Chapter 3- Textbook Flashcards
1
Q
What does Western Marxism refer to?
A
More independent and critical forms of Marxism than those practised by th more dogmatic Soviet and Chinese regimes
2
Q
What did Gramsci accept about Marx’s analysis and what did he diverge from?
A
the struggle between he ruling class and the subordinate working class, but he divergent from Marx in his analysis of how the ruling class ruled.
3
Q
How does Gramsci believe the ruling class ruled that Marx didn’t state?
A
subtle yet insidious ideological control and manipulation
4
Q
What is hegemony?
A
domination through ideological control and consent
5
Q
What are Gramsci’s two different forms of political control?
A
domination and hegemony
6
Q
What is domination?
A
the direct physical and violent coercion exerted by the police and the military to maintain social boundaries and enforce social rules
7
Q
What does ideological control mean?
A
That a society’s dominant ideas reflect the interests of the ruling class and help to mask social inequalities
8
Q
What involves consent?
A
hegemony
-a regime must have the allegiance of the masses
9
Q
How does the hegemony of the dominant groups’s ideas and cultural forms work?
A
By bringing about the consent of the subordinate class
10
Q
What did Gramsci separate the superstructure into?
A
the state (coercive institutions such as the police, military, government, and system of laws) and civil society (schools, media, religion, trade unions, and cultural associations)
11
Q
What did Gramsci focus on with the superstructure in the role it plays in establishing hegemony? Why?
A
Civil society because through these institutions the population internalizes the ruling class’ ideas and cultural forms, which then become accepted as common sense.
12
Q
What kind of a process is hegemony?
A
A process that is constantly negotiated and renegotiated. Hegemony is not static, the ruling class cannot take it for granted.
13
Q
Why can’t the ruling class take hegemony for granted/
A
Because the consent secured is active consent, it is not static.
14
Q
What is at the core of all feminist theories?
A
concern for gender oppression
15
Q
What was much of the focus of early feminist theorists directed at?
A
the issue of equality, both social and political, between men and women
16
Q
When did first-wave feminism take shape and when did it conclude?
A
in the mid-1800s concluding just after World War I with the victory for (some) women of the right to vote
17
Q
Where does second-wave feminism find its roots?
A
In the social movements of the 1960s in North America
18
Q
What is second-wave feminism characterized by?
A
Understanding “women” as a coherent social group with a common experience as women.
19
Q
How was gender oppression conceived of a seeing experienced in second-wave feminism?
A
As being experienced in the same way by all women. They had a single, shared voice that would adequately represent all women in their struggle against patriarchy.
20
Q
What is patriarchy?
A
A pervasive and complex social and cultural system of male domination
21
Q
What is second-wave feminism associated with and how?
A
consciousness-raising groups because as women come to a realization about their mutual oppression they would understand that things that seem completely personal are actually widely shared and part of the patriarchal structure
22
Q
What does Dorothy Smith recognize?
A
What women share is domination by men. She dishes to produce a sociology for women. She is concerned about the gendered character of the social production of knowledge.
23
Q
What is Dorothy Smith interested in?
A
A feminist sociology that can provide for women an account of the social relations that shape their lives; a sociology that helps women come to understand the broader conditions within which their experiences arise.
24
Q
What is Smith’s concept of ruling?
A
the exercise of power shaping people’s actions
25
What does Smith believe knowledge is as it currently stands?
androcentric in that women have been left out of knowledge production
26
What are ruling relations?
The abstract, conceptual, and "extra-locally" organized relations of state, professions, corporations, academic discourses, mass media, and so on" that exist in a generalized form and for to coordinate, from outside the local sites of our bodies, what people do (their actions)
27
What is Smith's main point?
That we need to know and understand what is not visible from our individual locations We need to make visible the social relations that frame the conditions of our experiences. Smith is interested in a sociology the can show people how the relations of ruling shape their lives.
28
What is third-wave feminism?
