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

[Peter Smagorinsky]

At Kenyon College in about 1972, I took a Shakespeare course from Fred Turner, who told us about growing up on the African Savannah while his parents did anthropological studies. Victor and Edith's son, it turned out. He became a science fiction novelist, which would surely count as challenging Western ontology.

-----Original Message-----
From: xmca-l-bounces+smago=uga.edu@mailman.ucsd.edu [mailto:xmca-l-bounces+smago=uga.edu@mailman.ucsd.edu] On Behalf Of Jay Lemke
Sent: Monday, October 19, 2015 1:42 PM
To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: Interesting to think about: the social springs of giving

"Structure" and "liminality" are terms from Victor Turner's theoretical analysis. His co-author and partner, Edith Turner, continued and deepened this work by examining in more depth and in different culture sites (the original work was mostly in Africa), a third term, "communitas". She has a book of this title, which overviews decades of this research. I would say her main thesis is that communities are capable of producing emergent collective phenomena which challenge Western assumptions about ontology.

Will try to look at the CBS segment in a while.

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
>