond the context in which they are happening. At the same time we rarely consider how our theorizing of the macro we imagine is radically situated within the materiality of our bodies and the environments directly accessible to them. Instead we appropriate the label 'imaginary' to describe some representations as false in order to allow other 'true' representations to pass as real. In this way, 'good' sociological accounts of society are rarely seen as products of sociological imaginations but rather as simply accounts of what is going on in the [macro] world out there, which is assumed to exist prior to its re-presentation/re-construction by scientists.
Although various critics have pushed us to conceptualize the radical situatedness of social activities, the
position afforded to the macro is contested by at least two different perspectives. The first, which I will term group-positioning, conceives of micro-social life occurring as a result of or vis-a-vis historically determined group-relations rooted in histories and structures of domination such as racism, nationalism, classism, sexism, and so forth. The second, which I will term ethnomethodological, conceives of all reality and social structure as accomplishments of social interaction within the [micro] sphere(s) of everyday life. Although both perspectives posit a radical situatedness of social activities and meaning-making, the group-positioning view imagines situatedness in reference to historical (and structural) conditions outside of the immediacy of micro-social realities. The ethnmethodological view, other the other hand, imagines the situatedness of social action in direct relation to the material context of its achievement. Thus, while group-positioning allows us to make reference to a macro-reality out there, ethnomethodology pushes us to locate the source of everything influencing micro-interactions,
including any macro-phenomenon, in interaction-events.
In this paper I am taking the ethnomethodological perspective in order to privilege the situatedness of the macro within the micro. By doing so, I am not making any claims about the inefficacy of the macro-realities of group-positioning approaches or otherwise, except to maintain the critical stance that reifying the macro too easily impedes the project of conceptualizing the situatedness of its production and consumption. However, it is important to highlight my use of 'situatedness' to refer to processes in which macro-reality is produced, exchanged/negotiated, consumed, imagined, and ultimately experienced; not to refer to an organized set of social positions that influence actions and experiences through and during their construction processes. Only by situating the macro as a certain type of image, i.e. a product of (and for) imagination, can we move from theorizing the macro as reality at a certain scale or level toward theorizing it as a way of seeing and orienting toward others within everyday social life, and as various images and imaginary forms of a realm inaccessible by means of direct empirical observation.
Although it is worth mentioning that macro-thinkers often move between the macro-level images they
cultivate and empirical observations as well as the accounts of others, it is also important to recognize that macro-images are rarely produced in isolation from macro-dialogue with others and/or access to the language of macro-representation. As such, macro-images and their narration are, at least in part, produced and consumed within an economy of the macro for the macro; much in the same way currency markets develop, negotiate, and exchange currencies without reference to goods and services. It is not enough to consider a particular macro-image or (narrative) set of images either in relation to the empirical realities it claims to represent, or to the discourses of macro-images among macro-thinkers. Instead I propose we should consider both aspects in terms of a situated micro-economy of the exchange and negotiation of knowledge. In other words, how do thinkers of the macro interact with other such thinkers (and their texts) as well as with other people and aspects of their social environments in the negotiation, production, consumption, application, etc. of the macro?
In this paper I am specifically oriented toward the economic issues of production and consumption, with special attention for consumption, in order to engage Ritzer's (2005) ideas about revolutionizing the means of consumption and the enchantment of a disenchanted world. I propose that like any other commodified good or service, the practices and images of macro-thinking can and should be studied in terms of their consumption and re-production. Additionally macro-images also serve as lenses through which all sorts of people, things, and events are viewed and appropriated; and as such we may also speak of them as means of consumption for these other things to which they are applied. Although academic sociology is hardly the only field in which the macro is re-produced and consumed, it is a useful field to examine for its proximity.
SPATIAL REFERENCE IN SOCIAL PERCEPTION
SPATIAL REFERENCE IN SOCIAL PERCEPTION
written for Inside Knowledge: (Un)doing Methodologies, Imagining Alternatives
subsection: Creating Objects, Developing Methodologies
ASCA International Workshop
Amsterdam, March 28-30, 2007
INTRODUCTION/ABSTRACT
References to space and place are often tacit in social constructions of the reality of one's surroundings. Individuals imagine themselves to be situated within a territory, physical-geographical and social-cultural which they project values and expectations about the nature of reality, social and natural. Expressions such as "when in Rome, do as the Romans," "the language of the land," and so forth testify to this logic. We imagine multiple societies and 'cultures' in the world, and we often imagine that individuals inhabit them, yet why should we assume that we are in one society and not another at a particular moment? Why do we assume that space/territory is singular and homogeneous between borders? Although some would claim that such perception is rooted in our cognitive nature, this need not be the case. Instead, we can look at knowledge of space and place as constructed through discourses and habitually applied conceptual schemas.
