Knowledging across life’s curriculum

Quantifacts

Reading across the web, gleaning information and surfing on various waves of information, you come across snippets of information that ring true, invite reflection, but are not necessarily connected t…

blog(re)jects

Update: A few problems with the pictures. Now they should be more stable. And change of title, shorter yet telling.

After such serious debates about objects as credible participants in conversation and the importance of an internet of things; I could not help but hear a different type of conversation from all those “things” that litter our world. Can you smell the storyline?
Here is a satirical visual take on the subject
Excerpt from Julian Bleecker’s Why Things Matter (All in good fun Julian )

Blogjects: Some Characteristics
Blogjects have some rudimentary characteristics, [...] Here are three peculiarities of Blogjects:

✦ Blogjects track and trace where they are and where they’ve been;

✦ Blogjects have self-contained (embedded) histories of their encounters and experiences

✦ Blogjects always have some form of agency — they can foment [ferment] action and participate; they have an assertive voice within the [ecological] social web.

Julian Bleecker further adds about the pigeon that blogs (a pigeon equipped with a device that retransmits flight path and polution levels):

Whereas once the pigeon was an urban varmint whose value as a participant in the larger social collective was practically nil or worse,the Pigeon that Blogs now attains first-class citizen status. Their importance quickly shifts from common nuisance and a disgusting menace, to a participant in life and death discussions.

Perhaps we should equip our disposable consumer objects with some sort of tracing device to elevate our mountains of garbage to useful status. However i think they “blog” loud and clear without. Another option would be to use objects to track and report on delinquent citizen activity!

Identifying what is worth tracing and who does the collecting is another matter all together. Isn’t this already happening?…remember big brother; so many cameras everywhere!

YES THINGS DO MATTER they tell trace stories in more ways than one!
Why aren’t we listening?

The praise that hurts

This older blog entry (April 2005…yes older!) titled: Parents and Over Zealous Educators Hurt Kids In Effort To Promote Self-Esteem; By Sharon Jayson - USA TODAY is an interesting read for anyone who has wondered about the consequences of empty praise and the cult of self-esteem in our educational tool kits.

It identifies an entire generation of youth who have failed to measure their skills and capabilities against realistic scales. As a consequence, there is bitter dissapointment and dissilusionnement in higher education (how they got there in the first place says something about our system!) OR end up with an inflated sense of self, faulting teachers for their erroneous ‘opinions’.

The undergraduates she teaches tend to have an inflated sense of self. “When you correct writing, they’ll say, ‘It’s just your opinion,’ which is infuriating. Bad grammar and spelling and sentences being wrong is not my opinion, it’s just bad writing,” she says.

From the employment side of things, entitlement seems rampant.

But employers such as Sobel, director of recruitment for an entertainment firm, aren’t so sure. “One of the things the managers talked about is an incredible sense of entitlement for people who don’t deserve it,” she says. “They’ll come in right out of college and don’t understand why they’re not getting promoted in three months.”

But worst on the mental health side of things, they end up overly sensitive to criticism.

Sam Goldstein, a neuropsychologist at the University of Utah, likened some students to bubbles — on the surface they seem secure and happy, yet with the least adversity they burst.

On the side of reasearch you can read:

But his [Roy Baumeister, a psychology professor at Florida State University in Tallahassee] lengthy review of 18,000 articles, published in Psychological Science in the Public Interest, ended with the realization that only two clear benefits emerge from high self-esteem: enhanced initiative, which boosts confidence, and increased happiness. “There is not nearly as much benefit as we hoped,” he says. “It’s been one of the biggest disappointments of my career.”

I’ve never been a proponent of praise for praise sake. To me it is playing with people’s minds, compromizing trust and setting them up for a harsh wake up call in the real world. In my (occasional) work with teenage delinquent boys and girls, the sense of entitlement is rampant. It is hard for many to recognize any authority. The language or behavior is one of rights, not care. Of others who are there for their need, at their service. They are not learning from mistakes when trust in adults is absent.

At times I can’t really blame them because we let them down when we shirk our responsibilities of realistic guidance to navigate a very complex and competitive world. Thicker skins will be needed!

ADDED March 9th, 2006 

There is a bigger picture to this story and our appraisal of it. One of social fit, of ethnic realities, poverty, single parent families in a system that has one measure to “social fitness”:  the individual. Disconnected from the larger context,  individuals are faulted or diagnosed as ’sick’ or ill fitting.  This is why I believe critical psychology and psychiatry are sorely needed to broaden what informs the multifaceted realities of individuals who come against our social institutions.

Expanding conceptual territories

“As an anthropologist, part of the great value I see in the study of “Indigenous Psychologies” (Indigenous Psychologies the Anthropology of the Self (Language, thought, and culture)) is that they help a person get outside the “grid” of the secular, normative, middle class frames of everyday reality to see other ways of being and knowing beyond the comfort zones of everyday middle class experience.” (Panshiva)

I couldn’t find who Panshiva was for sure but he echoes the same beliefs I have about restrictive mental health views in our ‘modern’ medical world. Medical anthropologists and ethno-medicine have much to say to expand our thinking and should be standard read for medical students. Unfortunately this cross pollination is still very rare.

