I really appreciate this recent turn of discussion - and will add my
tale for today which might capture some of the daily minutae that
contributes to tales of non-participation and de-legitmitation:
On Feb. 9/2000 Mary bryson wrote:
So part of me, permanently hacked by the virus of Foucault, wants to think
about the ways in which we engineer non-participation and de-legitimation.
It always strikes me that the truer stories are in those places.
kathryn's Tale
so I have just returned home to my desk, and left the academic community
(?), having read the messages of sara mary, anna and others in two
different social contexts, I have read them at an on the run computer
terminal( because I don't have an office with a computer to work in at my
university) and my home space and trying to understand how my reception
of them in these different social locations opens up some understanding of
the dynamics of the privileges and power relations buried in these terms -
participation /non-participation.
today i spoke with yet another woman my age who was quitting her doctoral
program because of her perception of the lack of promise for career
development for a 40-something woman , and a fairly realistic pragmatic
assessment about the stresses and the demands on her quint-triple shift
life ( sessional, teaching, research community- family)
we are both sharing and 'squatting" in an office this semester while a
female faculty member is on extended sick leave - we are seeing a lot of
this lately in our respective departments - education and english
the notion of participation/ non-particpation can be read quite
differently - when we dis-embedd the more tacit companion concepts of
choice/freedom / access
which supports conversations about how we are free to participate - or
not, with institutions of higher education, with xcma mail-lists, but
ignores the
material effects ( say in my friends case today) of professional access to
resource like a personal office to work in, a computer at work,
mail-boxes - non-tenured labour, mother-work, restricted mobility because
of extended family committments, 4 month sessional contracts at 10% faculty
wages, and so on.
and I ponder - what where is my COP - I accept my (de-legitimate)
peripheral participation status as a graduate student - my cop is always
proximal (here)
and when I write to xcma /delete or read other's messages - who am I
supposed to be - how will my contribution be received - and note that
often because I lack "face" in this virtual community - I frequently have
no expectations that my postings will receive more than a nod - a topic
switch and return to the real legitimate concerns of the list-serve.
perhaps we need to address the hierarchical positionings of the many
voices here - some folks have begun this work -- lately couched around
discussions of participation rates, discursive civility, hearing or not
hearing voices,
certainly as mary points out the boundary transgression of taking
possession of the barber's chair - I feel frustrated as we talk around
these issues as if they are not the salient consitutative elements always
mediating xcma participation - because it is all part of the same social
and political institutional structures that naturalize topics like
participation structures.
so ends kathryn's tale, and she lurked :-) ever-after
k.
where i >and interestingly enough, Sara, there are those of us who like it
best to
>get our hair cut in a barber shop, and yet, for me just to enter into that
>terrain is already to have mis-stepped - to have made a faux pas in that COP
>where my participation can not be anything but deviant.
>
>so what a lovely example to set us off on a worthy discussion of conditions
>of participation
>
>mary
>--
>Dr. Mary Bryson, Associate Professor, Education, UBC
>GenTech Project http://www.shecan.com
>Curriculum Vitae http://www.educ.ubc.ca/faculty/bryson/cv.html
>
>
>The child has no powers of reflection - no second-order thoughts which deal
>critically with his (sic) own thinkingŠIn contrast, the adolescent is able
>to analyze his own thinking and construct theoriesŠOf course, the girls are
>more interested in marriage, but the husband they dream of is most often
>"theoretical", and their thoughts about married life as well take on the
>characteristics of "theories".
>Jean Piaget (1958) The growth of logical thinking from childhood to
>adolescence
>
>----------
>>From: "Sara L. Hill" <sara.hill@vanderbilt.edu>
>>To: xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
>>Subject: RE: lA contribution to a discussion of practice/process
>>Date: Thu, Feb 10, 2000, 9:19 AM
>>
>
>> Dear All,
>>
>> This conversation is particularly important and interesting to me, as I have
>> been wondering about communities of practice(s) in my own research, and
>> attempting to, in a methodological sense, articulate them. What I've been
>> observing in this conversational thread is blowing me away, because the
>> discussion has provided insight into this issue of mapping and
>>territory, and
>> rules, norms, shared and divergent beliefs, etc. Perhaps a COP is
>>negotiated,
>> a process rather than a thing? Made especially visible when, at certain
>> junctures there is more than the average disagreement, conflict,
>>difference? I
>> mean, this conversation is certainly more self-conscious than the everyday
>> setting of say, the corner barbershop, I don't believe barbers don't stand
>> around and talk about communities of practice (at least, my father-in-law
>> certainly doesn't, but maybe there are conversations that barbers have
>>that I
>> haven't been privy to -- oh no, another study!). But I can imagine that
>> barbers do talk about customers, what makes a good barber or haircut, fees,
>> and a bunch of other topics related to their practice. As for my own
>>feelings
>> about participation/nonparticipation, I have to overcome a lot to get myself
>> to participate in xmca-- terror of putting my ideas out there for scrutiny,
>> dislike for such a creepily disembodied mode of expression, and strong
>>desire
>> to communicate and learn from and with people who are interested/passionate
>> about mutual subjects. I don't know what the "object" of the xmca listserve
>> is and I don't recall seeing a mission statement or the equivalent, but I'm
>> pretty clear what my object(s) are, and they're pretty wide ranging and
>> complex.
>>
>>
>>>===== Original Message From xmca@weber.ucsd.edu =====
>>>Dear xmca-ers,
>>>
>>>This morning i realised that every day - let us say - 300 xmca-ers (is that
>>>appr. the number of inactive members, Eva?) are deleting their messages
>>>without responding, including 99,99% of the occasions me. Does this idea
>>>bother me?
>>>No, it does not in the case i can follow the ungoing discussion, unless
>>>information is being exchanged about books, conferencemeetings, work and
>>>researchsituations, meetings with colleagues aboard etc. Like in a (real)
>>>group discussion the 'silent' members can be satisfied, active listeners,
>>>and so am i when i am involved (and sometimes even respond).
>>>But when i can not follow the discussion i get uninterested, thinking 'well
>>>let us hope for better times, just delete'.
>>>When does this happen? When there is too much unnecessary jargon in too
>>>long messages, too little context, too little connection with relevant
>>>'personal stories' , too little variety in the discussion.
>>>I am very willing to consider the fact of my getting uninvolved as a
>>>personal matter, due to restricted interests, difficulty with english
>>>terminology as a dutch native speaker and my reservedness to active
>>>participation. And i must say that in general i find this list very
>>>valuable and informative.
>>>But now the question is being raised of the limited participation i thought
>>>that maybe these considerations are not altogether 'personal'.
>>>I agree with Mary (if i understood you right) that it is worthwile to think
>>>about conditions in which people do _not_ participate. I just wanted to let
>>>you know under what conditions i 'drop out'.
>>>
>>>Anna
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>Mary Bryson wrote
>>>>when folks hear "communities of practice" and "conditions for
>>>participation" they
>>>>seem to forget about conditions for non-participation, the DE-legitimated
>>>>peripheral practioners.
>>>
>>>=================================================================
>>>Anna Strumphler, e-mail: W.deVries@net.HCC.nl
>>>Amsteldijk 28 tel.: (31)20-6719906
>>>1074 HT Amsterdam
>>>The Netherlands
>>
>> Vanderbilt University &
>> Partnership for After School Education
>> New York, N.Y.
>>
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