The logic of separate cultural spaces is one such schema. By learning political geography we develop from a young age the sense that nation-states and other geographical regions are separate and different. The use of contrasting colors as geographical pedagogy extends beyond map-reading to influence our sense of heterogeneity across borders and homogeneity within. Further we are taught that the people living 'here' have this culture and those living 'there' have that one, and in doing so we learn to accept the logic that space, territory, and culture are naturally linked. Later we go on to consume these differences and the eroticized separations they represent. And when we are far from a border, our sense of familiarity, homogeneity, and borderlessness is constructed in the shadow of experiences of spatial difference.
In studies of race and ethnicity, whiteness has appeared on the map as an uncharted territory. Although we know that whiteness has much to do with invisibility where racial/ethnic identification is concerned, visualizing such invisibility can be more difficult. Understanding references to space as cultural- or ethnic- space provide a key to understanding the invisibility of whiteness. The system of political territorialization of space as ethnically-defined nations, regions, cities, buildings and so forth has facilitated the performance of ethnicity through deference to a particular vision of one's surroundings. Thus for whites, how one makes-sense-of and orients-to one's surrounding space-territory is more important ethnic capital than expressions of self or body. Negotiating 'realistic' meanings about the surrounding space(s) and ensuring deference to the authority of realism as well as to the (imagined) master(s) of spaces is a crucial element in expressing white ethnicity.
The logic of spatial territory is reproduced in many ways throughout various discourses but certain modes of sociology, as well as other social sciences, warrant particular attention. The idea that there are populations and subgroups in societies to study as aggregates implicitly reproduce spatial-territoriality by virtue of the way that they construct, a priori, their objects of study. When we deal with demographics and percentages, we need a particular whole as referent for the fragmentation we are describing. When we talk about groups in society and their political interactions, we need a shared political-economic field as well as a sense that individuals are inherently related to the groups we use to make sense of them. Rarely do we acknowledge the radical situatedness of our vision and consider how fragmented social reality really is at the empirical level.
In order to move beyond the cognitive trap of imagining social life in terms of bounded territories and aggregates, I propose an alternative vision derived from the Deleuzian concepts of assemblage, rhizome, and (de)territorialization. In this paper I will explore these concepts and compare them with sociological concepts such as society, population, race, group, sub-group, macro, micro and so forth paying attention to implicit assumptions about what we are capable of knowing tacit in these analytical concepts. In addition I will explore how moving between (abstract) sociological knowledge and (concrete) empirical perceptions and experiences allows individuals to construct synthetic socialized/ethnicized spaces that make it possible for them to function as semi-passive agents of white ethnicity. In addition I will propose an alternative understanding of ethnicity and culture that is inter-agential rather than spatially grounded in the logic of container-contents (i.e. a cultural agent is contained within a culture). Finally I will discuss how the Deleuzian concepts above can be applied in order to rethink ethnicity and culture in this way.
written for Inside Knowledge: (Un)doing Methodologies, Imagining Alternatives
subsection: Creating Objects, Developing Methodologies
ASCA International Workshop
Amsterdam, March 28-30, 2007
INTRODUCTION/ABSTRACT
References to space and place are often tacit in social constructions of the reality of one's surroundings. Individuals imagine themselves to be situated within a territory, physical-geographical and social-cultural which they project values and expectations about the nature of reality, social and natural. Expressions such as "when in Rome, do as the Romans," "the language of the land," and so forth testify to this logic. We imagine multiple societies and 'cultures' in the world, and we often imagine that individuals inhabit them, yet why should we assume that we are in one society and not another at a particular moment? Why do we assume that space/territory is singular and homogeneous between borders? Although some would claim that such perception is rooted in our cognitive nature, this need not be the case. Instead, we can look at knowledge of space and place as constructed through discourses and habitually applied conceptual schemas.
The logic of separate cultural spaces is one such schema. By learning political geography we develop from a young age the sense that nation-states and other geographical regions are separate and different. The use of contrasting colors as geographical pedagogy extends beyond map-reading to influence our sense of heterogeneity across borders and homogeneity within. Further we are taught that the people living 'here' have this culture and those living 'there' have that one, and in doing so we learn to accept the logic that space, territory, and culture are naturally linked. Later we go on to consume these differences and the eroticized separations they represent. And when we are far from a border, our sense of familiarity, homogeneity, and borderlessness is constructed in the shadow of experiences of spatial difference.
In studies of race and ethnicity, whiteness has appeared on the map as an uncharted territory. Although we know that whiteness has much to do with invisibility where racial/ethnic identification is concerned, visualizing such invisibility can be more difficult. Understanding references to space as cultural- or ethnic- space provide a key to understanding the invisibility of whiteness. The system of political territorialization of space as ethnically-defined nations, regions, cities, buildings and so forth has facilitated the performance of ethnicity through deference to a particular vision of one's surroundings. Thus for whites, how one makes-sense-of and orients-to one's surrounding space-territory is more important ethnic capital than expressions of self or body. Negotiating 'realistic' meanings about the surrounding space(s) and ensuring deference to the authority of realism as well as to the (imagined) master(s) of spaces is a crucial element in expressing white ethnicity.
