Re: [xmca] Material cognition

From: Cathrene Connery <cconnery who-is-at ithaca.edu>
Date: Tue Oct 30 2007 - 17:18:07 PDT

Hi all,
Elinami's mother's assessment is interesting because the word "wit" in
English used to mean a type of knowledge "in the bones". Thanks for
broadening my world!
Cathrene
Elinami Swai wrote:
> I tend to associate tac it knowledge with implict or subjective knowledge in
> the sense that we can know about something, not through the 'accepted'
> sensory organs, but from other unaccepted organs such as 'hunch,' my mother
> would say 'blood' or 'body,' I would say our experience with the
> event/phenomenon at hand. What I see the cause for the neglect of tacit
> knowledge is our focus on Western scientific way of knowing and its
> hegemonic tendency to dis-value subjective knowledge.
>
> Elinami.
>
>
> On 10/30/07, Martin Packer <packer@duq.edu> wrote:
>
>> Once again a thread on XMCA has intersected with something I'm currently
>> working on. I'm feeling stupid, so let me just throw out a question,
>> perhaps
>> provocative, perhaps dumb. How do we reconcile the fact that tacit
>> knowledge
>> is undoubtedly important but neglected by much mainstream research (and
>> devalued in society) with the suggestion that participation in the
>> practices
>> of modern society leads to MISunderstanding how that society works (false
>> consciousness, alienation, etc.)?
>>
>> Martin
>>
>>
>>> All of these hover around my central interest, which is the often
>>>
>> unspoken
>>
>>> (sometimes called "tacit") knowledge that people working develop and
>>>
>> share
>>
>>> about how to get the work done. For example: a class which we have been
>>> asked to teach in November will take place at a plant where the workers
>>>
>> are
>>
>>> represented by the grainmillers' union. This is an old plant. Under the
>>> original management, the workers essentially ran the plant -- they had
>>>
>> the
>>
>>> knowledge and the means to run the plant efficiently and safely. Then
>>>
>> the
>>
>>> plant was sold and new management came in. This new management took an
>>> adversarial position against the union and attempted to take over
>>>
>> control of
>>
>>> the work without fully understanding how it was done (without exploring
>>>
>> the
>>
>>> social practices related to the working knowledge of the plant?). A
>>>
>> bitter,
>>
>>> non-productive culture developed. Now another new management has taken
>>>
>> over,
>>
>>> and this new management has gone to the union and together they have
>>> approached us to teach a class to the supervisors that is essentially
>>>
>> about
>>
>>> getting them to respect the working material knowledge that the workers
>>>
>> have
>>
>>> developed. "Leave us alone and we'll run the plant better than you can
>>>
>> ever
>>
>>> do it," the union is saying.
>>>
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>>
>>
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-- 
Dr. M. Cathrene Connery
Assistant Professor of Education
607.274.7382
Ithaca College
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Received on Tue Oct 30 17:29 PDT 2007

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