Book Description
Originally published in 1985, Neil Postman's groundbreaking polemic about the corrosive effects of television on our politics and public discourse has been hailed as a twenty-first-century book published in the twentieth century. Now, with television joined by more sophisticated electronic media—from the Internet to cell phones to DVDs—it has taken on even greater significance. Amusing Ourselves to Death is a prophetic look at what happens when politics, journalism, education, and even religion become subject to the demands of entertainment. It is also a blueprint for regaining controlof our media, so that they can serve our highest goals.
Customer Reviews:
Outstanding book - must read.......2007-09-27
One of the best books on the danger posed by entertainment to our civic community.
Important read.......2007-09-04
This book asks questions that we need to be asking but aren't. How can we not at least question the media and technology that we take in like oxygen? It's an important read and I recommend it to anyone who isn't apathetic.
The Audio Was Great.......2007-09-03
If you like people like Colin Wilson, you will love this well written and well thought out book. It is like listening to Colin Wilson without the references to literature but the lessons are intact.
Another "Thin" Classic From Postman.......2007-06-22
This is Postman's most famous and widely read book (as is attested by the more than 100 customer reviews here on Amazon) and it is, as other reviewers have suggested, a classic in the Media Studies field. The songwriter Roger Waters was inspired enough to title his album "Amused to Death" after reading Postman's book (although Postman states in one of his later works that he himself would never stoop to listening to the likes of a "Roger Waters").
Instead of giving the usual plot synopsis here as other reviewers have done, I would like instead to perform for you a Media Studies reading of the book. That is to say, instead of reviewing the book's contents, I would like to draw your attention to the medium and format of the book itself, and in doing so, point out what this reveals about Postman as a philosopher.
To begin with the most important point: there are no pictures. Anywhere. And not only is this true of Amusing Ourselves to Death, it is true of every single one of Postman's books. This should alert us to something very important here about Postman: he is iconophobic. He is engaged in a battle against images of any, and every, kind. Not even Marshall McLuhan was so antipathetic to the use of images and illustrations, for his very first book, The Mechanical Bride, is a series of commentaries upon advertisements. In the age old battle of the Word vs. the Image -- a battle which goes way, way back before the twentieth century to the Iconoclastic debates amongst the Greek Byzantines whose iconophobes were in fact influenced by the aniconism of Islam, an entire religion which, like Judaism, had been based upon a rejection of images -- Postman, in this tradition, definitely aligns himself on the side of the Word against the iconophiles, be they Catholics or Hindus or lovers of comic books, or whomever.
Also, you will not find any references to works of art of any kind in this book. Postman apparently has an antipathy to painting and imagery of any kind whatsoever, be it "classical" or electronic. It is important to point this out because it reveals, in the tradition of Harold Innis, Postman's essential "bias" in this book. Indeed, Postman's dialogue with Camille Paglia, published in an old issue of Harper's, underlines this point, for Paglia is as much an iconophile as Postman is an iconoclast. "In the beginning was the Word," Postman quotes, as though to clarify his own personal theology, before proceeding onward with his dialogue with Paglia.
The next thing to notice about the book is its brevity. It is very short, as in fact, are all Mr. Postman's books, for Postman has been quoted as saying that he does not believe in writing long books, and that if one cannot express oneself in two hundred pages or less, then one has no business writing a book. The bibliography, accordingly, is also short, and so apparently Mr. Postman did not feel the need to read many books in order to write this book.
For Postman really only has a single point to make here, and it is an important point which he argues persuasively and eloquently: television is taking over our culture, and all our thought patterns in every aspect or division of our culture is taking its cue from the syncopated, discontinuous and ahistorical "mentality" of television. How this has affected our reading habits, and whether those reading habits still continue, albeit in a changed manner, Postman fails to address. For people have not stopped reading books; instead, they continue to read books, but their expectations of the book have changed. The brevity of Postman's book is itself perhaps an example of what happens to sustained intellectual discourse in the Electronic Age: books get shorter because our attention spans (Postman's included) have shrank. Nobody wants to wade through books on the scale and magnitude of Spengler's Decline of the West or Hegel's Phenomenology of the Spirit. I notice, furthermore, that the sorts of books which Postman exhibits in his Bibliography are, one and all, short books.
Thus, here is the secret of Postman's book: Postman himself suffers from the very same attention deficit disorder that he castigates others for having suffered at the hands of Electronic Society.
Hmm. One would expect a professor of Media Studies who was as well read and thoughtful as Postman to engage our attention for a while longer. If this book is the greatest thing Postman ever wrote, then we must confess, alas, that Postman's work does not contain a single magnum opus on the level of a Gutenberg Galaxy or an Understanding Media. Perhaps this fact in itself is evidence of a general decline in intellectual and literary ability in our culture during the latter half of the twentieth century.
The reader should not understand that I am saying that there is anything wrong with Amusing Ourselves to Death. But we should learn to understand its limitations in order to appreciate its place in the pantheon of Media Studies classics, upon which list, after all is said and done, Amusing Ourselves to Death places relatively low.
--John David Ebert, author Celluloid Heroes & Mechanical Dragons: Film as the Mythology of Electronic Society
Deserves to be Called a Classic.......2007-06-19
It seems unlikely that a book labeled "Current Affairs" could have a shelf life of more than a few years. It seems preposterous that a book dealing with television and referring to Dallas and Dynasty could have anything to see twenty two years after being published. Yet Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death, now in it's "20th Anniversary Edition" continues to be read and studied and to hold influence. Even today it is used as required reading in many high school and college level courses. Though written by a man who made no claim to Christianity, few modern books written by an unbeliever have been more widely read and quoted by Christians. It truly is a remarkable little book.