The logic of spatial territory is reproduced in many ways throughout various discourses but certain modes of sociology, as well as other social sciences, warrant particular attention. The idea that there are populations and subgroups in societies to study as aggregates implicitly reproduce spatial-territoriality by virtue of the way that they construct, a priori, their objects of study. When we deal with demographics and percentages, we need a particular whole as referent for the fragmentation we are describing. When we talk about groups in society and their political interactions, we need a shared political-economic field as well as a sense that individuals are inherently related to the groups we use to make sense of them. Rarely do we acknowledge the radical situatedness of our vision and consider how fragmented social reality really is at the empirical level.
In order to move beyond the cognitive trap of imagining social life in terms of bounded territories and aggregates, I propose an alternative vision derived from the Deleuzian concepts of assemblage, rhizome, and (de)territorialization. In this paper I will explore these concepts and compare them with sociological concepts such as society, population, race, group, sub-group, macro, micro and so forth paying attention to implicit assumptions about what we are capable of knowing tacit in these analytical concepts. In addition I will explore how moving between (abstract) sociological knowledge and (concrete) empirical perceptions and experiences allows individuals to construct synthetic socialized/ethnicized spaces that make it possible for them to function as semi-passive agents of white ethnicity. In addition I will propose an alternative understanding of ethnicity and culture that is inter-agential rather than spatially grounded in the logic of container-contents (i.e. a cultural agent is contained within a culture). Finally I will discuss how the Deleuzian concepts above can be applied in order to rethink ethnicity and culture in this way.
WEBER AND DURKHEIM AS ARCHITECHTS OF MODERNITY
WEBER AND DURKHEIM AS ARCHITECHTS OF MODERNITY: OR HOW TO APPLY SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY IN THE PRODUCTION OF CYBORGS
written for Classical Sociological Theory seminar led by Leonard Beeghley
This paper presents alternative visions of the meaning of modernity and considers the classical sociologists, Weber and Durkheim, as creators rather than discoverers of modernity through the application of their worldview(s).
CONCLUSION: MODERNITY IN PERSPECTIVE
At the beginning of this paper two conflicting visions of modernity were posed: 1) a totalizing, overarching, amalgamated modernity in which whole societies or even the entire 'modern world' are thought of in terms of modernization and 2) a vision of modernity as a dispersion of discourses and processes of progress which find various kinds of expression in the world but which do not reify it into amalgamated wholes like 'societies' and so forth. The vision I chose to proceed with was the second, and in doing so it became necessary to talk not in terms of modernization as a process of societal progress but in terms of centers of development of modern(izing) techniques along with the processes involved with their distribution and replication within local settings and individuals. If we conceive of progress and development in terms of technologies and techniques that are applied to 'natural' materials/resources, it is not difficult to take the next step toward conceiving of cyborgs as human-machine hybrids, in which the 'raw materials' of the human body are engaged and developed through external and internal disciplinary mechanisms to behave and act in a more 'modern(ized)' fashion.
Although social science often escapes the protagonist status in modernization processes attributed to other sciences, especially natural sciences like chemistry, physics, and biology but also semi-natural sciences such as medicine, agriculture, etc., it makes sense to consider it in the same light. Just as Shapin and Schaffer, described by Latour, looked at Boyle and Hobbes as natural and social scientists, we can look at Weber and Durkheim as agents of science and technology in the service of modernizing humans. However, while Boyle and Hobbes may be popularly associated with the vacuum pump and modern government as technologies of their creation (at least partially), where are we to search for the technological devices invented by Weber and Durkheim? I argue that this question can be answered in reference to cyborgs. On the continuum of science and technology, of discovery and its applications, cyborgs are the entities that are able to translate the findings, theories, and methodologies of sociologists into programs and techniques which they incorporate into their ways of thinking, feeling, and acting
in the social world. Although the technological applications of sociology may not be immediately visible in the same way that the commodified and marketed apparatuses that are the products of other kinds of scientific application are, they are still means of modernizing oneself and one's environment, even when by 'self' we mean 'nervous system' and by 'environment' we mean 'perceived surroundings.'
Applying sociology can mean becoming a disciplined Weberian researcher or living within a Durkheimian structured environment of external and obligatory social facts. Sociological writing, whether in the form of theory, methodology, substantive findings, sub-disciplinary paradigms, or otherwise is not just a tool for sociologists to publish and get jobs, it is also a vector for readers to acquire the language and ontological prescriptions that allow them to apply sociology, replicating it in themselves and within various local contexts. In other words, sociology is not just a science of research and discovery, it is also a set of techniques for application and development - and I don't just mean for the 'applied sociologists' who replicate research techniques outside of academic settings. I am also talking about students and others who merely read and struggle to internalize ideas and facts about the social world, subsequently recognizing them in the social world they inhabit, where they have access to direct observation. It is in this way that the technologies of sociology are spread from one individual consciousness to the next.
