To make some swooping (-swoooshhh/whoopeee!) generalizations -
noisy, in the context of middle class/Protestant America,
is okay when it's at the ball park, not in the midst of getting work
done or getting through the day - it's okay for spectators maybe,
not for participants [?] In any case, "noisy" = disruptive.
And indeed, disruption, disturbance, discomfiture, is what the
mode of entry you characterize as "noisy" is all about. It's about
not liking things the way they are and insisting on them being
different (Not always an effective strategy for change). So maybe
there is no neutral description. But maybe there's a label that is
more suited to the way the "noisy" participants are likely to
see themselves. I don't think of myself as very noisy - nosy, though -
so I'm not the right informant. My colleague described himself in
Malcolm X's terms as a "field Negro" - the kind who, when the Master's
house is burning, doesn't (as the "house Negro" does) put it out (instead,
he fans the flames). It's not a very generalizable term, eh? But the
point is that the noisy/disruptive newcomers/participants see
themselves as agents of _necessary_ change - as serving a moral
purpose not envisioned or embodied by the existing community.
The militias, I suppose, are another example of noisiness.
- Judy
>
>Judy, I called this way of community joining as "noisy, reformist" (both in
>quotation marks as labels rather than exact terms). This type is seen by
>some people as obnoxious. I called the other way of community joining as
>"quiet, peripheral." This type is seen as conformist by some people. I
>tried to find more or less neutral description that both parties (i.e.,
>people who prefer one way to another) would more or less agree (if this is
>possible). It is interesting that nobody protest against the "quiet,
>peripheral" label. Is it really good? Do you (or anybody else) have better
>terms? I'd appreciate your help (I hope to send my paper to a journal next
>month).
>>
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Judy Diamondstone diamonju who-is-at rci.rutgers.edu
Graduate School of Education Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey
10 Seminary Place New Brunswick, NJ 08903
Eternity is in love with the productions of time - Wm. Blake