What I have found helpful as I observe and map and
chart activities falls very much out of the economic
metaphors/constructs Paul has been using to discuss
the middle class. Production, distribution, division
of labor, consumption. You may recall all the
embedded
triangles from some of Yrjo's work - one of them
pursued a kind of lamination of the cycle of
production
and symbolic resources - I guess a way to understand
cultural (re)production as a socio-historical material
process. If I were to observe a community center,
I would probably start with some of these questions:
What produces the community center? What material
resources? How do participants get their hands on
them? How do they plug into various networks that
distribute these resources? What kinds of symbolic
resources do they deploy to keep producing activities
that continue the material existence of the community
center? Where did these resources come from?
In what ways does the CC mediate conflicts and crises?
Where did these resources come from? How do the
activities and programs of the CC get taken up and
distributed? What stated objectives do these programs
serve? What un-stated objectives appear in the
cracks?
How do participants work with & around stated and
un-stated objectives? Where did these resources come
from?
Kind of like a zonehead version of 'follow the money.'
Genevieve
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