The assignment for this paper was to compare how two classical theorists understood and explained the nature of modern societies. I have rejected the precepts implicit in the idea of 'the nature of modern societies' and instead compared two theorists in terms of the modernization of individuals by means of those theorists' technological application. I did not diverge from the goal of the assignment; I just approached it in terms of the individual as the locus of society, her/his/its progress as the progress of modernity par excellence, and the nature of sociological practice/findings as conceived within the respective methodologies of Weber and Durkheim. I contend that the modern world we, sociologists, live in is the one created by Weber, Durkheim, and others, in which value-free science and social facts are major signifiers of modernity, while value-ridden (pseudo-) science and unconstrained social activity denote backwardness. Thus the modern world has not so much been understood and explained by these theorists, as it has been created and defined through their influence on us, individually.
CONCEPTUALIZING ETHNICITY AND SPACE: ANALYSIS, DISCUSSION, AND LITERATURE ENGAGEMENT
CONCEPTUALIZING ETHNICITY AND SPACE: ANALYSIS, DISCUSSION, AND LITERATURE ENGAGEMENT
written for Dr. Milagros Pena (seminar on Latinos/Latinas in the U.S.)
ABSTRACT
Latino studies literature, like other sociological writing, expresses assumptions about ethnicity (or the lack thereof) in its accounts of social life. This paper represents an attempt to apprehend and engage such texts with a critical awareness of the ways in which ethnicity is conceived in terms of space. The discussion includes attention for more general social scientific concepts as they relate to discourse on ethnicity and ethnic space but also focuses on two narratives in detail: one an approach to ethnicity as a cognitive phenomenon, the second a dispute as to what exactly constitutes an ethnic enclave-economy. By mixing more detailed literature analysis with critical discussion of some other familiar social science concepts, it is hoped that the reader will give fresh consideration to the themes of ethnicity and ethnic space as being complex and harboring multiple possible approaches to even their most basic manifestations. Though the liberties taken in style and form may be distracting to some readers, it will be up to them to judge whether these have not strengthened the quality of the arguments and discussion in certain respects. The intention is to recreate the process of research as an active process of engagement rather than producing a static report of theory, methods, and results as is common with research papers in our field.
written for Dr. Milagros Pena (seminar on Latinos/Latinas in the U.S.)
ABSTRACT
Latino studies literature, like other sociological writing, expresses assumptions about ethnicity (or the lack thereof) in its accounts of social life. This paper represents an attempt to apprehend and engage such texts with a critical awareness of the ways in which ethnicity is conceived in terms of space. The discussion includes attention for more general social scientific concepts as they relate to discourse on ethnicity and ethnic space but also focuses on two narratives in detail: one an approach to ethnicity as a cognitive phenomenon, the second a dispute as to what exactly constitutes an ethnic enclave-economy. By mixing more detailed literature analysis with critical discussion of some other familiar social science concepts, it is hoped that the reader will give fresh consideration to the themes of ethnicity and ethnic space as being complex and harboring multiple possible approaches to even their most basic manifestations. Though the liberties taken in style and form may be distracting to some readers, it will be up to them to judge whether these have not strengthened the quality of the arguments and discussion in certain respects. The intention is to recreate the process of research as an active process of engagement rather than producing a static report of theory, methods, and results as is common with research papers in our field.
THE POWER OF MONSTERS INC.: CONTRUCTING SEPARATENESS AND SPACIAL/RACIAL DIFFERENCE IN CINEMATIC DISCOURSE
THE POWER OF MONSTERS INC.: CONTRUCTING SEPARATENESS AND SPACIAL/RACIAL DIFFERENCE IN CINEMATIC DISCOURSE
Adam Garcia – Final paper for Seminar on Racial and Ethnic Relations, led by Dr. Hernan Vera
Racial differences and spatial separation are often co-constructed in discourse. In this paper the animated film, Monster’s Inc., is analyzed specifically, along with portals as cinematic narrative devices in general, in terms of the discursive reproduction of race as differences
INTRODUCTION: OBJECTIVE SPACE, SUBJECTIVELY CONSTRUCTED
All maps are projections. They distort the areas and shapes of the bodies of land and water they represent in order to transform a spherical surface into a flat one. Troetje Lowenthal, a Dutch multiculturalist, once lectured on how the choice of projection is used to enhance the size of northern countries while shrinking those close to the equator. Political maps and globes create a similar fiction by representing the earth as eminently divided into nations and states. Each territory is color coded in contrast to its neighbors to emphasize its political shape, difference from without and homogeneity from within. Due to such maps, in part, we have the perception that the world is divided into more or less autonomous regions. These regions are seen as the containers of cultures that are by definition separate and different from the cultures of surrounding regions. The questions this paper seeks to explore is how this notion of culture as regionally bounded and spatially contained is produced and how it related to the idea of race as a system of subdividing the world into genetically [and otherwise] separated groups. To accomplish this, the film Monsters Inc. will be analyzed along with a common cinematic device, the portal, a narrative device usually used in fantasy and sci-fi films to depict the linkage of two radically distinct worlds. Through this analysis I hope to advance the awareness that race is a concept that is not only a remnant of the past or that it is only present in the world of material social relations, but that it is also an interpretive framework stored and utilized in works of fiction, which can operate independently of the racial categories thought to exist in the material social world(s) of our daily lives.
