[Xmca-l] Re: Interesting to think about: the social springs of giving

[Jay Lemke]

I have just watched the CBS segment on the Make a Wish Foundation. Because
several moments in it brought tears to my eyes, I have been thinking about
the emotional dimension of the events for various participants as well as
for the viewers.

The notion of Communitas as well as structure and liminality were part of
Turner's analysis of ritual and community solidarity. The affective
dimension of participation in community events which build emotional
solidarity as well as ideational and material solidarity is important in
this analysis. Consider the emotional difference between being a full
participant in events like the announcement of the granting of a wish
versus merely being a voyeur.

The status of being a felt full participant may be constituted in part by
being a donor, being a volunteer, being a leader, and this range of modes
of participation is open to a whole community and helps to constitute a
community within the community. It is a community of shared feeling
inseparable from shared activity. Think about the feelings you may have had
as a spectator of the video and try to imagine the feelings of being a
direct participant.

In relation to Mike's writing about timescales relevant to development, the
video segment does connect personal histories, event histories, and the
history of the local chapter of the foundation. I think this suggests
interesting questions about how to formulate and describe the affective
dimension of time scales beyond that of short-term events. It also raises
questions about the role of our own emotions as researchers in
understanding such phenomena.

JAY.


Jay Lemke
LCHC/Department of Communication
University of California - San Diego
www.jaylemke.com


On Mon, Oct 19, 2015 at 10:03 AM, mike cole <mcole@ucsd.edu> wrote:

> And what did you make of that CBS segment, Larry?
> Seems to me that it displayed several examples of structure and liminality.
> But I may be misapplying the terms.
>
> Mike
>
> On Monday, October 19, 2015, Lplarry <lpscholar2@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Jay,
> > I just noticed wikepedia has a site exploring communitas as the place
> > between structure and liminality.
> > This may be a boundary space or boundary object where we experience the
> > joy of communitas.
> > It seems to have a semblance to space of play as mimesis
> > Liminal antistructure in play with structure.
> > Very pregnant and fertile possibility in the realm of the not yet but
> > could be.
> > Imaginal
> > Larry
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: "Lplarry" <lpscholar2@gmail.com <javascript:;>>
> > Sent: ‎2015-‎10-‎19 9:44 AM
> > To: "eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity" <xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu
> > <javascript:;>>; "Andy Blunden" <ablunden@mira.net <javascript:;>>
> > Subject: RE: [Xmca-l] Re: Interesting to think about: the social springs
> > ofgiving
> >
> > Jay,
> > Do you have a specific article or book to recommend.
> > The theme of communitas and choirs as places of communitas (through the
> > ear) seem central to what mike is calling to our ways of orienting
> > Larry
> >
> >
> > From: Jay Lemke
> > Sent: ‎2015-‎10-‎19 9:17 AM
> > To: Andy Blunden; eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
> > Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: Interesting to think about: the social springs of
> > giving
> >
> >
> > For an interesting approach to "community", I'd recommend Edith Turner's
> > "Communitas". Ethnographic deepening of late Victor Turner's concept.
> >
> > JAY.
> >
> >
> > Jay Lemke
> > LCHC/Department of Communication
> > University of California - San Diego
> > www.jaylemke.com
> >
> >
> > On Sun, Oct 18, 2015 at 8:58 PM, Andy Blunden <ablunden@mira.net
> > <javascript:;>> wrote:
> >
> > > Yes, indeed I am interested, Mike.
> > > Critiquing the concept of "social capital" and developing an
> alternative
> > > concept of "social solidarity" and searching for a suitable unit of
> > > analysis was how I got started down the track I have been on ever since
> > > then, about 2003. What is the difference between community as in all
> > people
> > > living in such and such town, and "real" community? Robert Putnam had
> > > assembled evidence that almost any collective activity fosters what he
> > > called "social capital." The problem was that he couldn't distinguish
> > > between the mafia taking root in a community and a community taking
> > control
> > > of crime on its streets, etc. His classic "example" activity was the
> > > formation of choir groups, proven promoters of collective "wealth".
> > >
> > > Andy
> > > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > > *Andy Blunden*
> > > http://home.pacific.net.au/~andy/
> > >
> > > On 19/10/2015 2:07 PM, mike cole wrote:
> > >
> > >> I found a segment of the American weekly TV program, 60 minutes, more
> > than
> > >> usually interesting this evening, and one segment in particular
> > >> seemed to have a lot of relevance to many different interests of
> people
> > on
> > >> xmca. The topic was the the activities of the "Make a Wish
> Foundation."
> > >>
> > >> Of the very many issues that the program discusses, one which I found
> > >> particularly interesting was the ability of the organized practice of
> > >> communities
> > >> raising money to give seriously ill children "a last wish" is one that
> > has
> > >> particular relevance to questions about the mechanisms of social
> > >> solidarity. In small towns in northern Arkansas, a relatively poor and
> > out
> > >> of the part of the US, people raise amazing amounts of money to
> provide
> > >> special experience for kids who are dying of some disease that has not
> > >> known current cure. What particularly caught my attention especially
> is
> > >> the
> > >> powerful effect that participation in the money raising and the
> > ingenious
> > >> social organization of the activities, has on community members across
> > >> several generations, from peers to grandparents. In one sense, it
> seems
> > >> that everything is so focuses on the individual kid that it is "just a
> > >> manifestation of late capitalist individualism." If effects on the
> kids
> > is
> > >> interesting, but it is the reflected effect on the community pretty
> > >> generally, and the emergence of strong personal bonds in particular
> that
> > >> caught me most.
> > >>
> > >> Andy might find this interesting as an example of a project.
> > >>
> > >> mike
> > >>
> > >>   http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/topics/60-minutes/     click on make
> a
> > >> wish
> > >>
> > >>
> > >
>
>
>
> --
>
> It is the dilemma of psychology to deal as a natural science with an
> object that creates history. Ernst Boesch
>