Re: development: loss, destruction, transformation

From: Yrjö Engeström (yrjo.engestrom@helsinki.fi)
Date: Wed Mar 30 2005 - 01:55:15 PST


Dear Dorie, that is an interesting example. Coincidence: I am starting
a new project on 'wildfire activities' among humans. One central case
will be birding. The is something in the object (birds) that is all but
impossible to contain by commercial forces. I call such objects
'runaway objects'.

Yrjö

Dorie Evensen kirjoittaa keskiviikkona, 30. maaliskuuta 2005, kello
00:23:

> While waiting for Yrjo's reply I wonder if this is relevant. I just
> heard a tidbit of Terry Gross' Fresh Air on NPR. She was talking to
> people who study the songs of birds (wrens, I think it was) - anyway,
> one spoke about studying birds in their natural environment to find if
> their travels (break aways?) affected their songs. The very young
> bird did something like a wild imitation of the father's (evidently,
> mothers don't sing) highly stylized song - but when the young (male)
> flew the home coup (usually traveling about a mile), his song took on
> the characteristics (and the refinements) of the birds in his
> neighborhood - after all, that was the territory he was wanting to
> make his mark in. His learning was definitely outside-in and
> definitely breaking away from what he was raised on (purposeful? - ok,
> I'm pushing it here).
> Dorie Evensen
>
>
>
> At 04:37 PM 3/29/2005, you wrote:
>> Nice to have you back, Mary.
>> Seems like we need to Yrjo's paper in front of everyone if we are
>> going to make progress
>> on this topic.
>>
>> Yrjo-- At the end of one of my notes on this topic I said that it
>> would be good to have
>> various people who took a "breaking away perspective" give examples.
>> What are your
>> favorite examples? Do you have a pdf version of the paper we can use
>> for dicussion?
>> mike
>>
>>
>> On Tue, 29 Mar 2005 09:39:44 -0800, Mary Bryson <mary.bryson@ubc.ca>
>> wrote:
>> > On 3/28/05 3:30 PM, "Mike Cole" <lchcmike@gmail.com> wrote:
>> >
>> > > but if your kid did not learn to add or read, you might get
>> unhappy. :-)
>> >
>> > OK, time for me to chime in here... I was a participant in a
>> day-long
>> > participatory conference <Beyond Postmodernism> some time ago <it
>> was
>> > actually a Postmodernism Bashing carnival> and the whole group was
>> > discussing the enormous significance of a scientific model for
>> "learning to
>> > read" <back to, postmodernism bashing> and so I instigated a "break
>> away"
>> > discursive intervention --
>> > I suggested that the discussion on "learning" might more fruitfully
>> <ha ha>
>> > intersect with some of the problematics of postmodernisms if
>> instead of
>> > "learning to read" we were to discuss "learning to be queer" and
>> how that
>> > might be facilitated and nurtured in educational contexts.
>> >
>> > Oops
>> >
>> > Oh dear
>> >
>> > Talk about the abject -- yes, well --- someone tried being nice and
>> said
>> > something like, "Don't you think it is partly genetic?" and then
>> they all
>> > went back to talking about "learning to read".
>> >
>> > Taking a genealogical approach to tracing the historical production
>> of
>> > "learning" there is so much that is pre-figured if the object of
>> analysis is
>> > the repetition of an act where we assume consensus --- "learning to
>> read"
>> > --- an activity that, in school, surely, is one of the means for the
>> > production of a subjugated and disciplined body --- a tame
>> ventriloquist. I
>> > would argue that if the "break away" is what we want to understand
>> then it
>> > would be very useful to study the "ones that got away" -- the
>> contexts and
>> > practices that produce diss-identification with culture's normative
>> > trajectory.
>> >
>> > Nice to be back,
>> >
>> > Mary
>> >
>> >
>



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