Re: [xmca] Gary Alan Fine's Tiny Publics

[Larry Purss <lpscholar2@gmail.com>]

Greg,
I have  read the article by Gary Fine and Brooke Harrington which I posted
because the meso level of social structure [between the individual and the
state] is a form of mediation which I previously explored in my quest many
years ago to understand the yearnings and formations of *intentional
communities*  These communities were historically,  referred to as utopian
communities. British Columbia, over the past century, was a place where
many intentional communities flourished.

While reading Fine's article I kept wondering about the way Fine &
Harrington were constructing their *object* of *small groups* in such
general terms. I found myself wondering about the being of this particular
object  within the realm of temporality.
I'm not sure if I'm uneasy about the entire *tradition* of this line of
sociology and its objects or is it merely this article's level of
generality and this particular article's objects? The concept *Small
groups* as the central object described [as *a social cartography* within a
social space, page 349]  seems to express merely synchronic
descriptions and leaves unsaid the temporality of this sociological object.

 In my recollection of reading Robert Nesbit's sociological narratives of
*intermediate community* I remember a much deeper appreciation of the
temporality of the object of *intermediate community*.  In particular,  the
book he wrote titled *Quest For Community* explored the yearning and desire
for community as a central theme within the tradition of sociology as a
discourse.

I'm left feeling ambivalent reading Fine's article, as the topic of *small
groups* as a general object of inquiry seems  to offer potential to further
understanding  BUT the synchonic images & metaphors such as the term
*social cartography* seems to leave unsaid the dynamic temporality of this
particular sociological object.

Larry


I

On Thu, May 10, 2012 at 10:29 AM, Greg Thompson
<greg.a.thompson@gmail.com>wrote:

> This book has gotten some interest here locally at the lab and I thought it
> might be of interest more widely (with a "strong recommend" for Andy).
>
>
> http://www.amazon.com/Tiny-Publics-Sociological-Associations-Sociology/dp/0871544326/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_1
>
> It is Gary Alan Fine's new book Tiny Publics and in it he argues for the
> importance of paying attention to meso- level organization (and even seems
> to argue that this is the most "consequential" level of social life - small
> (tiny!) though it may be).
>
> -greg
>
> --
> Gregory A. Thompson, Ph.D.
> Sanford I. Berman Post-Doctoral Scholar
> Laboratory of Comparative Human Cognition
> Department of Communication
> University of California, San Diego
> http://ucsd.academia.edu/GregoryThompson
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