The Person and the Body
What is ekphrasis and how does that reflect on our understanding of “representation”. Describe it using an example.
Ekphrasis means a representation of representation and it allows us to analyze the way information is sent across from one body to another. An example would be the audio description. With AD, there is a narrator that is “unbiasedly” describing the situation of the scene or action.
Tim Ingold proposed his theory on wayfaring. Provide a definition for wayfaring.
Tim Ingold mentioned that as wayfarers, our natural state is movement. He describes wayfaring as the Body as constantly moving in an active way to acquire knowledge and experience.
What are social worlds and how do they vary? If UCSD is a social world in and of itself, what are some examples of sub-social worlds at UCSD?
Social worlds are defined as a “set of common or joint activities or concerns, bound by a network of communication.” They vary in that they develop through differing environmental/social/political/economic conditions. Plus, each social world can be made up of smaller, more niche social worlds. Some examples of sub-social worlds at UCSD could include the workers at various stores/offices around campus, the members of a student organization, the members of a fraternity or sorority, or all of the faculty that make up a specific department.
What is professional vision according to Goodwin? What are his three methods for observing and studying professional vision?
Goodwin defines professional vision as socially organized ways of seeing and understanding events that are answerable to the distinctive interests of a particular social group. The three ways he uses to study this are 1) coding 2) highlighting and 3) producing and articulating material representation (p. 606)
In Goodwin's text, how does the defense's expert testimony use coding to disrupt the following claim from the prosecutors:
"What more could you ask for? You have the videotape that shows objectively, without bias, impartially, what happened that night. The videotape shows conclusively what happened that night. It can't be rebutted." (Goodwin, 615)
"Allowing expert testimony on the use of force by the police had the effect of filtering the events visible on the tape through a police coding scheme, as articulated by an expert who instructed the jury how to see the body movements of the victim in term of that system." (616)
This coding scheme visually broke down the video frame by frame with a supplementary text that used the framework of escalation/de-escalation--"the expert has provided a coding scheme that transforms the actions being coded into displays of careful, systematic police work." (617)
Furthermore, we can see in these examples how notions like "objectivity" are contested amongst professionals. Which is to say, in each example we see how objectivity is constructed- one, through the framework of "the video speaks for itself" and the other through a framework of expertise and translation.
Finally, note the quote from the question with Rosaldo's text from Week 10: "Such terms as objectivity, neutrality, and impartiality refer to subject positions once endowed with great institutional authority, but they are arguably neither more nor less valid than those of more engaged, yet equally perceptive, knowledgeable social actors." (Rosaldo, 176)
What is situated learning and how does this tie to the problem with the American system of apprenticeship?
Literal def: theory of social practice that emphasizes relational interdependency of agent and world, activity, meaning, cognition, learning, and knowing
General idea: learning as you do go along and are incorporated with that specific space (i.e. hands on learning, shadowing people)
Problem is “apprenticeship/internships” do not utilize situated learning efficiently. Given the minuscule task that is not really correlated with the field of learning one is trying to acquire.
In Ingold’s argument, she argues we are all wayfarers, constantly moving. She also draws a line between “wayfaring” and “transport”. How does wayfaring differ from transport?
Tim Ingold argued that as wayfarers, our natural state is movement. He describes wayfaring as the Body as constantly moving in an active way to acquire knowledge and experience. It is important to note that he argued that the traveler and his line are one and the same. The path of the wayfarer is where life is lived. However, transport lines are destination-oriented. Transport is not generated as a movement, because all the movement is in the destinations.
What is an example of a variation of a social world?
Size, type, numbers/varieties of central activities, organizational complexity, technological sophistication, ideology, geographical dispersion, etc.
Strauss provides more specific examples, such as ballet, opera, stamp collecting, baseball, surfing, etc
As defined by Lipsitz, what is the racialization of space? What is the spatialization of race? Give an example of both.
The racialization of space is the literal movement of homogeneous racial groups to a specific location (i.e. African Americans riding in the back of the bus).
The spatialization of race are the underlying processes, systems, and power structures that lead to the disruption of racial groups and communities (i.e. gentrification, the building of a new highway through a historically black neighborhood)
A process through which a group seeks legitimacy through contrasting itself to another group and even claiming to be more legitimate.
"Distancing"
"The defining of different types of activities, and the building of organization for further them, is often accompanied by a growing conviction that 'what we are doing' is not just as legitimate but even more legitimate than those of another earlier, established, or more powerful SSW." (Strauss, 175)
"And when SSWs bud off from others, as when they pursue some kind of specialized interest or activity, they may gain distance merely by distinctions being readily made between both what they do and what others do, and how differently they now talk and event think." (176)
What are the differences between the body as a product and the body as a process? Is this difference correlated with one another or separate?
Body as a cultural product is when one person physically embodies the culture and space.
Body as an agential process explains the way one carries themselves and that is changed continuously as we go from one space to another in an extended period of time.
2nd part of the question is more for discussion for class. Helps us brainstorm and create a connection to other reading/help understanding the concept better through examples
This quarter, we were introduced to the idea of legitimate peripheral participation. Where do we see LPP in play in the movie, Sleep Dealer?
Legitimate Peripheral Participation is process of learning from apprentice to master within a community of practice. It is the process of transformation from a newcomer in a community to an older timer through the full engagement in a community to an older timer.
Memo is a newcomer to TJ and he knew outside, second hand knowledge of the “nodes.”
He got help from someone who knew first hand on how to get the nodes and had the nodes.
He begins to work with the nodes like his coworkers.
What is technological determinism? Social constructivism? What is the term used to describe overcoming the dualism of technological determinism vs. social constructivism?
Technological determinism is the idea that tools and technologies shape our development. Social constructivism is the idea that human development is centered around social interaction. In order to overcome this, Latour suggests that one must use the actor network approach. In Latour’s words: “Those advocating the actor network approach agree with the social constructivist claim that sociotechnical systems are developed through negotiations between people, institutions, and organizations. But they make the additional interesting argument that artifacts are part of these negotiations as well”.
Rosaldo writes about the Ilongot Tribe and the practice of headhunting as a means of coping with grief. What argument does he make about the dualism of objectivity and subjectivity in ethnography?
Rosaldo argues that the pursuit of objectivity in ethnography leaves out crucial emotions and feelings that are worth studying in ethnography. Without the emotions of grief and anger, a study of Ilongot headhunting is incomplete.
What is the racialization of space, and how is it different from the spatialization of race? How do these fit into spatial imaginaries?
racialization of space = redlining/gerrymandering. The design of the built environment is based on an imaginary of what should be happening.
Spatialization of race = return effect of having moved people around according to race (the longer-term implications). Spatialization of the racial experience means that where you live determines the benefits you get.
How does 9066 emphasize and validate Bourdieu’s idea of the 4 notions?
Anti-dualistic: the major difference from the “American” and the “JAPANESE-American” (even more divided when J-A were forced to draft)
Synthetic: in a physical sense the “homes” in concentration camps, gives false idea that they have freedom and choice, but in reality are not
Agnostic: the idea of us v them, hoping for the J-A to eventually conflict with one another, J-A adapting to environment garnered to aggressive approach by guards
Recognition: J-A conflict of conforming to US demands (giving up dignity/identity as J-A) and keeping traditional values. The conflict between those who are willing to conform and those who are fully against them
Mentioned in Ingold, we were asked to read Massey’s work as well. We understood in class that the ideas were not in opposition to each other. What is Massey’s main point, and what is the difference between the ideas of Massey and Ingold?
Massey uses the term “power geometry” through which he emphasizes how groups and individuals are differently positioned in these networks and also in relation to each other. It is important to note that Massey is not in opposition with Ingold. Ingold is looking at individuals at a micro level. He argues that as individuals moves through place together, it creates place through LIVING instead of just a point on a map. On the other hand, Massey looks at it at a bird’s eye view. He looks at power relations created.
What does “coding” mean, according to Goodwin? What is an example of how coding acts within our social world here at UCSD?
Coding is the practice of “transforming the world into categories and events that are relevant to the work of the profession.” Some examples of coding at UCSD might include the “instructor-student” relationship, the 4 academic statuses (freshman, sophomore, junior, senior), systems of grading (A/B/C is passing, D/C is failing), etc.
What is the thesis of Martin Luther King Jr.’s letter from Birmingham City Jail? How does he relate his argument to the Body as a Collective course theme?
