Re: like a Jeopardy question

Mary Bryson (brys who-is-at unixg.ubc.ca)
Sun, 7 Mar 1999 13:53:47 -0700

Diane wrote:
Anyway,
the implication of the message disturbs the HELL out of me:
"if you want to understand/know/be "one" with something, try to change it"
is pure invasion ideology. stuff changes. watch for it. trying to change
things we don't understand is ludicrous as a responsible practice, I don't
care who said it: it's invasion rationalization and is a bad way to think.
bad.
if you want to understand something so much that the only thing you
can do is change whatever it is, then it can't be what it "is" that is
of interest, but what kinds of effects human interventions have on stuff.
Back to the Water-Table and Sink or Float games, maybe.

So I write back:
I am assuming that just walking into a room changes what's happening there,
and so any social science research is of necessity always already changing
something as it envisions itslef attempting to understand it. I think this
quote is about being reflexive concerning the fact that one *is* always
having an efffect. I have been looking to see how far this idea will talk
me in thinking about "gender", because it has struck me on numerous
occasions, like if I happen to get my hair cut just a bit too short, that i
learn lots about gender that day, or week.

Mary

Mary Bryson, Associate Professor and UBC Scholar 98/99,
Faculty of Education, UBC
Principal Co-Investigator: GenTech Project

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