Non-Answered Written Exam Qs Flashcards
(17 cards)
What is DeCerteau’s core contribution to the structure–agency debate?
He shows that everyday “tactics”—improvised, situational maneuvers—operate within institutional “strategies,” turning structure–agency into a constant negotiation rather than pure submission or free will.
How does DeCerteau’s example of pedestrian walking illustrate his theory?
Pedestrians carve ad‑hoc paths that overwrite the city planner’s grid, creating a living palimpsest that demonstrates agency embedded in practice.
What is a main critique of DeCerteau’s focus on tactics?
It can romanticise fleeting resistance and underplay enduring power relations and material inequalities.
According to AnthonyD.Smith, what drives nationalism?
Ethno‑symbolist reactivation of ancestral myths, memories, and symbols to secure autonomy, unity, and identity for a nation.
How does nationalism act as a “secular religion” in everyday space?
Museums, monuments, and ritual landscapes convert historical sacrifice into collective emotional durability.
What double‑edged implication does Smith assign to nationalism?
Nationalism strongly integrates citizens but can also fuel exclusion, xenophobia, and violent conflict.
What three‑phase cycle defines Kuhn’s model of scientific change?
Normal science ⇢ anomaly‑induced crisis ⇢ non‑incremental paradigm shift (scientific revolution).
Why is the Copernican Revolution Kuhn’s exemplar of paradigm shift?
Heliocentrism redefined Earth and celestial motion, replacing complex epicycles and changing what counted as legitimate astronomical questions.
What is the central controversy over Kuhn’s notion of incommensurability?
Critics call it relativistic; Kuhn replies that post‑revolution progress shows broader problem‑solving power even without strict criteria at the moment of change.
Outline IbnKhaldun’s macro causal chain explaining social cycles.
Environment → ʿasabiyya (solidarity) → state power → luxury → decline.
How does Khaldun anticipate modern reflexive historiography?
He tests reports against social laws and warns of transmitter bias, foreshadowing today’s concern with researcher positionality and source critique.
How is Khaldun’s cyclical model applied in contemporary urban‑migration studies?
Scholars operationalise rise‑peak‑decline patterns of group cohesion but temper them with contingency, policy feedback, and global interdependence.
DeCerteau closer
“In short, deCerteau urges us to read the city as a text perpetually rewritten from below—proof that agency is not outside structure but scribbled in its margins.”
Smith nationalism closer
“Ultimately, Smith shows that nationalism’s real force is double‑edged: the very myths that knit us together can, in another register, cut us apart.”
Kuhn scientific‑revolutions closer
“Kuhn reminds us that science doesn’t just stack new bricks onto an old wall; every so often it knocks the wall down and redraws the blueprint.”
IbnKhaldun positionality closer
“Khaldun’s real innovation is reflexive: he tells us to test every report against the society that produced it—an early call to confront our own positionality before declaring any historical truth.”