MLK’s thesis is that the cause of civil rights is a moral and religious one for any upstanding Christian. He argues that to do otherwise is a failure to do one’s civic and religious duty. His support of nonviolent civil disobedience is a prime example of how bodies can be organized and moved in unison to create change and upend social order.
A practice described by Strauss that attempts to set parameters on what falls within the classification of a particular social world and what falls outside of it. (note: This is not about vying for legitimacy but rather determining what actually is allowed to “exist”/be represented as existing within a particular SW/SSW and what isn’t)
"Boundary Setting"
“Some arguments and decision making, as noted earlier, pertain to whether a given activity or product is ‘really’ reflective or representative of, or appropriate to, the character of a given SSW or SW. The major issue being raised, then, is about the boundaries of the world: what lies definitely within, what without, and what placements are ambiguous? How is all this to be determined or ratified, and by whom? (Strauss, 185)
Strauss goes on to describe “boundary setting” and “boundary challenging” as they operate within particular SW/SSW’s, e.g. what is legitimately considered to be art and who/what is one talking about when they consider “the art world”
It is in the case of “boundary challenging” in which something like vying for legitimacy (i.e. distancing) might occur, note how distancing is simultaneously about boundaries
How are the 3 types of ghettos explain power struggles?
Ghettos are defined when a group of MINORITIES are clumped together in a portion of a city. Those same minorities are clumped because of socio-economic disadvantages.
Explained further and solidified in hyper ghetttos. Where AA were put in ghettos through political agendas throughout time (jim crow, slavery, segregations) which ultimately became the socio-economic disadvantages, forcing them to cohabitate in small, concentrated places of a city
These two thing would eventually establish stereotypes and associates those groups of people/certain criteria as “ghetto” and anything that conforms to one or more of them, become labeled as “ghetto” (anti) though there is no immediate consequences, this way of thought allows power dynamics to favor one over the other bc they are seen as “civil”/”unsavaged”
What is the definition of wayfaring and enclosure. What is the difference, and where do we see wayfaring and enclosure in the Sleep Dealer?
Wayfaring defines the Body’s natural state, constantly moving in an active way to acquire knowledge and experience. Enclosure is where the patterns of movement is enclosed or limited which then defines a space. Wayfaring is time independent whereas enclosure is time dependent.
Enclosure: Memo’s homestead is enclosed by a dam built nearby and it is an enclosed space that only Memo truly knows. His father passed away so there is no one else that can give that place back its meaning.
Wayfaring: Memo boards a bus to Tijuana to find work. He meets Luz who has nodes who will connects him to a coyotek
How can different coded practices vary between sub-social worlds that exist within one larger social world?
(Potential answer:) Coded practices differ by “profession”, and thus each profession may have differing purposes or values. The larger social world may have developed due to relative like-mindedness or geographical proximity, but within that boundary there may exist even more specific commonalities that allow a sub-social world to develop. Depending on the commonalities of that sub-social world, codes may be different out of necessity, or may even just evolve into existence over time. For example, at UCSD we split our students into 6 colleges, each with a specific academic focus. At other UCs, they divide their students in other ways depending on the amount of students enrolled
How do the previous themes of the The Person and the Body, Conveying the Body, and Relations Among People help show Bodies are and act as a Collective?
The Person and the Body showed up how individuals can use their body as an agential process and product to make statements about themselves and their environment.
Conveying the Body showed how those statements can help us create and understand the world around us.
Relations Among People shows us how this can impact other people as we act, learn, and move through our lives.
Describe the relationship between knowledge and power in Goodwin's text as it relates to the Rodney King trial.
Through the practice of coding and highlighting we see the simultaneous performance of knowledge and practice but underpinning this is the authority granted to speak and be heard as specific entities. The defense utilizes professional expertise to determine who has the legitimate role of interpreting and conveying the events of the Rodney King beating as it unfolded. In contrast, "no expert witnesses are available to interpret these events and animate the images on the tape from King's perspective...Within in the discourse of the trial, he is an object to be scrutinized, not an actor with a voice of his own. However, within the discourse made visible on tape, he is constituted as the controlling actor." (625-626)
The defense through limiting the boundaries of who is capable of interpretation (expert video analysts within the framework of escalation/de-escalation) thus raises the value of its knowledge and concentrates power/authority within that very knowledge, in turn, delegitimating King.