Postman had that rarely quality of being able to see behind a fad, behind what was late and great. He saw the significance of the rise of the image and the fall of the word, the rise of amusement and the decline of discourse. He saw that television would soon saturate every area of our lives and taint the way we understand politics, religion, education and every other area of importance. As we now transition from a television-based culture to a computer-based culture the image remains central. Perhaps we have already amused ourselves past the point of no easy return. Television is remarkably effective at doing what it does best--entertaining. Postman had no argument with television is a tool of entertainment. In fact, the best things on television are its junk and no one is seriously threatened by this. Where television fails is in attempting to do the more serious work that has traditionally been carried by the written word.
Postman makes it his goal in this book to make the epistemology of television visible, demonstrating that television's way of knowing is hostile to typography's way of knowing, and not only that, but it is inferior to it. "Serious television" is a contradiction in terms for television speaks only in the voice of entertainment, never of serious, weighty, discourse--the kind of discourse that is essential to politics, religion and education. Television's influence has been relentless, transforming our culture so that every area is now considered a venue for entertainment.
Electronic media, led by television but being superseded by the computer, has changed the way we view the world and the way we carry on any kind of public discourse. Gone are the days when content was of overwhelming importance. Instead we deal with sound bites, with discordant images torn from any kind of context, and with style when in former days we relied on substance. Politicians win and lose election campaigns not on the basis of what they say, but on the basis of how they look when they say it.
Throughout the book is an interesting interplay between Huxley's Brave New World and Orwell's 1984. In the latter an oppressive regime dominates the world while in the former the people allow themselves to be overcome by levity, by entertainment and by pleasure so that they have no need of an oppressive regime. They were controlled by their amusements. Huxley, Postman argues, had it right. And I would tend to agree.
Amusing Ourselves to Death is a good read, a disturbing read, a thought-provoking read and, dare I say it, a must-read. It deserves its status as a classic and, though already two decades out of date, it is as timely as ever.
Amazon.com
Edwards traces how computers have emerged as the dominant technology as a direct result of Cold War politics and the defense research it engendered. From the first use of room-size mainframes to coordinate missile systems, Pentagon research aimed toward complete computer control, including the budget-busting and ultimately impractical Strategic Defensive Initiative. Edwards relates how the technolog--which is now so open as to be nearly anarchic--began in strictly enclosed secrecy. The military computer goal of perfect "command, control and communication" systems was understood to mean communication only within a very closed world. Edwards' thesis is that this approach influenced the very structure of our modern computers.
Book Description
The Closed World offers a radically new alternative to the canonical histories of computers and cognitive science. Integrating political, cultural, and technological history, it argues that we can make sense of computers as tools only when we simultaneously grasp their roles as metaphors and political icons.
In this extended exploration of the relations of science and engineering to the evolution of modern society, Paul Edwards argues that what people have said, thought, and experienced through computers--as reflections of the nature of their minds; as solutions to political, commercial, and military problems; as icons of rationality--is as significant as anything computers have actually accomplished. Social and cultural context has shaped the growth of computer technology as much as it has been shaped by it.
Customer Reviews:
Missing the point?.......2000-10-16
While this is an excellent and sensitive overview of the history of computer science from a critical standpoint, it may miss the essential point.
This is that while the announced intention of Cold War data systems efforts was to indeed provide a logically closed structure that would ensure national security and a narrow form of economic growth (which excluded unions from power), as Edwards himself reveals, these systems in significant ways failed to accomplish their technical goals.
The problem is that people with the traditional liberal suspicion of computers miss either this fact or fail to grasp its significance. Edwards fails to grasp its significance.
What it means is that on the ground, in the apparently highly controlled mainframe computer rooms, a highly "open" and possibly even "green" for of chaos operated as software (in one noted example) bayed at the moon when it mistook the moon for a missile. This chaos was presented as its opposite in a rhetorical trick which conceals the labor, and in some cases the very existence, of software creation.
The troubling fact, invisible to humanists outside the field, is that the upper-level administrators of these systems did not really care that they did not work, as long as the public viewed them as a closed and working system. They'd also prefer to conceal the origins of the software that controls these systems in labor and in writing.
Edwards in the main fails to link this rhetorical sleight-of-hand to C. Wright Mills' work in which the general public is systematically deceived, and a white-collar class creates the tools of its own destruction.
The Sage air defense system did not work and did not, in fact, protect the United States from attack: what protected us from attack was the decision of men to back down from macho and nuclear-armed confrontation, including Eisenhower's decision to not back Britain, France and Israel in 1956's Suez crisis and Nikita Krushchev's decision to back down in 1962 over Cuba.
The real technical illusion is not that the closed world is "better than" the green world. It is to not fully close digital worlds but to present them as closed, and to prevent the rules of their closure from public oversight, and control.
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Conversation Analysis (SAGE Benchmarks in Social Research Methods series)
Manufacturer: Sage Publications Ltd
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ASIN: 1412918480 |
Book Description
It is now widely agreed that in latter part of the 20th century sociology has taken a â€~linguistic turn’. One of the approaches to emerge out of the linguistic turn is conversation analysis, which is now recognized as one of the most distinctive and genuinely original approaches to the study of language, communication and social interaction to have emerged during the last forty years. Research in conversation analysis over the past 30 years has shown how these and other technical aspects of talk-in-interaction are structured, socially organized resources - or methods - whereby participants perform and coordinate activities through talking together. Conversational interaction is the primordial site of human sociality. Thus these methods are the technical bedrock on which people build their social lives, and construct their social relations with one another.
This comprehensive collection, brought together by two of the leading figures in conversation analysis, will be indispensable to researchers in not only linguistics but sociology, social psychology, communications, and health sciences whose work involved the language and linguistic features of social action.
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- happy customer
- revolutionary appeal for decolonization
- A Passionate Argument Against Colonialism
- For the US, an Eyeopener with our involvement with IRAQ
- good perception
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Discourse on Colonialism
Aimé Césaire ,
Joan Pinkham , and
Robin D.G. Kelley
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Similar Items:
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The Wretched of the Earth
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The Colonizer and the Colonized
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Black Skin, White Masks
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Culture and Imperialism
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The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L'Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution
ASIN: 1583670254
Release Date: 2001-01-01 |
Book Description
"Césaire's essay stands as an important document in the development of third world consciousness--a process in which [he] played a prominent role."
