Society and Individual Experience
N,
In response to your notes on what NeoHumanistic Geography might look like, I post to the blogosphere.
In particular, I would like to address the role of society in an individual's experience. More specifically, I would like to detail the way in which social structures can serve as a window into the experience of an individual.
Social constructionism (the notion that social relations a la Marx's modes of production) steps too far in its claim that individual's situations are entirely socially constructed. This idea is already fading. However, the idea that individuals are profoundly effect by their social context is an important insight that should not be thrown out.
In fact, because of the formative influence of society on the individual, I think that it is possible to gain some understanding of the experience of individuals by examining their social situation. If social context (the same applies to other structures, I believe) shapes experience, then observation of the mechanisms of influence should give us a flavor of the experience of that structure and the experience of other phenomena that is shaped by that structural influence.
In the case of gender and ignoring naturalistic arguments for the moment, we understand that socially constructed or, at least, maintained norms hand down an understanding of gender roles to the individual. Those roles are not of static constitution nor are they homogeneous. However, they are present in some form. Whatever the instance of that form, the individual must confront (or not) their own understanding of gender as, to some degree, given by socially transmitted norms.
Such norms are differentiating at a stunning pace, and so cannot be addressed en masse. However, if we take the time to read specific structural influences, I think it is possible to unearth an aspect of individual experience therefrom.
In response to your notes on what NeoHumanistic Geography might look like, I post to the blogosphere.
In particular, I would like to address the role of society in an individual's experience. More specifically, I would like to detail the way in which social structures can serve as a window into the experience of an individual.
Social constructionism (the notion that social relations a la Marx's modes of production) steps too far in its claim that individual's situations are entirely socially constructed. This idea is already fading. However, the idea that individuals are profoundly effect by their social context is an important insight that should not be thrown out.
In fact, because of the formative influence of society on the individual, I think that it is possible to gain some understanding of the experience of individuals by examining their social situation. If social context (the same applies to other structures, I believe) shapes experience, then observation of the mechanisms of influence should give us a flavor of the experience of that structure and the experience of other phenomena that is shaped by that structural influence.
In the case of gender and ignoring naturalistic arguments for the moment, we understand that socially constructed or, at least, maintained norms hand down an understanding of gender roles to the individual. Those roles are not of static constitution nor are they homogeneous. However, they are present in some form. Whatever the instance of that form, the individual must confront (or not) their own understanding of gender as, to some degree, given by socially transmitted norms.
Such norms are differentiating at a stunning pace, and so cannot be addressed en masse. However, if we take the time to read specific structural influences, I think it is possible to unearth an aspect of individual experience therefrom.
posted by Breathing at 10:12 AM
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