Adam Garcia – Final paper for Seminar on Racial and Ethnic Relations, led by Dr. Hernan Vera
Racial differences and spatial separation are often co-constructed in discourse. In this paper the animated film, Monster’s Inc., is analyzed specifically, along with portals as cinematic narrative devices in general, in terms of the discursive reproduction of race as differences
INTRODUCTION: OBJECTIVE SPACE, SUBJECTIVELY CONSTRUCTED
All maps are projections. They distort the areas and shapes of the bodies of land and water they represent in order to transform a spherical surface into a flat one. Troetje Lowenthal, a Dutch multiculturalist, once lectured on how the choice of projection is used to enhance the size of northern countries while shrinking those close to the equator. Political maps and globes create a similar fiction by representing the earth as eminently divided into nations and states. Each territory is color coded in contrast to its neighbors to emphasize its political shape, difference from without and homogeneity from within. Due to such maps, in part, we have the perception that the world is divided into more or less autonomous regions. These regions are seen as the containers of cultures that are by definition separate and different from the cultures of surrounding regions. The questions this paper seeks to explore is how this notion of culture as regionally bounded and spatially contained is produced and how it related to the idea of race as a system of subdividing the world into genetically [and otherwise] separated groups. To accomplish this, the film Monsters Inc. will be analyzed along with a common cinematic device, the portal, a narrative device usually used in fantasy and sci-fi films to depict the linkage of two radically distinct worlds. Through this analysis I hope to advance the awareness that race is a concept that is not only a remnant of the past or that it is only present in the world of material social relations, but that it is also an interpretive framework stored and utilized in works of fiction, which can operate independently of the racial categories thought to exist in the material social world(s) of our daily lives.
TOWARD A SUSTAINABLE CUBAN DIASPORA
TOWARD A SUSTAINABLE CUBAN DIASPORA
written for Dr. Menno Velinga
In this paper I propose a diasporic perspective for understanding Cuban ethnicity and population. The political possibility is put forth that future developments in a (post-revolutionary) Cuba need not take form as either communist or capitalist. Instead a third-option may be possible in which some form of social-democracy is substituted for authoritarian communism. In this way, the social and political benefits achieved under communism need not be lost in transitioning to a more democratic and inclusive social matrix.
INTRODUCTION
Since the Castro revolution but also before, Cuba has existed as a node within various migrations; from Spain, Africa, and locally in colonial times, and around the caribbean, the Americas, and elsewhere since. This paper explores the potential future of Cuba as an institutionalized diaspora. I take the perspective that international conflicts, and nationalist perspectives that obscure transnationalism, have created a schism between the people living on the island and others who continue to identify with Cubanness elsewhere. As such the diaspora has rarely been conceptualized in its fullness as a divers(ified) group of mutlicultural, multilingual, multinational, and multieconomic Cubans. Political rhetoric has focussed on struggles over the island as physical property, its economic system, and openness to various forms of capital investment. Little or no effort has been made to construct a multiplicity of democratic alternatives which would include diverse strategies of democratization with various levels and forms of inclusion/exclusion of Cubans on and off the island. Mainly Cuba has been conceived as a struggle of an inflexible totalitarian island government against any form of support that does not involve unconditional submission to the autocratically defined prerogatives of the revolution. As a result, or nevertheless, the U.S. perspective has been equally unyielding with its narrow-focus while other nations have responded with unprincipled ambivalence toward all but humanitarian aid and investment opportunities. This paper will examine various aspects of discourses surrounding Cuba and its diaspora adding critical insights regarding the possibilities of democratization that does not require total economic liberalization or subordination to the U.S. or other organized governmental or non-governmental powers. This paper will rely on personal narratives, policy and academic papers, and other written texts as data, most in English and from a U.S.-Cuban emigrant perspective.