--Library Journal
This classic work, first published in France in 1955, profoundly influenced the generation of scholars and activists at the forefront of liberation struggles in Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean. Nearly twenty years later, when published for the first time in English,
Discourse on Colonialism inspired a new generation engaged in the Civil Rights, Black Power, and anti-war movements and has sold more than 75,000 copies to date.
Aimé Césaire eloquently describes the brutal impact of capitalism and colonialism on both the colonizer and colonized, exposing the contradictions and hypocrisy implicit in western notions of "progress" and "civilization" upon encountering the "savage," "uncultured," or "primitive." Here, Césaire reaffirms African values, identity, and culture, and their relevance, reminding us that "the relationship between consciousness and reality are extremely complex. . . . It is equally necessary to decolonize our minds, our inner life, at the same time that we decolonize society." An interview with Césaire by the poet René Depestre is also included.
Customer Reviews:
happy customer.......2007-09-22
the quality of the product was the very best. it also arrived when i expected it too. i needed it in a crunch time and it came through beautifully.
revolutionary appeal for decolonization.......2007-07-16
This is a fascinating book for folks interested in the international decolonization movement of the 50s and 60s, and its relation to the Black Power movement in the States. The Discourse is beautifully written and passionately argued. The interview helps clarify Cesaire and Senghor's concept of "Negritude" as an early form of Black pride, rather than racial essentialism. The essay introduction is worthwhile since it puts the book in relation to Cesaire's poetic work and the Surrealist movement in France, America, and the Antilles. It's unduly dismissive of Cesaire's Marxist politics, especially since it goes against the spirit of the interview appended at the end.
A Passionate Argument Against Colonialism.......2005-12-25
This was a required text for a class I took this past semester, Introduction to African Studies. The author, Aime Cesaire, is known in Africa and France for his moving poetry, but he was also a politician. Born and raised in Martinique, a Caribbean island that was then a colony of France and is now a "departement", Cesaire studied in Paris on a scholarship. While he was there, he met Sedar Senghor and Leon Damas, and together they founded the Negritude movement, which rejected French colonialism in favor of a transnational black identity. After World War II, Cesaire was elected to the French National Assembly to represent Martinique, as a member of the French Communist Party. But he eventually became disillusioned, both with the Communist Party's lack of effort to address race issues and with the idea that Martinique continued on as a French colony. It was around this time, in 1955, that he published Discourse on Colonialism. This is Cesaire's attempt to describe the far-reaching impact colonialism has on both the oppressor and the oppressed. He also stresses the idea of one black identity, encompassing the peoples of Africa, African Americans in the United States, and those that live in the Caribbean. Cesaire's writing is very strong and passionate, and what I thought was most interesting about his arguments is that he uses the very words of notable European writers and philosophers to demonstrate how the colonizers' efforts often resulted in barbarization rather than civilization. It is very easy to see why this book had such a great impact on the pan-African and civil rights movements in America. Five stars for both writing and enjoyment.
For the US, an Eyeopener with our involvement with IRAQ.......2005-03-14
In Aimé Césaire's "Discourse on Colonialism," She very blatantly voices her opinion that a (European) civilization that is:
...incapable of solving the problems it creates is a decadent civilization. A civilization that chooses to close its eyes to the most crucial problems is a stricken civilization. [and finally] A civilization that uses its principles for trickery and deceit is a dying civilization. (31)
As well as applying for both Britain's presence in Southeast Asia and the Caribbean, and France's colonial presence in Africa and the Caribbean, this powerful statement could become an equation for the line drawn between one country's involvements with another.
For example, here is an unmistakable connection here to the US' involvement in Iraq. Are we as a nation decadent? Stricken? Dying? The over $155B spent in Iraq (...) instead of other national priorities. Cesaire's points are very relevant to the times as she brings further knowledge and past histories into the damage of Colonialism: "...at the present time the barbarism of Western Europe...being only surpassed...by the barbarism of the United States" (47).
She talks about the `gangrene' of impartiality, in regards to the French hearing stories that are disturbing and pornographic. "Colonization, I repeat, dehumanizes even the most civilized man" (Césaire 41). A theme prevalent in films such as Black Girl, Chocolat, and Xala. It is easy to be impartial when one is ignorant.
good perception.......2004-01-23
I read Cesaire's 'discours sur le colonialisme' in one afternoon at a coffe place and it was captivating in how intellectually he wrote, with tinges of attitude in the words. A lot of the things he wrote about I already knew from studying a lot about Africa before and what ethnocentricism vs. ethno relativism means when applying yourself and perceptions of other cultures. This book is as applicable in the 1950's as today, I found that America seems to be the new France and Britain, as far as imperialism goes.
This book has so many good points about how one must look at the non Occidental world. Whenever I hear people talking about Africa in a degrading way in that the continent needs the Western world to give it medicine, schools, etc . . .it infuriates me with the lack of research these people have done. Although one can't expect everyone to know, but they would at least get a glimpse if they read this. They would see that it is the fault of the Occidentaux which is why Africa is in the state it is now. Before Europeans went there, the people of this rich, great continent had their own cultures, laws, languages, writing, religions that worked very well for them. Because they were different than Europes ways, they were viewed as primitive and uncivilized, but you can't measure a civilization by the same standards of another, far different one. Just because they didn't write their history down, doesn't mean they didn't have it. They used oral tradition for this, which is just one example of the European's prejudice. If Europe never went there, these African civilizations very well could have flourished and become great as the passage of time went along.
Colonization has done it's damage, Cesaire talks about decolonizing our minds, I wonder how long that will take to accomplish? I would recommend this short read to anyone who wants to try to get out of their own cultural shell and think about the way the world is viewed from the viewpoint of others.
