Giddens: Lecture 2
Here we examined Giddens' claims to the knowledgeability of 'the lads' as they produce and reproduce the counter culture in a Birmingham secondary school. The lads are said to draw on various kinds of discursive and non-discursive (implict, invisible) rules to construct the counter culture. This works via time-space distantiation as they bring to bear knowledge of other situations gained at other times. The psychological requirements for alienated working class pupils are to produce a non-alienating culture within this potentially threatening environment in order to gain a sense of security (see ontological security from previous week's lecture).
Their knowledgeability is questionable though for a variety of reasons: firstly because they cannot spell out (frame as a proposition) what they are saying i.e their language remains in metaphorical pictures -'they're bigger than us' etc. rather than clearly identifying their topic- the power of school as delegated from law, government policy, the local authority.
The assertion of the lads' knowledgeability also ignores the debates about ideology and the way ideas or perceptions are distorted –how one thing appears as another etc. There is an account of this in Marx’s Capital, vol.1, p.76. Giddens feels that it’s only sociologists who misinterpret the social world- see p.180 Constitution
As we’ve said re dualism –this means organisations are seen as separate things rather than products of human activity or structures in which agents are involved with in an on-going process of production, innovation etc. Hence in Capital Marx refers to social relations as appearing as relations between things e.g. as prices rather than the value of things we use. i.e, the values we put on them because of their usefulness. This form of distorted perception is referred to by Marx as fetishism –things dominate people, organisations seem all powerful etc. Georg Lukacs uses the term REIFICATION to describe the same sort of thing. ..to turn processes and relationships into independent things. Kinds of ‘monsters’ (things from beyond the living world) which control out lives.
Here we examined Giddens' claims to the knowledgeability of 'the lads' as they produce and reproduce the counter culture in a Birmingham secondary school. The lads are said to draw on various kinds of discursive and non-discursive (implict, invisible) rules to construct the counter culture. This works via time-space distantiation as they bring to bear knowledge of other situations gained at other times. The psychological requirements for alienated working class pupils are to produce a non-alienating culture within this potentially threatening environment in order to gain a sense of security (see ontological security from previous week's lecture).
Their knowledgeability is questionable though for a variety of reasons: firstly because they cannot spell out (frame as a proposition) what they are saying i.e their language remains in metaphorical pictures -'they're bigger than us' etc. rather than clearly identifying their topic- the power of school as delegated from law, government policy, the local authority.
The assertion of the lads' knowledgeability also ignores the debates about ideology and the way ideas or perceptions are distorted –how one thing appears as another etc. There is an account of this in Marx’s Capital, vol.1, p.76. Giddens feels that it’s only sociologists who misinterpret the social world- see p.180 Constitution
As we’ve said re dualism –this means organisations are seen as separate things rather than products of human activity or structures in which agents are involved with in an on-going process of production, innovation etc. Hence in Capital Marx refers to social relations as appearing as relations between things e.g. as prices rather than the value of things we use. i.e, the values we put on them because of their usefulness. This form of distorted perception is referred to by Marx as fetishism –things dominate people, organisations seem all powerful etc. Georg Lukacs uses the term REIFICATION to describe the same sort of thing. ..to turn processes and relationships into independent things. Kinds of ‘monsters’ (things from beyond the living world) which control out lives.
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