Re: [xmca] Collective Experience vs. Individual Experience? (Help, anyone?)

[mike cole <lchcmike@gmail.com>]

Tony- I am unclear about how your comments point to something between
individual and collective experience.

Yes, the term experience evokes misunderstandings, but have you tried
culture recently as a problem free alternative? :-)

Might temporal aspects of "an experience" play a role in the
individual:collective
distinction? Would that be an avenue to distinguishing an intermediate
process?

mike

On Mon, Sep 19, 2011 at 6:14 PM, Tony Whitson <twhitson@udel.edu> wrote:

> Thanks, Andy, that is helpful.
>
> The Dewey is posted here:
> https://tw-curricuwiki.**wikispaces.com/Dewey--culture%**2C+experience<https://tw-curricuwiki.wikispaces.com/Dewey--culture%2C+experience>
>
>
> On Tue, 20 Sep 2011, Andy Blunden wrote:
>
>  Herder, as I understand him, saw collective experience as an important
>> facet in the formation of the character of a people. I think part of the
>> problem is that "experience" has been such a contested term, Tony. Generally
>> it has been co-opted by Empiricism, which is by its nature individualist and
>> by definition the philosophy of experiene, but Dewey used the word in
>> formulating his view. But didn't he later say that he regretted using the
>> word "experience" because it led to misunderstandings? Personally, I think
>> /shared/ experience is the most powerful force in changing Zeitgeist and
>> individual mninds en masse. You have an experience, and then you find that
>> everyone else experienced the same thing and that event then becomes a
>> central focus of your collaboration with other people. What could be more
>> world-changing?
>>
>> Andy
>>
>> Tony Whitson wrote:
>>
>>> This query is prompted by a new book:
>>>
>>> Peck, Don. Pinched: How the Great Recession Has Narrowed Our Futures and
>>> What We Can Do About It. New York: Crown Pub., 2011.
>>>
>>> http://www.amazon.com/Pinched-**Great-Recession-Narrowed-**
>>> Futures/dp/0307886522<http://www.amazon.com/Pinched-Great-Recession-Narrowed-Futures/dp/0307886522>
>>> /
>>>
>>> in which the author looks more deeply into predictable ramifications of
>>> the
>>> current economic situation than I have seen in other recent work.
>>>
>>>
>>> Based on historical, sociological, and other literatures and modes of
>>> research, the author argues that what we're dealing with now is not just
>>> a
>>> wave in a recurring cycle. He predicts lasting changes that he expects to
>>> deeply impact different generational cohorts for decades to come.
>>>
>>>
>>> His argument is plausible, at least, to me. But it prompts me to wonder
>>> about experience that is really collective experience, as opposed to
>>> individual experience.
>>>
>>>
>>> Exposing my ignorance, I realize that I can't think of literature on the
>>> nature and structure of collective experience. It seems like there must
>>> be a
>>> lot; but I can't think of it. It also seems like xmca is a likely place
>>> to
>>> find people who would be interested, and would know about such literature
>>> (although it's not on-topic in the current threads).
>>>
>>>
>>> I'm thinking of my first earthquake experience last month as an example
>>> of
>>> an individual experience. It was totally unlike anything I'd ever
>>> experienced before, and it took me a few seconds to even recognize that
>>> an
>>> earthquake is what was happening (we don't have those in Delaware). I was
>>> at
>>> my desk, at home, by myself when it happened.
>>> Of course, the experience was mediated after the fact from my
>>> sociocultural
>>> awareness of earthquakes. Still, I think it was an individual experience
>>> in
>>> the moment, compared with the collective experience that Don Peck is
>>> writing
>>> about -- an experience of events and developments over time, in which the
>>> experience of others participates, throughout, in the experience of any
>>> one.
>>>
>>>
>>> I am thinking that there might be something else that could be called
>>> "shared experience," intermediate between individual and collective
>>> experience.
>>>
>>>
>>> Does this make any sense? Is this question of interest to anyone? Or am I
>>> naïvely wondering about things that have been well developed in the
>>>
>>> literature?
>>>
>>>
>>> I would be interested if anyone has ideas or references to share on this.
>>>
>>> ______________________________**____________
>>> _____
>>> xmca mailing list
>>> xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
>>> http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/**listinfo/xmca<http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>> --
>> ------------------------------**------------------------------**
>> ------------
>> *Andy Blunden*
>> Joint Editor MCA: http://www.informaworld.com/**
>> smpp/title~db=all~content=**g932564744<http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/title%7Edb=all%7Econtent=g932564744>
>> Home Page: http://home.mira.net/~andy/
>> Book: http://www.brill.nl/default.**aspx?partid=227&pid=34857<http://www.brill.nl/default.aspx?partid=227&pid=34857>
>>
>> ______________________________**____________
>> _____
>> xmca mailing list
>> xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
>> http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/**listinfo/xmca<http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca>
>>
>>
> Tony Whitson
> UD School of Education
> NEWARK  DE  19716
>
> twhitson@udel.edu
> ______________________________**_
>
> "those who fail to reread
>  are obliged to read the same story everywhere"
>                  -- Roland Barthes, S/Z (1970)
> __________________________________________
> _____
> xmca mailing list
> xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
> http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca
>
>
__________________________________________
_____
xmca mailing list
xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca