[Xmca-l] Does the All-Stars article document a social movement?

[Helena Worthen]

Hello,

Sorry to be so late to the conversation. I would not characterize the All Stars activity described in the Lobman paper as part of a social movement. 

I will accept that by bringing a group of disadvanged minority youth to the offices of a bank in Manhattan and having them engage a group of bank employees in some theater games, both groups can learn something. I can also see that because the rules of the theater games create a “stage” for a performance that would never happen under the rules of the bank office culture, participants on both sides get a glimpse of 1) how much behavior is governed by the unspoken rules and 2) the reality that those rules can be temporarily suspended or changed. This lesson my be transferrable to a social movement context - for example, Occupy changed the rules about whether you could create andmove into a tent city in a small public park not far from where that bank may have been located. 

But I don’t think that’s what the article about. If this activity is part of a social movement, what social movement are we talking about? The civil rights movement? There’s nothing in here about the collective power of the minority youth to change the balance of power that keeps them poor.

The paper raises a couple of other points for me. One is that I don’t think you can always assume and equation between performance and play. The performance that these youths engaged in was very tightly controlled and rehearsed, led by adults who bridged the two worlds. The youth did not really “play” in any sense other than that they performed. Therefore to me the thread that Lobman follows from early childhood play through adult performance breaks in the middle for me. Lobman touches on this discontinuity on page 221in the final paragraphs before the next section, but she doesn’t really fix it and I don’t think she can. To me, this means that a different theoretical basis (not play as a developmental activity available to children through adulthood)is needed.

The other point that I felt begged for attention was the way the paper mentioned but avoided expanding on some stark realities. A group of minority kids, Black and Latino, are bused into Manhattan. The race of the group leaders is not given; one at least might be Black, but it is not clarified. They have what may be their first experiences with getting past Bank security and into express elevators. They do their performances for a group of White office workers who are undoubtedly on paid time and under orders to cooperate, even to being told to “volunteer.” In between performances, the youth are given small group lessons about credit and debit cards.

No doubt this is a valuable lesson. However, what becomes of the information that youth provide that credit cards are used to buy food, pay hospital bills, and fix cars — all desperation purchases, borrowing money to cover things necessary to keep life going? It just floats past without comment. 

So my problem with the article is that is brings highly developed analytic skills and months of investment of reasearch time to studying a situation but that it looks at it askew — it’s like taking a photo of a crowd in motion and choosing to talk about the different brands of sneakers the people are wearing. The phrase ‘white blind spot” keeps coming into my mind, when I think about what the author chooses to comment on and what to look away from. 

This is obviously a huge, well-run program with a big budget.Is it part of a social movement? I would say that not only is it not part of a social movement, it’s actually part of the problem.Think what that money could do if it was spent in the public school system itself, instead of a non-profit that draws tax deduction donations from businesses. 

Really well-written, though. Very publishable. 

Helena Worthen
helenaworthen@gmail.com
Berkeley, CA 9470 Phone VN 0168 4628562
Blog US/ Viet Nam: 
helenaworthen.wordpress.com
skype: helena.worthen1






> On Oct 12, 2017, at 8:13 AM, mike cole <mcole@ucsd.edu> wrote:
> 
> Hi Helena!
> 
> Can you also come to Colin's assistance in discussing the paper about the
> All-Stars that is the article de jeur? Andy raised the question of whether
> its worthwhile to think about whether such efforts constitute social
> movements. But I am interested in the question.
> 
> When I do a project like the 5thDimension, and what starts out as just
> another design experiment turns into a study of sustainability because it
> "catches on", I do not think of myself as studying social movements. But
> when an organization has a budget of 10 million dollars a year, and
> operates on such a large, institutionalized scale, and keeps pushing (say)
> for social justice by organizing resistance to forced removal from housing,
> it seems a whole lot like a social movement to me.
> 
> "What," to quote our friend, Eugene, "do you think?"
> 
> mike
> 
> On Wed, Oct 11, 2017 at 5:58 PM, Helena Worthen <helenaworthen@gmail.com>
> wrote:
> 
>> Yes, I will certainly come to Colin’s assistance!!  This is a wonderful,
>> small conference where students from PhD programs in various countries
>> (mostly Europe and the US, and the presentations are in English) come to
>> bring research that I’ve found fascinating both for theoretical orientation
>> and sheer fresh content. Also presenting are mentors and professors of the
>> students and some people like myself and Joe who come unattached, just to
>> learn. Colin organizes enough pub and restaurant activities to encourage
>> plenty of side conversations.
>> 
>> We are seriously thinking of coming again this spring, despite being in
>> Viet Nam right now. Manchester is an endlessly interesting city with
>> manageable museums, especially for labor educators. Manchester Metropolitan
>> is a short bus ride away from City Center but also near some low-cost
>> hotels.
>> 
>> H
>> 
>> Helena Worthen
>> helenaworthen@gmail.com
>> Berkeley, CA 9470 Phone VN 0168 4628562
>> Blog US/ Viet Nam:
>> helenaworthen.wordpress.com
>> skype: helena.worthen1
>> 
>>