Facebook | OKCIR and Human Architecture NEWS: "CALL FOR PAPERS
HUMAN ARCHITECTURE:
Journal of the Sociology of Self-Knowledge
Regular Issue, Volume VII, 2009
DEADLINE: APRIL 1, 2009
II. REGULAR ISSUE THEME:
Scholarships of Learning and Teaching of the Sociological Imagination
Human Architecture has a continuing commitment to publishing outstanding undergraduate and graduate student and faculty papers advancing scholarships of learning and teaching of the sociological imagination and the sociology of self-knowledge.
The sociological imagination, according to C. Wright Mills, is a quality of mind that enables its holder to relate his or her own and others’ personal troubles to the ever larger public issues facing society and humanity as a whole. It is the ability to relate reflections on the here-and-now dynamics of one’s everyday life and personal troubles to the larger social issues of the prevalent society, of the times, and in the context of ever wider world-historical landscapes.
As noted in the founding statement of the journal, “Human Architecture provides a forum for the exploration of personal self-knowledges within a re-imagined sociological framework. It seeks to creatively institutionalize new conceptual and curricular structures of knowledge whereby critical study of one’s selves within an increasingly world-historical framework is given scholarly and pedagogical legitimacy. The journal is a public forum for those who seek to radically understand and, if need be, change their world-historically constituted selves. It is a research and educational microcosm for fostering de-alienated and globally concerned, self-determining human realities.”
The editor invites contributions that make serious and innovative efforts at developing the author’s sociological imagination in dialogue with scholarly sources, relevant theoretical frameworks and concepts, and various other texts such as films and works of art. Solicited also are papers by teaching faculty who self-reflectively explore their strategies for the cultivation of sociological imaginations among their students (and in themselves) regardless of the disciplinary field in which courses are taught. Papers may include as appendices exemplary syllabi used, but these only as an aid to the narrative explorations and presentations of the pedagogical approaches invented and used by faculty in the course of their teaching career. Faculty-student co-authored papers will also be especially welcomed.
All submissions should be sent as email attachments to the journal’s editor mohammad.tamdgidi@umb.edu. Contributors whose papers are selected and published will receive a complimentary hard copy of the journal upon publication. Authors are solely responsible for obtaining by the time of submission copyright permissions for the quotes, figures, or any other material borrowed from other sources; authors submitting to the journal will be assumed to have obtained such copyright permissions and can furnish them upon request.
Please submit papers only electronically as a Microsoft Word attachment (RTF format) set in Times 12 font. Include in the same file a title page stating full institutional affiliation(s), a specializations/publications bio of about 50-100 words in length, and email, academic, and (if available) web addresses. Papers should be accompanied, in the same file and after the title page, by an abstract of about 100-200 words in length. Please double-space all text except for the abstract, foot/endnotes, bibliography, and any quotations blocks—which should be single-spaced. There is no need to send blinded versions of the file. If there are figures, please provide them as part of the Word document and separately, as a jpeg or standard graphic file (Tiff or eps, for instance) set at medium resolution.
Student papers previously published in Human Architecture are regularly used as required or recommended readings in course instruction. For examples of student and faculty-student co-authored papers published in earlier issues of Human Architecture please visit the website of the journal (at http://www.okcir.com) or consult the Sociological Abstracts, SocINDEX with Full-Text, or ProQuest's Social Science Journals full-text database for more systematic search of the journal's contents."
Welcome
I think Sociology is a lot like how the writer and director of The Incredibles describes cartoons:
In sociology, we often call this the "definition of the situation". It could be extended perhaps to also capture the spirit of what Mills called the "Sociological Imagination". No matter what moniker we give it, it is with this "essence" that I believe sociologists must concern themselves, not as rigid actuaries or impartial "scientists", but rather to approach their task much like the artist--with expression, grace, humility, as well as a good dose of criticism.
