[xmca] social history ex: Knotworking (ex: Double stimulation?)

[Andy Blunden <ablunden@mira.net>]

I need to find the time to read this social history of Finland, and I 
will say something about that.

"Structuralism" reflects of course an aspect of the reality of modern 
life: things go according to deep processes beyond the influence of any 
individual; great institutions such as the market, the political system, 
nation-states, cultural norms like patriarchy dominate our lives almost 
as laws of nature. But I do not think a theory based on this aspect of 
the world and our place in it helps us understand or change it. I prefer 
the Romantic Science which sees the history of science as part of 
science itself (to quote Goethe), for whom human subjectivity is the 
uncontrollable, living engine which shapes the world. The figures you 
mention (Marx, Touraine, for example) are not in my view strucuralists; 
Bourdieu is I think also open to different readings.

But I will read this article about social movements in Finland. It looks 
very interesting!
Andy

Rauno Huttunen wrote:
> Hello,
>
> You can ask this from Martti Siisiäinen. He is also a scolar of Niklas Luhmann's system theory (and Marx, Bourdieu, Touraine, Althusser etc.). Martti was my supervisor when I made my master thesis on sociology.
>
> His mail is: 
> martti.siisiainen@jyu.fi
>
> Rauno
>
> So for example, I don't think it is appropriate to conceive the social
> movements, voluntary associations, protests, political conflicts and
> alliances of 20th century Finland as "systems" or "institutions." They
> are projects, projects which constructed modern Finland, and which
> indeed, one day, become "systems", but never irreversibly. The
> institutions which are the products of social movements, protests, and
> so on (projects) are never irreversibly reified as "fields" or "figured
> worlds" or "pratico-inerts" or "structures" or any of the other
> renderings of the social fabric as composed of dead and lacking in
> teleological content.
>
> Andy
>
> Rauno Huttunen wrote:
>   
> > Hello,
> >
> > Similar things happened in Finland too. See article by professor Martti Siisiäinen: Social Movements, Voluntary Associations and Cycles of Protest in Finland 1905-91 (Scandinavian Political Studies, Bind 15, 1992).
> >
> > https://tidsskrift.dk/index.php/scandinavian_political_studies/article/view/13149/25059
> >
> > Rauno
> >
> > ________________________________________
> > Lähettäjä: xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu [xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu] käyttäjän Andy Blunden [ablunden@mira.net] puolesta
> > Lähetetty: 26. kesäkuuta 2013 3:30
> > Kopio: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
> > Aihe: Re: [xmca] Re: Knotworking (ex: Double stimulation?)
> >
> > But to make a distinction is not necessarily to set up a dichotomy.
> >
> > In Australian social history the appearance of voluntary associations n
> > the 19th century (mostly trade union-type organisations, but also sports
> > and recreation, mutual-aid of various kinds, and later political parties
> > and groups) was a significant development, which meant people regularly
> > travelling long distances to stitch together the fabric of the emerging
> > nation. In the US, the parallel role was played, I believe, to a great
> > extent, also by Protestant sects, who pioneered the building of new
> > bonds of sociability and trust across great distances.
> >
> > These New World projects constructed a new kind of civil society and the
> > basis for modernity. According to Hegel for example, modernity is
> > characterised by the eclipse of family as the chief bond and political
> > force in a state, by voluntary associations, such as professional
> > associations or regional community organisations, where people of
> > differing traditions construct new modern conditions of collaboration.
> > But of course, the family and the state both remain in place!
> >
> > Andy
> >
> >     


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