reflexivity

From: Judy Diamondstone (diamonju@rci.rutgers.edu)
Date: Fri Mar 10 2000 - 18:43:52 PST


Nate scrobe (of Foucault):
A brand of critique or reflexivity in which it is
>the academic's practice that is the object of critique.
 
Nate, I can see how Foucault introduces reflexivity into academic projects,
but I've been thinking about the limits of reflexivity, and Foucault
accommodates this perspective too.
I've been thinking about CHAT, Friere, psychoanalysis - the whole modernist
project of forward motion, the role of the text in forwarding it, and how
terribly important the fantasy is. (Fantasy because progress is illusory
with respect to anything other than our dependence on technology, which is
more like a runaway system than a carefully plotted course.) But there are
limits on what the fantasy affords; outside those limits it could become
real pathology. Bateson pointed out how short the arc of consciousness is
and how deadly conscious purpose can be for the overall ecology it's
embedded in/ dependent on. So I've been thinking about the limits of
reflexivity, ever since Eugene put up his voting booth, and how play might
come into play at the limits of reflexivity.....

For a moment, I wanted a meta systemic reflexive instrument that would
monitor the limits of reflexivity so play would kick in in time (ha ha, to
cite someone else on the list).... A better trope perhaps would be double
vision. We have to sustain double vision, to take ourselves not too
seriously while not losing any seriousness of purpose in our projects.

what do others think?

Judy

Judith Diamondstone (732) 932-7496 Ext. 352
Graduate School of Education
Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey
10 Seminary Place
New Brunswick, NJ 08901-1183



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