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CSUDH Habermas UWP

California State University, Dominguez Hills
University of Wisconsin, Parkside
Created: June 6, 2001
Latest update: November 7, 2001
jeannecurran@habermas.org

Social Theory Readings
Week of November 5, 2001: Week 11

• Online Readings:

  • The Importance of Play in Understanding the Other Notice that by 1931 the concept of the Other was being actively addressed in social theory. Added suggestions on discussion topics on November 6, 2001.

  • Capitalism and Slavery Thread introduced by Cynthia Taylor. Conceptual linking question discussed in class on Tuesday, November 6, 2001.

  • Geroge Herbert Mead and Agency Thread introduced by Agnes Simpkins in class on Tuesday, Noveber 6, 2001.

  • Authenticating Facts in Dominant Discourse Article in Scientific American tries to discover the veracity of some rumors being circulated. Good example of our media, if we can call Scientific American our media, reminding us of the need for critical thinking in crisis.

    • Adversarialim: Shaping the Dominant Discourse Journal entry by Kasie Boone, LaKisha Miller, and Angelique Wyatt. Discussion thread on how the dominant discourse is being turned towards adversarialism. Listed in Week 10. Maybe you could link this conceptually to "Authenticating Facts in Dominant Discourse."

• Hardcopy Readings:
  Carried Over from Week 10 - will update later

  Readings in Social Theory, ed. by James Farganis:

  I would consider the following three chapters essential to an understanding of the social psychological perspective in sociology. Because of the conditions this semester, I realize that you may be pressed for time. Specific concepts and pages are empasized for your convenience in the section below: Theoretical Concepts You Should Know. Please be sure to read the rest of the material as the present crisis subsides. jeanne

  • Chapter 6: George Herbert Mead: The Emergent Self, pp. 158-178. Be sure to follow Mead's relating of the "double" to the long historical interdependence of the self and the Other. At p. 164, col.2, 3d para. and ff. And be sure to look at "Play, the Game, and the Generalized Other."

  • Chapter 7: W.E.B. Dubois, Double Consciousness and the Public Intellectual, pp. 179-190. Compare Mead's reference to the "double" that can leave the body and return to it, and Mead's comparison of that process to the shamanistic process and to play, which permits us to see ourselves as an "Other." (Farganis, Chapter 6, at p. 164, col. 2, 3d para. and ff.)

  • Chapter 13: Symbolic Interaction: Herbert Blumer and Erving Goffman, pp. 349-368.

• Theoretical Concepts You Should Know:
  Carried Over from Week 10 - will update later

  1. reflexivity: Mead describes reflexivity as our ability to "understand and react to what others think and say about our behavior,. . . " and to use that information to alter our behavior. (Farganis, at p. 159, col.1.) ". . . the self is not a self in the reflexive sense unless he is an object to himself." (Farganis, at p. 160, col 2.)

  2. the self: George Herbert Mead defined the self as that consciousness that emerges from the dialogue between the "I" (the impulsive need to satisfy one's own desires) and the "me" (the recognition and consideration of Others) (Farganis, at p. 159, col. 2.)

  3. symbolic interaction: the interdependence of human actions and reactions which depends as much on how we interpret the Other's actions as it does on the actions themselves (Farganis, at p. 352.)

  4. restorative justice: "Restorative justice is a valued-based approach to criminal justice, with a balanced focus on the offender, victim, and community. The foundation of restorative justice is to determine the harm resulting from a crime, what needs to be done to repair the harm, and who is responsible for repairing the harm."
     Definition from Restorative justice: Healing the Effects of Crime Website maintained by Tom Cavanagh. Dedicated to learning together how to heal the harm of crime.

  5. retributive justice: The dominant approach to criminal justice at the present time is sometimes called retributive justice and is focused on determining what law was broken, who broke it, and how should they be punished."

  6. distributive justice: Distributive justice is that approach to social justice that delves more deeply into the inequality of access to resources and that inequality's contribution to deviance and crime in the first place.

  7. the "double": W.E.B. Du Bois' description of his own recognition of "double-consciousness":

     "It is in the early days of rollicking boyhood that the revelation first bursts upon one, all in a day, as it were. I remember well when the shadow swept across me. I was a little think, away up in the hills of New England, where the dark Housatonic winds between Hoosac and Taghkanic to the sea. In a wee wooden schoolhouse, something put it into the boys' and girls' heads to buy gorgeious visiting-cards---ten cents a package---and exchange. The exchange was merry, till one girl, a tall newcomer, refused my card---refused it peremptorily, with a glance. Then it dawned upon me with a certain suddenness that I was different from the others; or like, mayhap, in heart and life and longing, but shut out from their world by a vast veil. I had thereafter no desire to tear down that veil, to creep through; I held all beyond it in common contempt, and lived above it in a region of blue sky and great wandering shadows." ( Farganis, at pp. 186-187.)

Some Suggested Measures of Learning:

Comment on one of the following topics, or do something of your own choosing.

1. How does play affect our ability to engage in reflexive behavior?

   Consider this statement by Farganis on p. 159, column 1: "[Mead's] most significant insight was was his view of human behavior as reflexive, by which he meant that you and I think before we act in many of our important activities."

2. How does reflexivity fit into contemporary social theory?

   Consider the postmodern insistence on local narrative, on many voices and perspectives, on no "single truth." Draw the connection between reflexivity and the Other.

3. How does George Herbert Mead's concept of reflexivity fit with constitutive theory's concept of agency? (Agnes Simpkins' question.)

   Consult Reflexivity and Agency.

4. Explain how capitalism is linked to slavery. (Cynthia Taylor's question.)

   Consult Capitalism and Slavery.

5. Explain "double-consciousness."

   Consult Double-Consciousness. Journal entry by Marcus Pitts.