Frantz Fanon is a more compelling read though, try "black skin, white masks" or "l'an V de la revolution algerienne/a dying colonialism"
Book Description
Analysing Discourse is an accessible introduction to text and discourse analysis for all students and researchers seeking to use and investigate real language data.
Students and researchers in the social sciences, as well as language specialists, often discover that they cannot get as much from texts, conversations or research interviews as they would like because they are unsure exactly how to analyze these language materials. This book helps all students and researchers who rely on real language data to get the most out of their resources.
Drawing on a range of social theorists from Bourdieu to Habermas, as well as his own past research, Fairclough's book presents a form of language analysis with a consistently social perspective. His approach is illustrated by and investigated through a range of real texts, from political speeches and TV news reports to management consultancy reports and texts concerning globalization.
The book is an essential resource seeking to analyze real texts and discourse.
Customer Reviews:
Tuff stuff.......2007-05-14
I bought this book for use in a class on rhetoric. It is difficult reading, but if you stick with it, it can help to give you a new perspcetive on thinking about the discourse around you.
Very comprehensive and detailed guide for text analysis.......2006-11-07
After months of walking in circles, trying to find a guide for analysing texts and at the same time following Fairclough's views on critical discourse analysis, I found this one and bought it at once. It saved my life! You won't find the detail and specificity of this one in any other of Fairclough's works, which are mainly conclusive but not detailed when it comes to specific texts.
This book focuses on text analysis, which is a part of Fairclough's wider development for a methodology of social research, called critical discourse analysis (CDA).
Fairclough's argument for including detailed text analysis in his project, is that, contrary to a widely-spread tradition inspired by the works of Foucault, that mainly relies on social theory for analysing discourse, discourse analysts shouldn't be limited to the traditional ways of theoretical social research, but instead they should be able to oscillate between the analysis at an abstract, structural level (orders of discourse) and what happens in particular texts.
With the help of work from various authors, such as Pierre Bourdieu, L. Chouliaraki, A. Giddens, J. Habbermans, M. Hallyday, and many others, Fairclough develops the framework of detailed linguistic analysis of texts, explaining first that there are three types of expressing meaning: Action, Representation and Identities, which can be unfold respectively in terms of the different Genres, Discourses and Styles that are present on discourses.
The book addresses each one of these aspects, along with examples from texts of public domain (interviews, political discourses, advertisements), covering selected social research issues, such as discourse in new capitalism, governance, social structures, hegemony, legitimation, etc. In particular, fairclough shows how linguistic and grammatical features in particular texts account for evidence of the different purposes and constructed meanings, not easily spotted at first sight.
A good source for students and researches in language and discourse, interested in processes of meaning making and social construction.
Book Description
In this groundbreaking book, John Winslade and Gerald Monk -- leaders in the narrative therapy movement-introduce an innovative conflict resolution paradigm that is a revolutionary departure from the traditional problem-solving, interest-based model of resolving disputes. The narrative mediation approach encourages the conflicting parties to tell their personal "story" of the conflict and reach resolution through a profound understanding of the context of their individual stories. The authors map out the theoretical foundations of this new approach to conflict resolution and show how to apply specific techniques for the practical application of narrative mediation to a wide-variety of conflict situations.
Customer Reviews:
Brilliant.......2007-03-09
I read this book in this entirety and now I read sections before almost every mediation I conduct. Mediators will benefit from this fascinating approach that externalizes the problem. Externalization allows for a fresh way to help people resolve conflict. I highly recommend this book.
A Social Constructionist Mediation Book.......2004-12-31
John Winslade and Gerald Monk are two social constructionists out of New Zealand who, according to their own jacket flap, are "leading figures" in the narrative therapy movement. Their's is an interesting book with an interesting thesis: instead of seeing mediation as a problem-solving process where competing interests are resolved, they see it as a process where competing "stories" (or narratives) of the conflict are "deconstructed" and an alternate story is reconstructed. That alternate story is fashioned in large part out of a recognition of the culturally-influenced power relationships between the dispuiting parties, and with awareness of the cultural biases of the mediator as well. This theory specifically acknowledges one of the real weaknesses with conventional mediation, which is that mediators often struggle to maintain the detached neutrality that is expected of them. The narrative approach also seeks to recalibtate the relationship between the disputants instead of simply solving a particular problem.
This grounding in social constuctionist theory is both the strentgh and limitation of this book. First of all, the book is a bit jargonistic in places, as befitting a text with this philosophical underpinning. I would have enjoyed less of the philosophical treatise and more extensive real world examples of how this kind of mediation would actually work in practice. In addition, there is a problem with the theory itself, and that is that it blurs the traditional distinction between mediation and therapy. Since both authors emerged from the Mediation Therapy movement, this may be inevitable, but it is nontheless problematic. While mediation that has a therapeutic objective may be useful at times in settings like divorce mediation (or other disputes where the parties are likely to maintain long-standing relationships), it is not likely to be appropriate in a business setting or for the resolution of small-claim type disputes.
An Interesting Approach.......2002-03-19
This book is a good read for anyone interested in the theory of mediation and why it works. I find the premise of this book to be somewhat over-complicated. Narrative mediation starts from the idea that everyone has their own "story", which positions people in different places which inevitably produce different agendas and therefore conflicts. The authors differentiate this from the traditional view that what gets people into conflicts is that they want something which is an expression of the inner needs or interest. As an experienced mediator, I find the authors' proposed methods of allowing the parties to tell their own stories not necessarily in conflict with the traditional view, as it seems to be an outgrowth of the need to allow the parties to "vent" their point of view, while at the same time encouraging them to listen to each other. However, while I agree that the parties "stories" do place them in different places, I do not agree that the fact that they have different stories necessarily leads to conflict. One cannot discount the existence of an underlying reason for the conflict, apart from the parties' "stories." This is where I part company with the authors. Even so, the book is very helpful for an understanding of the mediation process. For a good "nuts and bolts" book, I also recommend Basic Skills for the New Mediator by Allan H. Goodman, even if you are an experienced mediator.
