Re: [xmca] Re: Knotworking (ex: Double stimulation?)

[Greg Thompson <greg.a.thompson@gmail.com>]

Andy,
So would you say that "kinship" implicates projects (or that it IS a
project)?
Or that "projects" instantiate kinship (i.e. they are the basis for
kinship)?
Or both?
Or neither?
-greg



On Fri, Jun 21, 2013 at 5:50 PM, Andy Blunden <ablunden@mira.net> wrote:

> I most certainly appreciate this use of the concept of "project", Greg.
> This is one of the main lines of enquiry opened up by the concept of
> "project", as a foundational concept for *social theory*: the myriad ways
> in which different projects - form alliances, subsume one another,
> "colonise" other projects, enter into relations of mutual exchange or
> cooperation-while-remaining-**independent (hiring each other or buying
> and selling each others' products), or collaborate normatively with one
> another, generate new, mutually meaningful objects or ideals, enter into
> mortal conflict or merge with one another, etc. In fact, as "project" is
> intended as a *unit* of human social life (as well as a fruitful concept
> for psychology), it is precisely this "algebra" of contcatination, or
> "knotworking" if you will, which is opened up by taking the project as a
> unit rather than a system concept.
>
> Andy
>
>
> Greg Thompson wrote:
>
>> Antti,
>>
>> I see that in the case described (of the librarians), the concept of
>> "knotworking" is a largely intentional (although not always controllable)
>> concept.
>>
>> But I also see in Engestrom's earlier piece, When the Center Does Not
>> Hold,
>> that knotworking is used as an etic concept, that is a concept used by him
>> and his colleagues to describe what people are doing. As such, it seems
>> like this kind of knot-working is somewhat less intentional or - maybe
>> better - less explicit. It is something that people are doing without
>> knowing it (to paraphrase Marx via Zizek).
>>
>> Both usages of knotworking seem very productive and useful.
>>
>> With regard to knotworking, I would like to suggest other, more
>> traditional
>> forms of knotworking, such as kinship and gift-giving. The practices that
>> surround kinship and gift-giving are crucial for imbricating persons with
>> each others projects (to use Andy's concept in a way that he might or
>> might
>> not appreciate...).
>>
>> And, of course, despite our thoughts to the contrary, kinship and
>> gift-giving still play an important role in the here and now of hospitals
>> and libraries.
>>
>> -greg
>>
>>
>> On Fri, Jun 14, 2013 at 2:44 PM, Antti Rajala <ajrajala@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>
>
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-- 
Gregory A. Thompson, Ph.D.
Visiting Assistant Professor
Department of Anthropology
883 Spencer W. Kimball Tower
Brigham Young University
Provo, UT 84602
http://byu.academia.edu/GregoryThompson
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