- criticizes second-wave theorizing in that its a singular voice that supposedly represents all women but is really the voice of white, middle-class, heterosexual, educated women.
- third-wave feminists believe that what is needed is attention to the multiplicity of women's voices
- need greater acceptance of complexities, ambiguities, and multiple locations
- difference based one ace, social class, sexuality, and so forth
29
What is rejected with third-wave feminism?
Dichotomous positioning around gender and sexuality which is replaced wit more fluid understanding
30
What does bell hooks argue?
That no one in the 1960s civil rights or women's movement seemed to pay attention to the realities of black women's lives. Focus on black men and focus on white women. She criticized feminist theorizing that automatically positions households as places of patriarchal oppression for women because it is assumed that if women earn far less, their financial dependency leads in turn to their subjection and exploitation in households. She points to the historical reality that for many, households have been spaces of refuge, resistance, and solidarity from racism, including the institutionalized racism of the labour force.
31
What view do post structuralists challenge by arguing what?
Enlightenment thinking which view scientific knowledge as being the key to human freedom by arguing that scientific knowledge, o ideas about absolute "truth", cannot stand outside power relations.
32
What are post-structuralists concerned with?
how knowledge is socially produced
33
What was Michel Foucault interested in?
The ways that power and knowledge work together
34
What is one of Foucault's greatest contributions to post-structural thought?
his rethinking of power
35
What does Foucault refer to the Marxist theory of power as?
The repressive hypothesis
36
What is the repressive hypothesis?
Holds that truth is opposed to power and can therefore play a liberating role It views "truth" as something that can be produced outside of power relations and therefore as something that can be objective.
37
What is power according to Foucault?
Power is not a thing possessed by one individual over another. He views power relations as being created within social relationships. They are multidirectional, can be found everywhere, and are always at work. They produce particular forms of behaviour.
38
Acc. to Foucault, what is power linked with? How?
- Knowledge
- Truths or facts are contextual meaning that they can never be separated from the relations of power that they are produced within.
- To know something is to exercise power
39
What is discourse?
A system of meaning the governs how we think, act, and speak about a particular thing or issue. How truths and facts come together. Determines who is authorized to speak.
40
What do discourses tell us?
Not only what the world is, but also what the world ought to be like.
41
What is discipline?
Foucault uses the term discipline to describe the means by which we become motivated to produce particular realities.
42
How did Foucault think about how power operates?
by producing some behaviours while discouraging others
43
What does discipline work through?
surveillance
44
What is surveillance?
acts of observing, recording, and training which can function without relying on force or coercion
45
What is normalization?
A costal process by which some practices and ways of living are marked as "normal" and others are marked as "abnormal". Normalization, then, is a method of standardizing, of creating standards.
46
What is disciplinary power exemplified by?
the normalizing judgment
47
What does Foucault contend that resistance to modern disciplinary power is not manifested in, but manifested in?
Not manifested in revolution but rather manifested within power relations. There is a plurality of resistances, each of them a special case.
48
What does queer theory problematize?
The assumption that we are all the same and deserve the same treatment.
49
What is queer theory concerned with?
Deconstructing sexual identities by exploring how these identities are historically and culturally situated
50
What are the three ares of queer theory?
desire, language, and identity
51
What is desire?
Our sexual attractions and wants
52
How do queer theorists aim to disrupt desire?
aim to disrupt categories of normal sexuality and acceptable sexuality and allow instead for sexuality's diverse and numerous expressions
53
What are queer theorists concerned within relation to language?
Concerned with how language is related to power as few of us stop and consider our use of language. It is impossible to disentangle language from knowledge since language is the vehicle of knowledge.
54
Language is not transparent, but___. Meaning?
- value-laden
| - how we use language is connected to the concept of power, in that language produces reality
55
What does language operate with a logic of? What does this mean?
- a logic of binaries
- one element in a pair is defined by what the other is not
- these binaries are not neutral definitions but, rather, are value-laden
- one element of each is typically more highly valued, while the other is devalued
- this valuation/devaluation is how power is implicated in language or discourse
56
What is identity?