Settlement Through Alternative Stories.......2001-10-29
In one of the finest general mediation books I have ever read, Winslade and Monk present a new perspective on the mediation of disputes. In a departure from the more structured models of mediation presented in the past, these authors introduce a revolutionary approach to the manner in which mediation is approached.
Their theory basically shows conflicts in light of the "life discourse" that people bring to the dispute. The application of "Narrative Mediation" is embodied in the concept, that it is the "story of how the conflict developed" from all parties perspective that is the MOST relevant factor in the deconstruction of the actual underlying issues which make up the conflict presented in each case. The mediator's role, is to allow the parties to describe these factors and through their stories, to reveal their personal positions and their personal influences of their lives that have created the situation and also, give commentary, albeit often unwittingly, as to the manner in which an "Alternative Story" can be developed, that will allow those parties to reconstruct a relationship and a resolution.
While it is certainly true, that the method suggested by Winslade and Monk in their book is more effective when the parties will have an ongoing relationship, it still represents a new and fresh look at the ways in which mediators help facilitate the solutions to the presenting problems. Even though the method seems more suited for such things as continuing employee/employer relationships or the aftermath of divorce, many of the topics covered still have tremendous value and application, even in cases, such as EEOC sexual harassment or constructive or wrongful discharge situations, that seem at least on the surface to be a purely "needs based" type of negotiation, where the parties never want to see each other ever again, post settlement.
Regardless of the type of mediation or ADR a practitioner is involved in, this book represents an extremely valuable insight into a new potential approach to mediation of conflict. The book is recommended for all people in general, but particularly for those involved in resolution of conflict on any level and in any venue. The book is a valuable contribution to the growing library of material on the topic of conflict resolution and should be carefully read and integrated as part of any ADR practitioners skill set.
Stories of respect, cooperation, understanding and peace.......2000-07-15
The authors offer an alternative to the typical problem-solving approach to mediation. The narrative mediation process has three phases: engagement, deconstructing the conflict-saturated story and constructing an alternative story. In the second phase, the mediator attempts to separate the parties from the conflict-saturated story. The mediator seeks gently to undermine the perceived certainties on which the conflicts feeds. In the third phase, the mediator helps craft an alternative story that may lead to settlement of the conflict, but should lead to the development of cooperation and respect between the parties. Narrative mediation also incorporates the idea that people construct stories about the conflict that relate to the cultural "narratives" or stories that form around ethnicity, gender, class, education and financial wealth. Thus, men may bring to a divorce mediation a sense of entitlement based on cultural stories about gender roles. Whites may bring to a dispute a sense of entitlement based on cultural stories about race. The mediator may also bring these stories of entitlement into the process. I especially liked the lengthy role plays used to illustrate specific points. I have also used in my mediation practice the techniques for documenting progress. Letters to the parties at different stages of the process can serve as mileposts in the mediation journey, acknowledging the parties' committment to the process, tracing the effects of the dispute on the parties' lives and well-being, putting the conflict into a meaningful sequence of events, highlighting potential outcomes that the parties have begun to explore, reinforcing process agreements, recording agreements the parties have reached up to that time and preventing slippage back into entrenched positions or conflict-saturated stories. This book was not an easy read, but it has been very useful in my practice.
Book Description
This remarkable book introduces us to four unforgettable Apache people, each of whom offers a different take on the significance of places in their culture. Apache conceptions of wisdom, manners and morals, and of their own history are inextricably intertwined with place, and by allowing us to overhear his conversations with Apaches on these subjects Basso expands our awareness of what place can mean to people.
Most of us use the term sense of place often and rather carelessly when we think of nature or home or literature. Our senses of place, however, come not only from our individual experiences but also from our cultures. Wisdom Sits in Places, the first sustained study of places and place-names by an anthropologist, explores place, places, and what they mean to a particular group of people, the Western Apache in Arizona. For more than thirty years, Keith Basso has been doing fieldwork among the Western Apache, and now he shares with us what he has learned of Apache place-names—where they come from and what they mean to Apaches.
"This is indeed a brilliant exposition of landscape and language in the world of the Western Apache. But it is more than that. Keith Basso gives us to understand something about the sacred and indivisible nature of words and place. And this is a universal equation, a balance in the universe. Place may be the first of all concepts; it may be the oldest of all words."—N. Scott Momaday
"In Wisdom Sits in Places Keith Basso lifts a veil on the most elemental poetry of human experience, which is the naming of the world. In so doing he invests his scholarship with that rarest of scholarly qualities: a sense of spiritual exploration. Through his clear eyes we glimpse the spirit of a remarkable people and their land, and when we look away, we see our own world afresh."—William deBuys
"A very exciting book—authoritative, fully informed, extremely thoughtful, and also engagingly written and a joy to read. Guiding us vividly among the landscapes and related story-tellings of the Western Apache, Basso explores in a highly readable way the role of language in the complex but compelling theme of a people's attachment to place. An important book by an eminent scholar."—Alvin M. Josephy, Jr.
Explores the connections of place, language, wisdom, and morality among the Western Apache.
Customer Reviews:
Moral sites.......2007-09-13
What do people make of places? Basso's opening sentence is a good example of what the Apache call `letting one's mind have room'. As we read through the chapters of the book Basso continues to add layers to the meaning of this opening question. It allows us to reflect on various uses of the word `make'. We make sense of places by interpreting them. We make places intelligible by foregrounding them. We make use of places; as sign posts or land-marks through the use of descriptive naming. We make places or constitute them as sites or repositories of learning; we invest them as placeholders for morality tales or homilies. We make places vital; we invest them with agency, we enchant them, animate them, in the spirit of golems; we take a piece of earth and through magic or metaphysics we bring it alive, giving it a mission and a life of its own.
