Unidentified subject!

Angel M.Y. Lin (mylin who-is-at oise.on.ca)
Wed, 27 Dec 1995 04:56:59 -0500 (EST)

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Thanks very much Chuck for your very detailed and helpful reply!
(The recent messages on xmca are really very very .... interesting!)

And thanks for Jay's helpful exposition of Bourdieu's thoughts, too.

...
One good thing in OISE is I can take courses with people who believe in
very different things, and I can even have both of them in my thesis
committee! (a good thing? or a challenge?!)

I have worked in the tradition of ethnomethodology and conversation
analysis, and most of the things I've learnt and agreed with resonate
with Chuck's message: to always look at the micro realization of whatever
structural terms (e.g., power, domination...) there are...

On the other hand, I have come from a "habitus" where "domination" is not
merely a structural conflictual term, but something you can see, hear,
feel everyday! something you can experience yourself, no need to be
told about by others...

That explains why I find Bourdieu's thoughts may offer me tools to
reflect on my lifeworld experiences and perhaps can offer some way of
working towards voicing out about social injustice and ways of working
towards some kind of change?

Of course, I agree that life is not just conflict. Life is full of
surprises, and there are many instances of altruism, co-operation, caring
and love...

But life is also full of social injustice and misery... some of us may be
more lucky, some of us less, and yet... how to understand life in all its
complexity and variety? And amidst this seemingly philosophical project
is a very practical concern: when you see social inequalities realized
everyday in the school system... what does an educational researcher do?
what can an educational researcher do?

No, I don't expect any easy answers...
Just would like to arouse some discussions on these things... Academics
have sometimes been labeled as people in the ivory tower... can we say
and do something to violate such labelling? :-)

Angel
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