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Friday, February 27, 2009
Week 7: Spontaneous Brilliant Thoughts
This is a place for rambling thoughts, for spontaneous brilliant thoughts that just have to be written and cannot wait. A place to post something that comes to mind after lecture, or while reading, and that will generate spontaneous responses and a back and forth communication. So, freestyle your brilliance and post!
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I came across these words that I had jotted down in a notebook from an earlier lecture. It was when I was very much struggling with theory – hated it, didn’t “get it” – but there was something lyrical in these words so I saved them. But yes, a couple of semesters later, I’ve learned to appreciate it, love it, still struggle with it but knowing that at some point it inevitably falls into a meaningful place.
I thought this quote would be an inspirational launching point for our flow of spontaneous brilliant thoughts…
“Theory allows us to imagine change; theory is likened to poetry; theory allows us to imagine what is otherwise unimaginable, it allows us to think of possibilities in unthinkable space; be promiscuous with theory, explore different theorists!”
(ananya roy, the city, spring 2008)
mm mm, theory is wonderful.
Some thoughts I was pondering:
It's strange to think back to Durkheim and see that his explanations of prisons doesn't seem to work in comparison to Foucault's. Prisons to Durkheim would be restitutive institutions meant to reform prisoners to preserve the social relations. But who determines what is right, what is normal? And also, within the prison itself, we would say that prison wardens want to create MS, since punishment is repressive, but it is not a prisons intention to create solidarity among prisoners.
Also, why is Durkheim's utopia of natural abilities connected to social functions, Foucault's nightmare? It seems like D's utopia could be F's nightmare, but not if people really do have natural abilities, and ideals of social justice and equality are somehow followed.
And also, I was wondering what else could be our influence on our professors as we gaze at them. And what is their influence on us as they watch us?
Also, from last Thursday's lecture, do we the people really like to be observed? We all join facebook and create profiles and allow anyone to see what people publicly write to us in comments. Why do we like this kind of surveillance?
On page 23 Foucault lectures Durkheim and lays out his four rules for the study of punishment.
Rule #3: “Instead of treating the history of penal law and the history of the sciences as two separate series…see whether there is not some common matrix or whether they do not both derive from a single process of ‘epistemologico-juridical’ formation”.
The common matrix that Foucault refers to is power. But what does he mean by making the “…technology of power the very principle of both the humanization of the penal system and the knowledge of man”?
This is a very, very interesting paragraph.
Any thoughts?
Kristina, honestly I do not think most people are aware of the degree to which surveillance takes place in our lives. The internet, and thus, facebook, blogging, all that - is a remarkable pheonomenon in the sense that it enables people to connect and have a "voice" on what they care about and feel passionate about. I think most people only see the "social aspect" of making their lives visible on cyberspace but do not realize the power that is created.
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