Our sense of self, that is social produced, is fluid, and is multiple.
57
What is our identity situated within and contextualized by?
The multiple social relations within which we are embedded
58
What is our identity often tried to?
Our connections with others
59
What is identity implicated in the restricts and limits of?
language as well as the relations of power and discourse
60
What does post-colonial theory focus on?
focuses on the political and cultural effects of colonialism
61
What does imperialism refer to?
The conquest of lang, resources, and people's labour; the ideas, practices, and attitudes of colonizers. "What happens at home".
62
What does colonialism refer to ?
The effects of imperialism, including concrete and ideological effects, within colonized territories. "What happens away from home".
63
What does the "post" in post-colonial theory suggest?
A focus on events that happened after formal colonialism ended in the early 1960s.
64
What does Edward Said critique?
Western nations' colonial dominion, which remained in place even as they championed ideals of personal freedom, social progress, and national sovereignty.
65
What is Said's concept of Orientalism?
Said's concept of a discourse of power that creates a false distinct between a superior West and an inferior East.
66
What are the three kinds of Orientalism?
1) Academic Orientalism
2) Imaginative Orientalism
3) Institutional Orientalism
67
What is academic orientalism?
Refers to knowledge that is produced by academics, government experts, historians, sociologists, and anyone else who is producing information or writing about the Orient. This knowledge is not neutral but is embedded in power relations.
68
What is imaginative orientalism?
Refers to any representation making a basic distinction between the Orient and the Occident. May include art, novels, poems, images, and social descriptions.
69
What is institutional orientalism?
Refers to the institutions created by Europeans such that they could gain authority over, alter, and rule the Orient.
70
What did Said recognize about the discourse of Orientalism in terms of what guided?
Guided the representation the East and provided the conditions for Orientalism to succeed as a mode of imperial domination. The characterization of the East as inferior, childlike, and incapable of progress, and development in contrast to the characterization of the West as superior, rational, and developed.
71
What do critics of Said's work point out?
That he fails to consider how non-Westerners view themselves and the West. Many of those living in the East resist the imposition of Western culture. Western discourses also reveal a longing or attraction to the East. The West and the East are enmeshed in a relationship the tis not completely opposition but involves a mix of repulsion and attraction and a standpoint of dominance that is always in danger of reversal.
72
What are the two points of Canada and colonialism?
1) Canada was a British colony
2) Canada's Aboriginal population: perhaps the "post" in post-colonial has not yet been realized as Aboriginals are among the most marginalized people in Canada.
73
What is the example given of Canada and gendered orientalism.
- Hijin Park's research which explores mainstream media depictions of attacks on six Asian women and girls who were living in Vancouver
- Magazine articles that covered the attacks is informed by feminism and post-colonialism
- Park traces how the media depictions of the attacks on these women and girls positioned them as being i need of Western protection
- Asin immigration, which was largely blocked in Canada until the 1950s, and the internment of Japanese Canadians during World War II
74
What is the origin of critical race theory?
Is said mohave its origins in a 1981 student protest and student-organized course onRace, Racism, and American Law at Harvard Law School. The protest was sparked by the departure of Harvard's first African-American professor, Derrick Bell. With only two professors of colour remaining at Harvard Law School, students were attempting to convince the administration to hire additional faculty of colour. When administration did not meet the student's demands, the students organized the course mentioned above such that leading academics colour were invited to lecture to the students each week and to discuss Professor Bell's work.
75
What are the 6 tenants of critical race theory?
1) CRT recognizes that racism is endemic to American life
2) CRT expresses skepticism toward dominant legal claims of neutrality, objectivity, colour blindness, and meritocracy. Racism is institutionalized.
3) CRT challenges ahistoricism and insists on a contextual/historical analysis of the law. Racial inequalities are linked to earlier historical periods.
4) CRT insists on recognition of the experiential knowledge of people of colour and our communities of origin in analyzing law and society. Drawing on experience.