Wisdom sits in places. The Apache are a good example of virtue ethics. This is a theory of ethics, usually based on Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, which argues against an ethical universalism and in favor of a particularism. It foregoes the quest for nomothetic foundations and looks instead to the development of certain skills or character traits. Aristotle created a catalogue of areas of behavior or traits with a continuum of possible dispositions. The virtuous behavior was the means between the two extremes of each continuum. Thus the virtue of bravery was somewhere in the range between cowardice and foolhardiness or irrational voluntarism in the face of impossible odds or a meaningless risk.
Aristotle's concept of phronesis finds an interesting parallel in the Apache moral imagination. Phronesis is a meta-virtue; it is the ability to choose the right action for each particular event; the ability to find the virtuous means between vicious poles. It is the essential skill for particularism which is the theory that the right action, the correct moral choice is particular to each unique event. It is opposed to the universalist proposition that there are sets of moral propositions or codes that we can apply in a covering law model. Universalism holds that when two of our moral codes clash we resolve the dilemma by applying a meta-rule, most commonly a deontological (Kantian) or utilitarian proposition.
The Apache's sense of wisdom is a good example of a pragmatic ethics informed by a set of virtues that are learned and continually developed throughout their life's journey. In the first chapter we note how each speaker brings the homily (the moral lesson associated with a place name) forward, making it their own, fleshing it out. One imagines that each speaker and hearer of place names is expected to silently immerse themselves in each homily; making it real by seeing it happen. The act of giving vision to the oral narrative is a process of developing layers upon layers of particular exemplars of the lesson. It is thus internalized and carried forward for the next use. As one gains wisdom one becomes more proficient at seeing when and where to apply these lessons.
This is similar to the thought of the American pragmatist and logician, C. S. Peirce, who proposed a fallibilism about knowledge, truth, and scientific results. He felt that we were always discovering more and that a full statement of any putative universal law was always deferred. Peirce's original pragmatism differed from what James and Dewey later made of it. For Peirce we expanded our sense of a truth through a process of discovering layers upon layers of particular applications and gradually gaining more of an understanding of the wider truth. But his sense of fallibilism posited rich moral concepts such as justice or duty as essentially contested concepts.
We have maps in our heads. There are other interesting parallels with the ancient Greeks besides virtue ethics. There is a significant body of study regarding Plato's thought on the spoken and written word. Plato argued that reality resides in absolute and eternal forms. Thus the impressions available to our senses are imitations that is but a shadow of these eternal truths; they confuse us and should not be trusted. Worse still are the imitations of imitations; thus his polemics against poetry, art, and the written word. It would be interesting to combine this with the study of texts in the 20th century to look at the Apache's preference for maps in the head. Barthes, Derrida and others all expanded our notion of what can serve as texts and it might be interesting to look at Apache use of places through some of those lenses.
In addition there are interesting parallels with the sophists. Although Plato and Socrates succeeded in creating our contemporary disdain for sophism, recent work in the study of Isocrates and others brings a new appreciation of certain tenets of sophism. The sophists exhibited some similarities to the Apache notions of epistemology. They both saw the elders and ancestors as the source of wisdom and warrants for knowledge to be used for current problems. They both argued that the knowledge of the past resided less in universal laws than in practices of the ancestors; actual responses to past dilemmas that are best accessed through interpretation rather than a rote use of the covering law model or a slavish rehearsal of rigid and dogmatic rituals.
They both thought that knowledge (as justified true belief) was discovered and ultimately ratified and warranted by the voice of the majority; the interpretation that found the most general favor. The sophists proposed that vigorous debate in an open forum of citizens is the most epistemologically sound form of inquiry. Their best speakers would take both sides on various propositions of what the ancestors would have done in the current crisis. The goal was to make the best possible argument for all options and let the citizenry decide.
Both the ancient Greeks and the Apache continued to observe religious rituals but it would also be interesting to compare characteristics of their religious cosmology, the role of the gods, and their associations with natural entities and nature in general.
A Must Own for collectors of Apache Culture.......2006-08-20
Anthropologists, language students, and Native American culture afficionados will find this book, and any by Keith Basso, written links into a cultural past which struggles to exist today. As the Western Apache tribes become more modern, the information found in this and other Keith Basso writings, become necessities in the preservation of traditional Apache culture; with the exception of the knowledge of a few hundred very traditional Apaches still living in Arizona.
Wisdom Sits in Places.......2005-09-26
This book was mediocre at best. Although Keith Basso did provide some insight into why the Apache people cherish their land, I felt that Basso kept on saying the exact same thing in every sentence. I had the point of the entire book by the time I was ten pages into it, and it kept on going, therefore making me lose my concentration on what I was reading.
strong and thorough examination.......2004-12-01
What do people make of places? This is the central question examined by Keith Basso in his ethno-linguistic study of the relationship between language and landscape among the Apaches of Cibecue, on the Fort Apache Reservation in central Arizona. Basso, a professor of Anthropology at the University of New Mexico, has spent over 30 years conducting field work among the Western Apaches. His publications concerning this group include articles on language, patterns of silence in social interaction, witchcraft beliefs, and ceremonial symbolism, among others. The idea for Wisdom Sits in Places stemmed from a study conducted between 1979 and 1984, in which Basso, with the help of a grant from the National Science Foundation and the guidance of the Apaches, conducted a study of Apache places and place-names; how the Apache refer to their land, the stories behind the place-names, and how these place-names are used in daily conversation by Apache men and women. The result is a stunningly informative account of the use of landscape and language in the social interactions of the Western Apaches.
Basso divides his book into four sections: Quoting the Ancestors, Stalking with Stories, Speaking with Names, and Wisdom Sits in Places. Each chapter's focus is to examine how landscape and language serve distinct purposes in Western Apache society. Basso incorporates the oral history of, and discussions with, local Apaches, as well as his formal training as an ethnographer-linguist, to explain the underlying themes of this book.