An eye opening book which had nothing to do with the standard read of a practicing psychotherapist was perhaps: Suzanne Kelman’s (1998) “A cultural History of Family life”. The book which I found when perusing the bargain bin when waiting for the metro a few years back, is a very interesting comparative analysis of family related themes done by a journalist. Notions of love and loss; child rearing; the place of fathers; what happy families mean; church hegemony in families; etc. are contrasted to other cultures, providing a wider conceptual territory to think from. I found that my restricted model of family expanded after this read. A positive consequence I would say.

I wonder what a cross-cultural take on education–one that is not completely contaminated by western models, would have to say about pedagogy, prioritization of contents and useful technologies? A quick google search with ethno-education as key word turned up the following. An ethno-educational approach sees empowerment and focus on indigenous knowledge in developing countries as alternatives. Unfortunately:

The development paradigm based on the Western epistemology and value system is, however, still embedded in the development world and follows ‘the prescriptions laid down for them ['underdeveloped' countries] by those already ‘developed’ (Escobar 1992a: 411).

I could not find the reverse relationship of learning from others (I did see a project in ethno-medicine and ethno-botany though). I’ve always found comparative analyses important in understanding difference. This to me is learning that humbles and opens to the knowledge of others, widening our conceptual territories to embrace other ways of doing and seeing the world. I guess I’m conceptually claustrophobic, when it comes to our western ways. I’ve always worried when too much power is concentrated in the same hands. Give me my own generator and cook top, alternatives to the restaurant and supermarket please!

Rose colored news (a blog)

After discussing rather depressing state of affairs in a number of social and environmental issues it is nice to come across ‘happy news’. Rose colored news is such a blog.

• Oil free economies
• Debt cancellation
• Green affordable housing
• Troops withdrawn from war zones
• etc

When dads want to be there

In the last few weeks colleagues of my AiT egroup and I visited a number of social issues we felt strongly about. We debated if therapists could show their political and social colors exploring the ways in which this could be done outside the therapeutic office or studio as a way of taking a stand. Depending on your theoretical allegiance restraint runs the gamut from totally prohibited (leave no trace of your humanity in view), to the rarer political engagement transparency. We settled on a digital art show that would reflect on issues colleagues come across in therapeutic work.  I will keep you posted on the developments.
The range of issues we touched on were the oil crisis and global warming; artistic displays of eating disorders (women) vs Athlete warrior art (men); the tyranny of labels; consumerism or affluenza; Americanization of non-western cultures; disempowered youth who no longer know how to care for themselves (cook, build simple tools and shelter, grow basics etc).

One that wasn’t discussed but has lately attracted my attention is the situation fathers face regarding procreation and child care and the differences for males and females. I’ve been reading Thomas Lynch (2000) “Bodies in motion and at rest: on metaphor and mortality” which is a collection of essays on living and dying. The book attracted my attention in the Concordia book store window, and seemed fitting as a response to my recent loss. I walked in and bought it.
One such essay titled ‘Wombs’ reviews the rights and responsibilities his daughters and sons are afforded by the laws that govern maternity and paternity. He says:

A pregnancy that results from bilateral consent is legally undone by unilateral choice. [...] As it stands now, paternity, once determined, means fiscal responsibility for eighteen years according to law. There is currently, for my sons, no choice in the matter. If one of them impregnates a woman and the woman chooses to have the child, she has a legal claim aginst the income of the father. He may, of course, refuse to pay, refuse his paternity, in which case he would be a “deadbeat dad”, or some other media-made word for “no good”. [...] Is it the species or the gender that reproduces? Aren’t pregnancy and parenting human issues? I know they were when my sons and daugher were “expected.” Their mother was “expecting.” And so was I. And while a woman’s body is certainly involved in her maternity, a man is involved in his paternity. [...] Is Choice good for one and all or only one and half of the population? (pp.70-71, 73).

Thomas Lynch recognizes the importance of choice and the important of preserving rights to a say for women. What he is adding to the picture is who is left out, who has lost a say in the matter. I’ve come across a blog that goes by the name Pirate Papa It is a space for dads to tell their side of the story. There are painful stories there, and some eye openers. The writing is honest but also raw and unpolished such as this entry where the father explains how wanting to be involved runs counter to the stereotype that dads want nothing to do with their children once separated.

guess as a “single” pappa your just shuffled into that knuckle dragging girlfriend beating deadbeat dad sterio type. When faced with odds favored toward the mamma in every single court case regardless of the situation I can understand why some pappa’s would feel unwanted altogather. Give’em an invoice and show’em the door.

