Questions to consider
Bailey, G., & Gayle, N.A. (2003). Ideology: Structuring Identities in Contemporary Life. Peterborough, Ontario: Broadview Press [pp. 1-68].
1. What is ideology? Why do we care?
2. Why is Marxist thought so directly linked to our study of ideology?
3. How would you define the internalized ideology of the U.S.? What representations illustrate that ideology?
4. How do ideological representations, “mystify social reality?” (60)
5. What role does public education play in socialization?
6. How does a more complex understanding of ideology influence our study of subcultures?
Key concepts to understand
· Public sector versus private sector (Dave)
· Civil Society (Dave)
· “defective individuals” versus “faulty structures” (Chris)
· Sociological imagination (Chris)
· Dialectical Materialism (Lei)
· Hegelian Dialectic (Lei)
· Protestant work ethic (Christina)
· Political spectrum (socialism, liberalism, neo-liberalism, conservatism) (Christina)
· Free market (Kristy)
· Social Darwinism (Kristy)
· Marx and Engels’ understanding of ideology as “false consciousness” (Buffy)
· Representations (Buffy)
· Contextualization (Heather)
· Post-modernism (as conceptualization and as style) (Heather)
· Socialization (Kent)
· Identity politics (Kent)
· Current contradiction between cultural diversity and monoculturalism (Rich)
· Significant others and generalized other (Rich)
· Socializing agents (Valerie)
· Hegemony (Valerie)
· Reification (Pete)
· Plausibility and legitimacy (Pete)
Class Facilitation
Ideology: Exploring various definitions
- Lei: Brief overview of Marxism, including the Hegelian Dialectic and Dialectical Materialism
- Christina: Brief overview of Protestant ethic and political spectrum
- What is the embedded ideology of the U.S.?
- Understanding “Other” ideologies: Interview with Lei
Contemporary Chinese ideology contrasted to U.S. ideology
History of Chinese student movements
Chinese students in the U.S.
Understanding Chinese international students as a subculture - Other international student subcultures
“Learning Curves,” YouTube Clip
Open discussion of articles
- Rahim, A. (2007). A Muslim citizen of the democratic west. In A. Garrod & R. Kilkenny (Eds.), Balancing two worlds (pp. 137-149). Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
- Hirashima, F. (2007). Balancing the hyphen. In A. Garrod & R. Kilkenny (Eds.), Balancing two worlds (pp. 90-107). Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
- Saldivar, M. (2007). Was it worth it? In Mi vos, mi vida: Latino college students tell their life stories (pp. 89-102). Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Social Darwinism: Spencer's social application of Darwinism; the idea of survival of the fittest as applied to people rather than plants/animals is the core philosphical & economic perspective of neo-liberalism (neo-conservatism). In times of social struggle the "fitter" will survive, ignores structural features that advantage and disadvantage different groups. More money (bigger reward) goest to those who take bigger risks). Competition is the driving force of social & economic conditions and change. Calls for deregulation & privatization (downsize, deregulate & decentralize). People win/lose; fail/have success based on initiative & energy = ideology of individualism.
ReplyDeleteFree Market: The political/economic doctrine that advocates the state to stay clear of the market to allow the enterprising efforts of business to function unhindered. It is a mystifying perspective in that its so-called desire for purity seems to cloud the reality of economic relationships in society. Neo-conservative or neo-liberal perspective.
Protestant Ethic:
ReplyDeleteA Psalm of Life
Tell me not, in mournful numbers,
Life is but an empty dream!
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.
Life is real! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal;
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.
Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
Is our destined end or way;
But to act, that each to-morrow
Find us farther than to-day.
Art is long, and Time is fleeting,
And our hearts, though stout and brave,
Still, like muffled drums, are beating
Funeral marches to the grave.
In the world's broad field of battle,
In the bivouac of Life,
Be not like dumb, driven cattle!
Be a hero in the strife!
Trust no Future, howe'er pleasant!
Let the dead Past bury its dead!
Act,--act in the living Present!
Heart within, and God o'erhead!
Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time;
Footprints, that perhaps another,
Sailing o'er life's solemn main,
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
Seeing, shall take heart again.
Let us, then, be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.
Longfellow
Per Buffy
ReplyDeleteFalse consciousness: The result of hegemony, essentially, though Marx & Engels don’t use the word hegemony. They do say, however, that ideological knowledge (as opposed to scientific knowledge) is NOT valid because it is based on abstractions and generalizations, as opposed to individual lived experiences. They discuss this idea in the text The German Ideology, and present examples of ways that the dominant society tricks the working class into buying into this false consciousness – a set of ideas that are formulated by the ruling class, attributed to academics, and made out to be normative, when false consciousness actually keeps the people in check while serving the ideals of the elite.
Representation: sounds pretty benign at first. To represent something is to depict or symbolize something – in our minds, as opposed to symbolizing with a specific image. Representation in this context is more about having an impression of something. The danger, as Marx & Engels describe it, is in the assumptions made by that symbolism, by that impression, which leads to all sorts of MISrepresentation, including racism.
The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism
ReplyDeleteWeber, Max, 1976 The Protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism / Max Weber ; translated by Talcott Parsons ; introd. by Anthony Giddens Allen & Unwin, London.
“. . . this ethic, the earning of more and more money, combined with the strict avoidance of all spontaneous enjoyment of life, is above all completely devoid of any eudæmonistic, not to say hedonistic, admixture. It is thought of so purely as an end in itself, that from the point of view of the happiness of, or utility to, the single individual, it appears entirely transcendental and absolutely irrational. Man is dominated by the making of money, by acquisition as the ultimate purpose of his life. Economic acquisition is no longer subordinated to man as the means for the satisfaction of his material needs.” (Weber, 1976, p. 53)
“But at least one thing was unquestionably new: the valuation of the fulfilment of duty in worldly affairs as the highest form which the moral activity of the individual could assume. This it was which inevitably gave every-day worldly activity a religious significance, and which first created the conception of a calling in this sense. The conception of the calling thus brings out that central dogma of all Protestant denominations . . . The only way of living life acceptably to God was not to surpass worldly morality in monastic asceticism, but solely through the fulfilment of the obligations imposed upon the individual by his poisition in the world. That was his calling.” (Weber, 1976, p. 80)
“. . . asceticism looked upon the pursuit of wealth as an end in itself as highly reprehensible; but the attainment of it as a fruit of labour in a calling was a sign of God’s blessing. And even more important: the religious valuation of restless, continuous, systematic work in a worldly calling, as the highest means to asceticism, and at the same time the surest and most evident proof of rebirth and genuine faith, must have been the most powerful conceivable lever for the expansion of that attitutde toward life which we have here called the spirit of capitalism.” (Weber, 1976, p. 172)