First, Basso introduces the reader to the idea of place-names and in the Western Apache construction of history. As conceived by the Apaches, the past is a "well-worn `path' or `trail' which was traveled first by the people's founding ancestors and which subsequent generations of Apaches have traveled ever since" (31). The ancestors gave names to places, based on events that occurred there. Regardless of the physical changes in the landscape that occurred over time, the story of what took place, as well as the place-name, was passed down through generations and serves as a connection between the people and their ancestors.
Second, Basso examines how the language and the land are "manipulated by Apaches to promote compliance with standards for acceptable social behavior and the moral values which support them" (41). The historical tales of place-names are without exception morality tales, intended to influence patterns of social action. Their purpose is to serve as warnings, criticisms, and enlightenment for those who are behaving improperly; not in accordance with the Apache way of life. The telling of a historical tale is "intended as a critical and remedial response" to an individual's having committed one or more social offenses. Apaches contend that if the message is taken to heart, a lasting bond will have been created between that individual and the site at which the events in the tale took place. In short, the land, accompanied with its historical tale, "makes the people live right" (61).
Third, through the act of "speaking with names", place-names can be condensed "into compact form their essential moral truths" (101). "Speaking with names" is considered appropriate only under certain circumstances, generally to enable those who engage in it "to acknowledge a regrettable circumstance without explicitly judging it, to exhibit solicitude without openly proclaiming it, and to offer advice without appearing to do so" (91). Evoking images of a particular place and narrative thus replaces a more direct form of advice or criticism, with "a minimum of linguistic means" (103).
Finally, with the guidance of his Apache friend, Dudley Patterson, Basso examines the path of wisdom in Western Apache society. Patterson explains there are two mental conditions, "steadiness of mind", and "resilience of mind", which lead to a third and most desirable condition, smoothness of mind. These three conditions are not innate; therefore, one must work on one's mind in order to gain wisdom. To work on one's mind, "one must observe different places, learn their Apache place-names, and reflect on traditional narratives that underscore the virtues of wisdom" (134). A resilient mind, according to Patterson, does not "give in to panic or fall prey to spasms of anxiety or succumb to spells of crippling worry" (132). A steady mind is "unhampered by feelings of arrogance or pride, anger or vindictiveness, jealously or lust" (133). Steadiness and resilience give way to a sense of "cleared space" or "area free of obstruction", conditions necessary for smoothness of mind. Only those who continue on the trail of wisdom their whole lives come closest to having a smooth mind, and are "able to foresee disaster, fend off misfortune, and avoid explosive conflicts with other persons" (131). Thus, wisdom is intertwined with the idea of survival through the consistent and thoughtful evocation of landscape and language.
Keith Basso and the Western Apaches of Cibecue have provided readers with an insightful and provocative account of the connection between language, land, and a people's cultural history. Wisdom Sits in Places opens the door for future research on place-names by shedding light on a previously overshadowed topic in anthropological studies. Basso's dissection of certain stories and social interactions can be overwhelming and a bit dry, but his purpose is made clear when his examinations are added together with the Apache narratives. What results is a clear picture of what language and landscape mean to the Western Apaches, the functional versatility of place-names, and the importance of being aware of one's sense of place.
Places and Stories.......2004-01-26
Basso's writing is extraordinary. This great book consists of engaging articles that merge linguistics with cultural anthropology in an approach called the "ethnography of speaking." Placing this jargon aside, the approach is to demonstrate how Apaches use names, stories, and other ways of speaking to create and maintain their culture. Basso's work provides deep insight into Apache life, and it also serves as a model for ways to understand how language plays an important role in everyday life.
Book Description
Stressing the role of conversation, argument and negotiation in politics, particularly in democratic government, this book offers an empirical study of deliberative politics. Using the parliamentary debates in Germany, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States as an empirical base, the authors measure the level of deliberation by constructing a discourse quality index, characterized by a high inter-coder reliability.
Download Description
'Deliberative politics' refers to the role of conversation and arguments in politics. Until recently discussion of deliberative politics took place almost exclusively among political philosophers, but many questions raised in this philosophical discussion cry out for empirical investigation. This book provides the first extended empirical study of deliberative politics, addressing, in particular, questions of the preconditions and consequences of high level deliberation. Using parliamentary debates in Germany, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States as an empirical base, the authors measure the level of deliberation by constructing a 'Discourse Quality Index'. As deliberative politics moves to the forefront of political theory, this book makes an important contribution to deliberative democracy.
Customer Reviews:
A sound piece of research.......2005-06-07
If you are interested in the empirical implications of the philosophical literature on deliberative politics, then this book is worth buying. Why? Well, it is simply the first attempt to use Habermas' discourse ethics as a research framework to study parliamentary deliberation. This was done over several years in a cross-national basis (US, UK, Germany and Switzerland) by a team led by Prof. Jürg Steiner. Neatly organized, clear, and very convincing, this book should also be read as a source of inspiration for future research (see pp. 166-169), specially in the informal arenas of the public sphere that Habermas so highly praises.
Book Description
As perhaps the best book of feminist theology to date, She Who is is at once thoroughly orthodox, grounded in classical Christian thought, liberating contemporary, and rooted in Women's experience. Library Journal
Customer Reviews:
Theology of Sophia.......2005-09-13
Johnson sets out in this book to articulate metaphors for God that are feminine in nature. This serves to counter-balance prodominantly masculine metaphors received from classical tradition. The term Sophia is particularly important.
Johnson explores this topic in four sections. First, she discusses the importance of speech about God and the impact of a feminist perspective. Second, she outlines three resources from which to draw feminine metaphors: women's experience, Scripture, and classical theology. Third, she articulates her understanding of the persons of the Trinity, beginning with the Spirit. Finally, she turns attention to the unity of God and God's suffering.
