I just would like to ask further questions about your 2 important points
in your message:
(1) resistance, to you, involves some kind of (at least partially)
conscious critique of dominant institutions; is that your point?
Hm... I would think so, too;
but one of my thesis committee members says when we say students are
doing some kind of resistance, it doesn't necessarily mean they are
CONSCIOUSLY doing it... hm... I really don't know how to
deal with this issue?
(2) you say student/youth opposition is a symptom... rather than
resistance... I think so, too... but do you have any further thoughts on
it's a symptom of what? of lots of things I guess... but e.g.,?
Thanks very much Bill for sharing your helpful views. ... I'm not keen
on defining terms, either if that term doesn't help us understand the
students/youth better... so is "resistance" a useful term?
I'm really not sure... from my own data, the young adolescents in HK
secondary schools (in working class schools), certainly show a lot of
evidence of their dislike of English, of having to learn English, of
being forced to speak English... is this resistance?
Care to share your thoughts, xmca'ers? Jay, any input?
Thanks!
Angel
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 9 Jan 1996 00:18:11 -0500
From: BPenuel who-is-at aol.com
To: mylin who-is-at oise.on.ca
Subject: Re: cultures of resistance
Angel-
It is just this type of situation that Giroux is writing about, and it's not
always clear that oppositional behavior is really resistance to domination,
and if so, how it is. I'm not sure, for example, people who break up
classroom activities by their use of humor, for example, are resisting
authority so much as creating solidarity with peers, unless their humor has a
kind of ironic quality to it. Also, I certainly don't think that
black-on-black crime in inner cities among younger adolescents is a form of
resistance--though this can get young black males into considerable problem
with "authority." And many people, including young people, in urban
communities agree with that.
Resistance, I think, has more to do with a notion of _critique_, which is at
least partially conscious (but oftentimes wrong in tactics, theory, etc.), of
dominant institutions, and also has to do with creating _solidarity_ for the
purpose of making changes in existing relationships in society. Within this,
there's a lot of variation, I think. Some young people might participate in
community service as a form of resistance (a reformist mode), others grafitti
to memorialize lost friends in gang wars (an expressivist mode), and still
others might conduct a student strike, as NYU students did last year (a
radical mode). But mere opposition is often a symptom, I think, rather than
an indication of, resistance.
You can define resistance in a way that's useful to you I think. Only be
clear about how you are using it, and perhaps more importantly, what kinds of
_effects_ the kinds of resistance you propose might have for changing power
relations in the broader community.
Hope this helps,
Bill