I introduction
II emigration and diaspora/state relations
a. emigration and intent: maintaining a Cuba-orientation abroad
b. political narration and disillusionment
c. three waves, racism, and assimilation: Cuban-American ethnocentrism
III international relations and (non)-interventions in island affairs
a. economic relations: trade, investment, and embargo
b. political approaches to the Cuban situation
IV the future of the diaspora
a. persistent emigration or sustainable (e/im)migrations?
b. conitinued isolation or institutionally supported transnationalism?
c. liberalization or mediated (multi)culture and materialism?
d. can Cuban revolutionary economics be translated into participatory
democracy?
V conclusion: progress beyond critique
VI bibliography
written for Dr. Menno Velinga
In this paper I propose a diasporic perspective for understanding Cuban ethnicity and population. The political possibility is put forth that future developments in a (post-revolutionary) Cuba need not take form as either communist or capitalist. Instead a third-option may be possible in which some form of social-democracy is substituted for authoritarian communism. In this way, the social and political benefits achieved under communism need not be lost in transitioning to a more democratic and inclusive social matrix.
INTRODUCTION
Since the Castro revolution but also before, Cuba has existed as a node within various migrations; from Spain, Africa, and locally in colonial times, and around the caribbean, the Americas, and elsewhere since. This paper explores the potential future of Cuba as an institutionalized diaspora. I take the perspective that international conflicts, and nationalist perspectives that obscure transnationalism, have created a schism between the people living on the island and others who continue to identify with Cubanness elsewhere. As such the diaspora has rarely been conceptualized in its fullness as a divers(ified) group of mutlicultural, multilingual, multinational, and multieconomic Cubans. Political rhetoric has focussed on struggles over the island as physical property, its economic system, and openness to various forms of capital investment. Little or no effort has been made to construct a multiplicity of democratic alternatives which would include diverse strategies of democratization with various levels and forms of inclusion/exclusion of Cubans on and off the island. Mainly Cuba has been conceived as a struggle of an inflexible totalitarian island government against any form of support that does not involve unconditional submission to the autocratically defined prerogatives of the revolution. As a result, or nevertheless, the U.S. perspective has been equally unyielding with its narrow-focus while other nations have responded with unprincipled ambivalence toward all but humanitarian aid and investment opportunities. This paper will examine various aspects of discourses surrounding Cuba and its diaspora adding critical insights regarding the possibilities of democratization that does not require total economic liberalization or subordination to the U.S. or other organized governmental or non-governmental powers. This paper will rely on personal narratives, policy and academic papers, and other written texts as data, most in English and from a U.S.-Cuban emigrant perspective.
I introduction
II emigration and diaspora/state relations
a. emigration and intent: maintaining a Cuba-orientation abroad
b. political narration and disillusionment
c. three waves, racism, and assimilation: Cuban-American ethnocentrism
III international relations and (non)-interventions in island affairs
a. economic relations: trade, investment, and embargo
b. political approaches to the Cuban situation
IV the future of the diaspora
a. persistent emigration or sustainable (e/im)migrations?
b. conitinued isolation or institutionally supported transnationalism?
c. liberalization or mediated (multi)culture and materialism?
d. can Cuban revolutionary economics be translated into participatory
democracy?
V conclusion: progress beyond critique
VI bibliography
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
IMMIGRANTS AND EMIGRANTS: TOWARD A DIASPORIC VIEW OF BECOMING-Dutch
IMMIGRANTS AND EMIGRANTS: TOWARD A DIASPORIC VIEW OF BECOMING-
DUTCH
General Audience Abstract
This research examines Dutch diaspora through narratives describing experiences of emigrating from the Netherlands. It also looks critically at the language of migration, examining how terms like 'globalization,' 'transnationalism,' 'multiculturalism,' are often used to reinforce nationalist-statist ideology and explores their problematic dimensions. The notion of cultural diaspora is put forth as a means for thinking and studying social life in terms of cultural contact among diverse individuals. Ethnicity is conceived in terms of becoming to allow us to go beyond thinking in terms of 'insiders' and 'outsiders;' to view contact as the basis for shared culture. Dutch Diaspora refers to the movement of people and cultural transfers identified with Dutchness; occuring as a result of social contact; without regard for where that contact takes place geographically. Emigration is viewed as one mode of becoming-Dutch, as part of a Dutch diaspora. This thesis contributes to a general understanding of ethnicity and creating more inclusive societies.