When an artist visualizes a painting they are working on, they have in their minds-eye an image of how it will look. Even when the "reality" of what they are actually looking at may simply be a block of stone or a blank canvas and table full of paints to mix. They can shape the creative process, but they do not control it completely. What shape their work will finally achieve is largely due to how they urge their clay, stone, paint or musical notation to find its expression in the face of significant constraints, i.e., time, temperature, temper and even a little bit of luck. Their final product may not look "identical" to what they had in mind, but their ability to "bump it up" can have breathtaking results. Take Michelangelo's masterpiece "Il Davido". Considered virtually perfect by many in the art world, the marble from which this sublime form was born was was rejected as flawed by others:
The gallery that houses this masterpiece is entered through a good sized hallway lined on both sides with the guardians of David--a group of unfinished works called "The Captives", aptly named because they look like bodies frozen in the cold hard marble yearning to break out. Michelangelo abandoned them because they were too far from his vision. However, when I visited the museum, I was really taken by these figures--I could see on the one hand how they were not "perfect", but there was something quite spectacular in their imperfection. It all boiled down to a matter of interpretation and vision.
Sociologists face the same dilemma. I think we have a great chance to work with diverse communities to address important social problems. We must remain aware, however, that our goal is not to "reproduce reality" or impose solutions on communities that are external and coercive of their needs. Our job is to use all of the tools in our kit to "bump it up" and encourage individuals to appreciate the beauty of community involvement and the satisfaction of (cultural) self-determination.
The reason to do animation is caricature. Good caricature picks out the essense of the statement and removes everything else. It's not simply about reproducing reality; It's about bumping it up.Good research and teaching by sociologists should likewise attempt to find the essence of a statement and remove everything else. Of course I am not naive enough to think that "essence"="TRUTH", or that all of the external forces and pressures individuals confront, especially in marginalized communities, can somehow be magically removed or held constant. I consider what Bird calls essence more a reflection of the process of sense making in which people engage everyday in order to bring some modicum of rationality to a seemingly hyper-irrational set of social contexts and interactions.
In sociology, we often call this the "definition of the situation". It could be extended perhaps to also capture the spirit of what Mills called the "Sociological Imagination". No matter what moniker we give it, it is with this "essence" that I believe sociologists must concern themselves, not as rigid actuaries or impartial "scientists", but rather to approach their task much like the artist--with expression, grace, humility, as well as a good dose of criticism.
When an artist visualizes a painting they are working on, they have in their minds-eye an image of how it will look. Even when the "reality" of what they are actually looking at may simply be a block of stone or a blank canvas and table full of paints to mix. They can shape the creative process, but they do not control it completely. What shape their work will finally achieve is largely due to how they urge their clay, stone, paint or musical notation to find its expression in the face of significant constraints, i.e., time, temperature, temper and even a little bit of luck. Their final product may not look "identical" to what they had in mind, but their ability to "bump it up" can have breathtaking results. Take Michelangelo's masterpiece "Il Davido". Considered virtually perfect by many in the art world, the marble from which this sublime form was born was was rejected as flawed by others:
Michelangelo took a rejected piece of marble that had numerous veins running through it and carved it into this Goliath-sized sculpture that was originally commissioned by Opera del Duomo
Michelangelo was young when he completed The David, yet you can see his talent and genius in this sculpture. He was 25 years old when he began the statue in 1501. No other sculptor wanted this piece of marble because it could be prone to shatter, but Michelangelo created a masterpiece with it...
The gallery that houses this masterpiece is entered through a good sized hallway lined on both sides with the guardians of David--a group of unfinished works called "The Captives", aptly named because they look like bodies frozen in the cold hard marble yearning to break out. Michelangelo abandoned them because they were too far from his vision. However, when I visited the museum, I was really taken by these figures--I could see on the one hand how they were not "perfect", but there was something quite spectacular in their imperfection. It all boiled down to a matter of interpretation and vision.
Sociologists face the same dilemma. I think we have a great chance to work with diverse communities to address important social problems. We must remain aware, however, that our goal is not to "reproduce reality" or impose solutions on communities that are external and coercive of their needs. Our job is to use all of the tools in our kit to "bump it up" and encourage individuals to appreciate the beauty of community involvement and the satisfaction of (cultural) self-determination.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
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