Link to jeanne's Birdie Index Discourse Preparation: Week of February 5, 2001

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Discourse Preparation: Week 2
Week of February 5, 2001

Answered most of the e-mail on Thursday morning!
But I may have missed a few. Will try to finish catching up today, later.
Carla Shaw's e-mail is still up as a sample at Recognizing Structural Violence

And the cough is asthma! Jeanne Anderson and Jenny Allen and all of you were right.
I did tell the doctors, but they just ignored what we were saying. It's called structural violence.
No perpetrator, remember? Just not fitting the routinized categories of "their" thinking.

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Sociology Class Schedule, Spring 2001


Tanya and David Lee, February 1, 2001
Peter Blows Their Horn

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Latest Update: February 6, 2001
E-Mail jeannecurran@habermas.org

Assignment for All Classes for Week 2:
Please read:

  1. Progressive Sociologists Net
    Please read the thread on Marxist approach to grading and learning.
    Check out the article on The Culture Club on February 9, 2001.
  2. Can we codify respect?
  3. and The Egyptian Priest of Rules
  4. Links on Jean-Michel Basquiat
  5. Basquiat and PostColonialism
  6. Power and Solitude
I will put up self-tests and discussion questions soon. At that point, we will conceptually link this material to the themes in our respective classes. jeanne

Discussion questions:

  • Theory Class:
    • What are some of the unstated theoretical assumptions of postcolonialism? Consider the right of one group to subjugate and benefit from the work of another group.
    • What unstated theoretical assumption underlies our attempt to codify manners? Consider the erosion of interpersonal communication and negotiation, and the expectation that "authority" will take over this aspect of our agency.
  • Moot Court:
    • How does law usurp individual agency? Consider the paternalistic assumption that a categorized and inflexible system of rules supercedes interpersonal communication.
  • Peace and Conflict:
    • How does our ceding a large portion of interpersonal resolution of problems enhance adversarialism. Consider the need for any system of authority to rely upon categorization.
  • Criminology:
    • Basquiat was sent to a continuation school. The activities in which he engaged are "criminal." How does this relate to the definition of crime and who is forming the definition? Consider that he was judged a genius by most who knew him. Does that justify criminal behavior?

    Online Reading for Special Interests

    These are links I've come across that might be helpful to some of you, given your special interests.

    Social Work Issues:

    Without a Net: Poverty and Welfare Reform in the USA Site maintained by Michael Lichter, whose doctorate is from the UCLA Department of Sociology, and who specializes in Welfare Reform and Related Issues. Good source of links.