Academic Abstract
The concept of globalization implies a national world, in contrast to one that is already global(ized). In doing so it obscures the fact that nationalism, like globalism, is not a state-of-the-world at all but an ideological orientation, performed in everyday life; one that encourages us to imagine aspects of social life in terms of nations, nationality, birth-rights, geographical territorialism, and ethnic exclusion instead of inclusivity and freedom of place. Terms and the ideas they represent such as "transnationalism," "immigration," and "emigration" make reference to a nation-centered perspective while other terms such as 'multiculturalism' and 'diaspora' are more open but at the same time subject to nation-centered meaning-making. This thesis problematizes the mode of conceptualizing people in relation to the bounded nation(al)-state(ic) image of the still-globalizing world by considering the notion of a Dutch diaspora in which immigrants as well as those born in the Netherlands are accorded equal ontological status as emigrants. Although the thesis explores theoretical discourse of issues such as multiculturalism, transnationalism, (e/im)migration, and diaspora; an empirical exploration of web-based emigration narratives is also put forth. In doing so, the possibility takes shape that actors conceived of as radically different within a nationalist perspective may share experiences that are actually quite comparable in practice. Specifically Dutch emigrants to Australia are considered in parallel with refugees encountering legal pressure to emigrate from the Netherlands. The paper concludes by arguing for an expanded conceptualization of diaspora. Dutch cultural diaspora includes immigrants as well as those accorded native status by utilizing a perspective on ethnic-national society that avoids essentialistic definitions of exclusive membership in favor of one that recognizes the primacy of contact and cultural exchange in constructing diasporic societies. In doing so it allows for the possibility of envisioning a common Dutch cultural community extending beyond the regional territory of the Netherlands and a narrow view of ethnic Dutchness.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS _p4
ABSTRACT _p7
CHAPTER
1 INTRODUCTION: THE PROBLEM OF CONCEPTUALIZING
. (NON)IMMIGRANT SOCIETIES _p9
2 THEORY-METHOD AND LITERATURE REVIEW _p11
. Transnationalism _p12
. Multiculturalism _p16
. Demographic Constructions of Dutch Population/Demographics _p22
. Diaspora as Theoretical Framework and Social Consciousness _p29
3 TRACES OF A DUTCH DIASPORA _p35
. Operationalizing Dutch Diaspora _p36
. Use of Internet Sources of Data _p37
. Representativeness of Data and the Goal(s) of Research _p38
. Comparison versus Contrast _p39
. (Imagining) Communities behind the Data _p40
. Social Position of Researcher vis-à-vis Respondents _p41
. Influence of Emigration and Geography on Research Methods _p43
. Method of Data Analysis _p44
. Postscript on Methodological Paradigms _p48
4 PRELIMINARY SURVEY OF DATA AND SOURCES _p50
. Claiming Belonging _p51
. Struggles and Legal Procedures _p52
5 FURTHER EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION WITHIN A GROWING DIASPORIC
. CONSCIOUSNESS _p57
. Transitional Note _p57
. HetGevolg.nl Narratives _p59
. Strategic Silences _p59
. Spousal Rights _p61
. Facing Multiple Institutional Hostilities _p62
. Experiencing External Threat Inside the Border _p63
. Returning to an Estranged Past _p64
. Theorizing Borders _p65
. Bringing Immigrants and Emigrants Together _p66
. XPdite.net Narratives _p68
. Immigration ≠ Emigration _p68
. The Joy of Visa Success _p69
. Overweighing Multiple Positive Alternatives _p70
. Negotiating Migration-Possibilities through Dialogue _p72
. Migration Control as Domestic Intervention _p76
6 DISCUSSION _p81
APPENDIX
A (UNTRANSLATED) NARRATIVE DATA _p92
B ADDITIONAL NOTES _p102
. Reading Instructions _p103
. Syntheses _p111
. A Personal Note on [Dutch] _p126
. Research and Becoming _p146
. Literature and Theory _p155
. Race and Diaspora _p178
. Diaspora and American Racism _p185
. Race/racism and Social Construction _p187
. Latour’s Obligatory Points of Passage _p193
. Dutch Racism from a U.S. (National) Perspective _p198
. Dutch Racism and Discourses of National ‘Fullness’ _p202
. Racism and Soccer _p209
. Tolerance and Racism _p219
. Methodology _p224
. Some Concerns with Modeling and Data _p224
. From Data to Findings: conceptualizing data as representative _p231
. Methods and Data _p239
. Deleuzian Assemblages as an Alternative to the Statistical Population Approach _p258
. Conclusion _p264
LIST OF REFERENCES _p268
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH _p274
DUTCH
General Audience Abstract
This research examines Dutch diaspora through narratives describing experiences of emigrating from the Netherlands. It also looks critically at the language of migration, examining how terms like 'globalization,' 'transnationalism,' 'multiculturalism,' are often used to reinforce nationalist-statist ideology and explores their problematic dimensions. The notion of cultural diaspora is put forth as a means for thinking and studying social life in terms of cultural contact among diverse individuals. Ethnicity is conceived in terms of becoming to allow us to go beyond thinking in terms of 'insiders' and 'outsiders;' to view contact as the basis for shared culture. Dutch Diaspora refers to the movement of people and cultural transfers identified with Dutchness; occuring as a result of social contact; without regard for where that contact takes place geographically. Emigration is viewed as one mode of becoming-Dutch, as part of a Dutch diaspora. This thesis contributes to a general understanding of ethnicity and creating more inclusive societies.
