Re: Bourdieu and Self-reflexive sociology

Jay Lemke (JLLBC who-is-at CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU)
Tue, 14 Nov 95 17:58:32 EST

I greatly empathize, Angel, with the 'scary' side of self-revelation
as a necessary part of public reflexivity. If you read boldly between
the lines of my 'Ideology and me' section in the book, you will be
able to see that not every aspect of my self-portrait would raise
my esteem in the eyes of some kinds of readers. I revised this section
several times as I tried to strike a useful balance between my own
privacy and what I felt was honestly relevant to a reader's analysis
of the relation of my views to my social positioning. Our culture
is fond of the _argumentum ad hominem_ and one must be realistic
in recognizing that many readers find it only too easy to dismiss
an argument because they can find some fault with its source. Indeed
it is a very difficult intellectual matter to distinguish between
the situated or positioned nature of a viewpoint, which I believe
should be relevant to our evaluation of it, and a facile rationalization
for dismissing out of hand views we have other reasons or interests
for rejecting. Many of these issues have a 'moral' tone in the U.S.
and some other cultures. I happen to believe that even the most
evil human beings can produce great insights, that 'truth' and 'good'
are not nearly as closely linked as moral philosophers earnestly
desire them to be. But whether muslim fundamentalists or middle-class
American moralists, many believe that only those whom they consider
to be 'good' need to be paid attention in intellectual matters. They
would rather judge a life than an argument or an idea (and perhaps
they are more practiced and subtle in doing so). There are other
versions of this dilemma of the self-revealing, reflexive intellectual
in cultures where social status (e.g. age, blood-lineage, etc.)
defines who can or cannot speak with authority.

When I was a graduate student, at one point I resolved not to
complete my PhD because the empty rituals surrounding it seemed
to me so hypocritical. They were so transparently a form of social
control, and not truly a support or scaffolding for doing the best
possible research one could do in the time and with the resources
available. Several elders (not even in my department) prevailed
on me to 'pay my dues' to the System so that I would then be
socially positioned in a way that my voice could be heard. In
retrospect, that is more or less how things worked out. Of what
real relevance is my PhD in theoretical physics to most of what
I have to say, except as a sort of official Seal of Approval on
my 'intelligence' (that generic sort that I don't believe in),
or a way to impress people into giving me the benefit of the
doubt long enough to hear out what I have to say?

Nonetheless, it has been very useful in that way, and in the social
world as it is, it is a convertible sort of 'cultural capital'
(actually it operates more as 'social capital' in Bourdieu's
theory, I think). Of course it also helps me from time to time
in analyzing examples, and sometimes in appropriating interesting
ideas from other fields, or in providing insight into matters like
the teaching of science or the disparity between insider and
outsider views of the nature of science and scientific practices.

So here we all sit, exploiting the irrelevant but useful aspects of our
social positionings, and working to avoid others' exploiting
equally irrelevant but potentially vulnerable aspects of our lives.
And it is in this difficult context that we must seek to be
candidly self-reflexive about our work.

Perhaps now you can appreciate why my first efforts at this
in _Textual Politics_ were deliberately cautious and minimalist.
Making the web of connections more explicit would not only
have changed the shape of the book dramatically, but it would
represent a research study in its own right. One that I am certainly
undertaking, but do not yet know how best to integrate into
the public presentation of my work.

JAY.

JAY LEMKE.
City University of New York.
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