Race,Power and Social Action in Neighborhood Community Organizing: Reproducing and Resisting the Social Construction of the Other

Scholars argue in favor of social action in community organizing to address the oppression experienced by racialized groups. This study examines how community organizing practice in one diverse neighborhood constructed race to understand the potential for social action. Using interview and observational data with 16 community organizers working in 1 diverse, low-income neighborhood in Québec, Canada, I examine the social construction of race through the lens of postcolonial theory and the writings of Michel Foucault. I argue that a discourse of neutrality existed among community organizers, which was tied to state policy and a colonial discourse embedded therein. The resulting disconnect between race and power in community organizing practice not only forecloses on social change efforts, it also extends a state-driven nation-building agenda into community. As the basis for an anticolonial approach to neighborhood community organizing, I juxtapose the discourse of neutrality in community organizing with strategies that recoupled race and power by drawing attention to efforts among community organizers that were antagonistic to the discourse.     

Bullying in secondary schools: through a discursive lens

Abstract

This paper analyses students’ constructions of bullying from a social constructionist perspective. Interviews were conducted with 24 students at a small semi-rural secondary school in New Zealand. These were taped, transcribed and a discourse analysis, informed by the work of Foucault, was carried out. It was found that students made sense of bullying by drawing on constructions that included bullying as a consequence of differences and as a form of discipline. These constructions had the effect of legitimizing the school's institutional power imbalance. This was supported by students and teachers who both played an active role in simultaneously enforcing, and being subjected to, the disciplinary technologies of normalization characterized by bullying. The goal of this research is to provide a critical focus to the political nature, power relations and ideological effects of these prevailing discourses that function to both create and support bullying behaviour in our schools.     

Feminist And Postfeminist Readings Of Romantic Narratives

This paper examines the reception and interpretation of romantic narratives among fifteen Israeli heterosexual women viewers of the TV series Sex and the City. Based upon the dialogue carried out by the participants in two discussion groups and individual interviews, I map the different strategies employed by the viewers in interpreting the show, as situated within their worldviews concerning issues such as romance and romantic relationships, power relations, and social gender roles.     

The relative amenability of dull and bright children to child guidance 1

Supervision is an activity filled with ethical dilemmas related to the power held by the supervisor, a power that should be exercised with care. This article explores some of these dilemmas through the analysis of supervision vignettes viewed from the perspective of social constructionism, in particular, from the insights of French philosopher Michel Foucault. It concludes with suggestions to exercise supervisory power ethically.     

福柯的身体理论与女性主义

在传统哲学中,身体一直是不被关注的他者,一个不能表达的沉默者,一个空洞的符号。从尼采到福柯,身体被拯救了出来,地位凸显。福柯的身体理论,诠释了身体备受摧残与压抑的历史,从古典时期的肉体惩罚到现代的灵魂惩罚,让我们看到了知识与权力合谋对身体的规训。女性主义者深受福柯身体理论的启发,开始关注被操纵、控制、压抑的女性身体。在现代消费语境下,女性身体成为被看的对象、商品化的观赏物,运用女性主义视角分析女性在当下的处境,提高女性意识是很必要的,女性主义任重而道远。     

论福柯的原创性

福柯打破启蒙运动的神话,本着批判性质询的品格,对启蒙运动的"理性"原则进行了猛烈的批判;发现现代社会乃是一个以管制和控制为唯一目标"规训"的社会,规训的结果是产生服从社会规范、熟练而又驯服的肉体,这种"驯服"是通过一种无所不在的"权力"实现的;继尼采喊出"上帝死了"之后,又喊出另一惊世骇俗之语:"主体"消失了,"人"已死亡了。这一系列极富原创性的思考均与福柯对考古学与谱系学研究方式与方法的成熟运用密切相关。同时更为重要的是,福柯从未与现实生活达成和解,他对疯癫与文明的考察和对现代传媒的批判充分表明了他对现存世界的永不停息的批判。     

“Delinquent behaviour as a kind of body politics” against adult regulations — Young people's discourses in Hong Kong

Usually, discourses of young people, particularly for the voices of ‘youth-at-disadvantage’, are silenced no matter in the social construction of their experiences or in the social investigation of their behaviour. Without their voices, a discourse of individual deficits is usually constructed to talk about their delinquent behaviour. However, in the discourses of young people, they considered their problem behaviour as a kind of ‘body politics’ to work against adult regulations. Moreover, obvious gender differences were revealed. While female adolescents constructed their problem behaviour as a tool to rebel against the harsh parental control on their leisure time activities, their male counterparts referred it as an escape to avoid heavy conflicts with parents on their school-to-work situations. In the discourses of young people, what they could do in the face of the adult society was only to rebel or escape with their bodies. Thus, in view of young people's discourse construction of their experiences, gender specific and family based interventions are recommended to work with ‘youth-at-disadvantage’ in outreaching social work service in Hong Kong.     

从尼采到德里达:不断破解与不断建构--解读西方现代文艺美学的发展历程

如何理解西方现代文艺美学的历史发展过程?怎样才能更好地吸取西方的理论精华?这对于中国现代文艺美学理论研究和建设,无疑具有重要意义。本文试图通过对于一些重要理论家,诸如尼采、荣格、萨特、福柯、德里达等人的理论分析与评价,触摸到西方现代文艺美学发展的内在脉搏及其特点。本文认为,不断破解旧的思想模式与不断建构新的理论平台,是西方现代文艺美学不断获得生机和活力的重要原因。     

关于当代文化批评话语的评析：兼论“东方主义”

话语作为当代文学批评中的一个至关重要的概念,近年来在文化批评中出现的频率越来越高。在此,特从四个方面对话语进行探讨：1．语言学家们对话语的界定;2．在文化研究层面上话语的内涵;3．东方主义——最为典型的人为建构的话语之一;4．新时期世俗知识分子的使命——警惕并挑战文化霸权主义。     

规训教育与身份改写——福柯理论视角下的《简·爱》解读

福柯认为,现代学校是一个规训机构,通过组织教育活动进行规训教育。教育领域中权力的运作旨在使学生重塑伦理主体,成为合格的社会成员。在简·爱所就读的罗沃德寄宿学校,所有的学生都生活在严格的规训之下。维多利亚社会规范了女性接受教育的内容,简·爱在寄宿学校获取的知识,保证了她在维多利亚社会找到一份家庭教师的工作。知识使简·爱实现了身份的改写,从而使她在经济上得以自立;工作赋予了个体做人的尊严,维多利亚人对待工作总是充满了宗教的热情。