In Quebec there is a strong men’s movement which has generated a new type of “victim discourse” in the person of the estranged father (a strong tendency in Canada–read Michael Ignatieff (2000) The Rights revolution). This is a counter-feminist movement called ‘masculinist movement”. For a brief history of the movement that originated in the US, see ARTE’s concise introduction (in french). Their fight is about social equality in matters of child and family rights.

L’apres rupture (after separation) provides assistance in child care matters to men. There are numerous international links to “dad related rights news”.

To counter the counter movement men against patriarchy are pro-feminist, recognize the social benefits men are born into and the inequalities women still face in today’s society. They are against sexism in all social matters. ARTE also documents the origins of shared child custody which according to research is linked to fathers who lobbyed for changes in the law in order to temper the economic burden of child custody paiements.

Au Québec, les sociologues observent que c’est à l’occasion du relèvement du barème des pensions alimentaires que les associations de défenses des droits des pères sont intervenues pour réclamer des modifications à la loi sur le divorce.

ARTE aired a 3 or 4 part documentary on this subject, which unfortunately I missed. I heard positive comments from various sources. The final part of this documentary interviews children stuck in this shared living arrangement and conclude with a question: who does it benefit the parents or the children? many children were saying they did not want either parent to feel unloved and so accepted to live 1 week with mom and one with dad. Child therapists are finding this state of affairs detrimental to the health of children.

[L]es tous petits arrachés à leur mère et placés dans une alternance qu’ils ne peuvent comprendre faute d’une perception suffisante du temps, développent de symptômes sévères. Insécurité, angoisses d’abandon, mènent l’enfant qui ne supporte plus l’éloignement de sa mère à demander un contact visuel permanent avec elle ; les bébés tombent dans un état dépressif avec un regard vide pendant plusieurs heures, ont des troubles du sommeil, font de l’eczéma. Ils développent finalement une agressivité à l’égard de la mère, considérée comme responsable de la séparation, pour finir par perdre confiance dans les adultes, en particulier dans le père, dont la seule vision déclenche une réaction de refus…

In Canada they link problematic child care issues with increased mental health problems and depression in men. Health Canada has this page on the joys and developmental benefits of a father’s presence with his child. A causal interpretation could reveal other links than child separation pains!
Who is on trial here? When the social fabric of a society is weaved according to 2 parent families, social supports for alternative models are not there. Everyone loses when the initial set up (family plan) breaks down. Inevitable losses are of varying degrees and depend on making arrangements that are child centered in case of breakups. I’ve known couples who separated and moved two houses down where children could come and go to the parent and location of their choice. Instead of losing they gained two families when new partners came into the picture. Why? because the parents continued to see their children as central and continued to dialogue as supportive adults in a shared project (the well being of their children).

But in my work too many children in social service care are children with absent fathers. The burden of single parenting in a world where extended families are distant or inexistant, where communities are no longer mindful of their neighbors puts too much burden on the shoulders of a single individual. Tuning out and giving up when more presence and guidance is needed can be a survival tactic for a parent who has difficulty coping with the demands of life, work and child rearing.

There is no easy solution to such a complex problem. I feel for both : fathers who are struggling with skewed laws a consequence of past histories; and mother’s who are left fending for themselves. This is a social problem, a large one. So when I read that Jeremy Price wants to take a break from his Smelley Knowledge blog to give time to his son, I say Jeremy you have your priorities straight.

A case of object-centered protest

“The 12 cartoons, first published last September by the conservative Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, have caused an uproar in the Muslim world and drawn a new cultural battle over freedom of speech and religious tolerance.  Incensed Muslims have demonstrated against Danes and other Europeans, burnt Danish flags and boycotted the country’s products. Danish ambassadors have been recalled and Westerners in Muslim countries threatened. The Danish Front, in a statement ahead of its own demonstration, said it was acting to protest against “the lenience by the Danish elite in the face of recent attacks by Muslims against our country and our flag.” [TurkishPress.com]

See the detailed entry in Wikipedia and the Timeline of events.

Karin Knorr Cetina’s object centered sociality speaks of identity feelings with objects, an elicited moral sense (1997, p.20)* but she does not elaborate on confrontational collisions around objects. Instead she speaks of objects as ’rapprochement’.  

It seems a better analytic tool would be provided by Actor Network theory who see ’controversies’ as binding forces between “actants” (objects and people). The back and forth processes lead to ’translations’ or the metaphors that organize discursive activity. The themes emerge from this coming together of stakeholders around a shared ‘object” which meaning is not shared but debated. The ripple effects of this ‘cartoon’ controversy are now mobilizing many actors across national boundaries around an object that has become a derogatory icon for some, and a beacon of free speech for others. Politically charged matters. I wonder what type of learning (or trauma) will come out of this shared object debate?

* Knorr-Cetina, K. (1997) Sociality with objects: social relations in postsocial knowledge societies. Theory, Culture & Society, 14(4): 1-30.