I thought that maybe we could think in another direction.
Supose that any kind of understanding implies a relationship. In fact
understanding is getting in a relationship with something to make meaning
out of it, or something close to it. Any relationship is not inocuous.
Getting in a relationship always transform those involved in its dynamics.
And we can't consider that it is pure invasion ideology because we are
always changing.
What I think is that the process of understanding is absolutely linked to
the process of change. We can;'t consider one without the other.
Elsa
De: Mary Bryson <brys who-is-at unixg.ubc.ca>
Para: xmca who-is-at weber.ucsd.edu <xmca@weber.ucsd.edu>
Data: Domingo, 7 de Mar=E7o de 1999 19:35
Assunto: Re: like a Jeopardy question
>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 i=
t"
>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 thin=
k.
>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 the=
re,
>and so any social science research is of necessity always already changi=
ng
>something as it envisions itslef attempting to understand it. I think th=
is
>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 tal=
k
>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, tha=
t 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
>
>http://www.educ.sfu.ca/gentech/ Research
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