5) CRT is interdisciplinary and elected. Draws from a number of traditions.
6) CRT works toward the end of eliminating racial oppression as part of the broader goal of ending all forms of oppression. Intersectional approach. To achieve racial justice our entire social organization must be refashioned.
76
How does CRT view contemporary social situation?
Through a lens of historical racism. We can connect historical inequities to contemporary practices and situations.
77
Social landscape of New Orleans prior to Hurricane Katrina:
- ___percent of residents were poor
- Almost___percent of those generally affected by Katrina were African American
- ___percent of those affected by the flooding were African American
- ___of those without access to a vehicle to use for evacuation were African American
- 28%
- 70%
- 44%
- two thirds
78
What is the case of R.D.S. v. The Queen in Canada which provides an example for critical race theorists to show that legal principles, such as "the reasonable person" are not colour-blind?
A black youth in Nova Scotia was arrested and changed with assaulting a white police officer. The original judge was the only black women judge inNova Scotia. She acquitted the youth. White judges make decisions based on their experiences daily, but when a black woman judge made reference to racial tensions the case was appealed to the Supreme Court. The Court upheld the original acquitted, arguing that a reasonable person would use his or her knowledge of the social context of the community and race relations.
79
What are critical race theorists and practitioners committed to ending?
Racial oppression
80
What is theorizing whiteness?
It was not until the 1980s and 1990s the social theorists began to consider witness as a racial identity. Whites are plainly visible, often occupying frontline positions, while nonwhites are oftenest of sight line positions. Race is often though of as a colour--as being nonwhite. Whites are thought of as simply people while nonwhites are understood as distinct races.
81
What the the marking (or non marking) of race represent?
The deracializing of witness. Witness is constructed as the default position, and only those who do not fit within this default category are marked.
82
White and nonwhite is what type of construction?
Binary construction.
83
What does whiteness carry with it? Explain.
Privilege--the assumption that white represents the human race. Whiteness is the standard against which all others are measured Whiteness affords structural advantage.
84
What does globalization influence?
sociocultural and political processes
85
What led to the world being increasingly interconnected?
technological advances in communications and the global flow of money, capital, and commodities.
86
Who has the privilege of experiencing the world in a global way?
Westeners
87
What is globalization according to Anthony Giddens?
Globalization is not only, or even primary, about economic interdependence, but about the transformation of time and space in our lives.
88
What was time linked to in premodern societies? How would people interact with others in these societies?
- linked to the changing seasons
| - people would interact with those who were geographically close
89
When did people's sense of time and space change dramatically?
With the invention of the clock and the Industrial Revolution.
90
What is the time-space distanciation?
The separation of time and space, which allows social relations to shift from a local to a global context.
91
What is disembedding mechanism?
A mechanism that aids in shifting social relations from local to global contexts.
92
What are the two mechanisms that allow for the reconfiguration social relations in disembedding mechanism?
symbolic tokens and expert systems
93
What is a symbolic token?
A medium of exchange (such s money) that can be passed around without consideration the specific person or group involved. They make it possible for people to move from one local space to another creating the illusion of a shrinking world.
94
What are expert systems?
Systems of knowledge on which we rely but with which we may never be directly in contact. Associated with modernity. They shift the centre of our lives away from the local to the abstract expert systems of knowledge that may be distant. We rely on those trained in abstract knowledge. We do not even have to actually "go" to experts to be reliant on expert systems of knowledge.
95
What do expert systems implicate us in?
Relations of trust and risk
96
What are expert systems incorporated into?
Both institutional and individual practices, and institutional dimensions of modernity are clearly linked with globalization.
97
Who believes the following about globalization:
Globalization is the intensification of worldwide social relations which link distant localities in such a way that local happenings are shaped by events occurring many miles away and vice versa. There is a dialectic relationship between the local and the distance. Go beyond understanding globalization as a purely economic phenomenon, viewing it as something that transforms the social.
Anthony Giddens