Academic Abstract
The concept of globalization implies a national world, in contrast to one that is already global(ized). In doing so it obscures the fact that nationalism, like globalism, is not a state-of-the-world at all but an ideological orientation, performed in everyday life; one that encourages us to imagine aspects of social life in terms of nations, nationality, birth-rights, geographical territorialism, and ethnic exclusion instead of inclusivity and freedom of place. Terms and the ideas they represent such as "transnationalism," "immigration," and "emigration" make reference to a nation-centered perspective while other terms such as 'multiculturalism' and 'diaspora' are more open but at the same time subject to nation-centered meaning-making. This thesis problematizes the mode of conceptualizing people in relation to the bounded nation(al)-state(ic) image of the still-globalizing world by considering the notion of a Dutch diaspora in which immigrants as well as those born in the Netherlands are accorded equal ontological status as emigrants. Although the thesis explores theoretical discourse of issues such as multiculturalism, transnationalism, (e/im)migration, and diaspora; an empirical exploration of web-based emigration narratives is also put forth. In doing so, the possibility takes shape that actors conceived of as radically different within a nationalist perspective may share experiences that are actually quite comparable in practice. Specifically Dutch emigrants to Australia are considered in parallel with refugees encountering legal pressure to emigrate from the Netherlands. The paper concludes by arguing for an expanded conceptualization of diaspora. Dutch cultural diaspora includes immigrants as well as those accorded native status by utilizing a perspective on ethnic-national society that avoids essentialistic definitions of exclusive membership in favor of one that recognizes the primacy of contact and cultural exchange in constructing diasporic societies. In doing so it allows for the possibility of envisioning a common Dutch cultural community extending beyond the regional territory of the Netherlands and a narrow view of ethnic Dutchness.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS _p4
ABSTRACT _p7
CHAPTER
1 INTRODUCTION: THE PROBLEM OF CONCEPTUALIZING
. (NON)IMMIGRANT SOCIETIES _p9
2 THEORY-METHOD AND LITERATURE REVIEW _p11
. Transnationalism _p12
. Multiculturalism _p16
. Demographic Constructions of Dutch Population/Demographics _p22
. Diaspora as Theoretical Framework and Social Consciousness _p29
3 TRACES OF A DUTCH DIASPORA _p35
. Operationalizing Dutch Diaspora _p36
. Use of Internet Sources of Data _p37
. Representativeness of Data and the Goal(s) of Research _p38
. Comparison versus Contrast _p39
. (Imagining) Communities behind the Data _p40
. Social Position of Researcher vis-à-vis Respondents _p41
. Influence of Emigration and Geography on Research Methods _p43
. Method of Data Analysis _p44
. Postscript on Methodological Paradigms _p48
4 PRELIMINARY SURVEY OF DATA AND SOURCES _p50
. Claiming Belonging _p51
. Struggles and Legal Procedures _p52
5 FURTHER EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION WITHIN A GROWING DIASPORIC
. CONSCIOUSNESS _p57
. Transitional Note _p57
. HetGevolg.nl Narratives _p59
. Strategic Silences _p59
. Spousal Rights _p61
. Facing Multiple Institutional Hostilities _p62
. Experiencing External Threat Inside the Border _p63
. Returning to an Estranged Past _p64
. Theorizing Borders _p65
. Bringing Immigrants and Emigrants Together _p66
. XPdite.net Narratives _p68
. Immigration ≠ Emigration _p68
. The Joy of Visa Success _p69
. Overweighing Multiple Positive Alternatives _p70
. Negotiating Migration-Possibilities through Dialogue _p72
. Migration Control as Domestic Intervention _p76
6 DISCUSSION _p81
APPENDIX
A (UNTRANSLATED) NARRATIVE DATA _p92
B ADDITIONAL NOTES _p102
. Reading Instructions _p103
. Syntheses _p111
. A Personal Note on [Dutch] _p126
. Research and Becoming _p146
. Literature and Theory _p155
. Race and Diaspora _p178
. Diaspora and American Racism _p185
. Race/racism and Social Construction _p187
. Latour’s Obligatory Points of Passage _p193
. Dutch Racism from a U.S. (National) Perspective _p198
. Dutch Racism and Discourses of National ‘Fullness’ _p202
. Racism and Soccer _p209
. Tolerance and Racism _p219
. Methodology _p224
. Some Concerns with Modeling and Data _p224
. From Data to Findings: conceptualizing data as representative _p231
. Methods and Data _p239
. Deleuzian Assemblages as an Alternative to the Statistical Population Approach _p258
. Conclusion _p264
LIST OF REFERENCES _p268
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH _p274
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