This book should be required reading for all men interested in theology. We must be aware of the importance of our speech about God. I have only two concerns. First, although Johnson does not seek to eliminate masculine metaphors for God, she avoids them totally in her book. This creates a tension between two equally exclusive forms of speech. Second, the experience of women is important in the book. This is only a problem if we allow experience to alter the way we understand God rather than allowing our understanding of God to illumine our experience. Johnson comes closer to the former.
This is a thought provoking book. It should be read by all interested in speaking of God faithfully.
A must read for any inclusive theology.......2004-12-31
Over the course of Christian history, women have been disenfranchised and oppressed. Patriarchal systems and androcentric mentalities have marginalized women sociologically and psychologically, even within the Christian community. Elizabeth Johnson believes this oppression stems from the language used for God. Because God is referred to exclusively and literally as a male, women have reduced roles within Christianity. Johnson seeks to use new imagery and metaphors for speech about God, in order to emancipate women from this oppression. Johnson recognizes that all language about God is inadequate, but using feminine imagery for God restores human dignity in women and men and helps with the flourishing of humanity.
Structurally, Johnson achieves this goal in four parts. In Part I, Johnson provides context and background for new speech about God. Because speech about God influences identity and praxis, new language for God must be sought. A solution to this problem can be explored using feminist theology, and Johnson provides basic feminist principles for theology. Lastly, Johnson discusses traditional approaches to speaking inclusively about God, and establishes that it is her intent to use only feminine imagery for God. Moving from the background to the foreground, Johnson builds her methodology, in Part II, by using three resources: experience, scripture, and classical theology. The experience of women is central to her theology, and while scripture is integral, Johnson seeks the reclamation of feminine imagery. Johnson also salvages certain principles in classical theology to use in her theology: the divine incomprehensibility, the need for analogy in God-speak, and the need for many names for God. In Part III, Johnson applies reclaimed feminine imagery to each Person in the Trinity. Beginning with the Spirit, and then moving to Jesus and God, Johnson explores what feminine imagery points to in God. Finally, in Part IV, Johnson uses feminine symbols, culminating in SHE WHO IS, to explain the immanent Trinity, the economic Trinity, and God's relation to the suffering world.
Interesting for both, men and women, lay-people and clerics........2004-03-27
An excellent book that one should take enough time to read slowly and thoroughly.
Elizabeth Johnson starts by looking for an appropriate word in order to refer to the Divine. It is common practice to say that God is Spirit. An interesting thing about this is that the word "Spirit" has gradually shifted from being feminine in Hebrew, to neutral in greek and ultimately masculine in latin. This is not much of a surprise in a male-dominated world. In itself this does not necessarily indicate an improvement in the adequacy of our concept of God. But if we consider this particular history of the word, it may suggest that in order to improve our image of God, we need at least to integrate all three aspects: the feminine, the neutral and the masculine.
This will help us take into consideration the fact that God transcends all categories. It will help us deepen our perception of God as mystery.
The important for all those who try to link with the Absolute is to know that God is, more than to know exactly what she, it, or he, is.
Another interesting fact that the author points out in the same perspective, is that the Spirit as such, has never been given a proper name.
Spirit is considered more often than not as an impersonal power, like a blowing wind or a breath in motion.
The title of the book is a clear indication that the author approaches the mystery of God from a feminine point of view.
This is done in a constructive way, without being too aggressive. Even when she suggests that Christ's ability to be savior does not reside in his maleness, but in his huge and steadfast capability to love.
More challenging are her comments on the suggestion made by a number of authors, that the Spirit was, at least for some time, hypostatically united to Mary.
To my view, this offers a good way of understanding the Christian creed when it claims that Christ was conceived from the Spirit and born from Mary.
Altogether, this book is a good incentive for women, but also a real challenge for men.
As a follow-up I would recommend the reading of her more recent book "Truly our sister". Quite logically, after dealing in the present book, with the feminine in God she focuses in the new one, on Mary as a major symbol of the feminine in humankind who also enjoyed a unique relationship to the feminine in God.
The world needs She Who Is.......2002-05-19
Johnson writes with an ultimate goal in mind, that of a transformation into new community. Her vision is one in which harmony with each other and with the earth are realized; an eschatological dream of a new heaven and a new earth where justice dwells and partnership reigns.
As a first step toward this vision her book offers theologicaly founded evidence for expanding our image of God. Language functions; selling a god of violence,or superiority based on maleness or color is not helping us to realize a vision of the kindom of God put forth by Jesus-one where all are included at God's loving banquet. Without this first step toward expanding God's image we humans will always be in violent dissonance with each other and with the earth.
I have read this book no less than six times, it has infomed my vision of the world and my personal goals in life. The language she uses is poetical and moves to the core of our being linking us with the holy.
Some interesting insights....but based on faulty assumptions.......2001-12-02
I found the book to be an endless and somewhat unnecessary attack on classical theism. Her notions of pauline theology, based on a platonic dualism, have been shown to be baseless. The disparities and divisions of the church and society are not proven in her work to stem from classical theism, but are assumed. The church which she diminishes has worked to bridge culturally created divisions, which she fails to admit to. Her pandering into pantheism and panentheism are also disappointing, for she reveals her true intention of not reforming the church, but espousing a new religion.
Book Description
Recipient of the 1994 Critics' Choice Award from the American Educational Studies Association
"This exposition of the principles of narrative analysis is a crisp and thankfully accessible introduction to a range of more or less formal techniques for the interpretation of first-person oral narratives. . . . Riessman organizes her discussion in a down-to-earth way. . . ."
--Patricia Uberoi in Contributions to Indian Sociology
"Her concise and well-organized book,
Narrative Analysis, contributes important insights to the qualitative methods literature. It is directed toward scholars and graduate students of various disciplines, as a methodological guide for analyzing transcripts of first-person stories or experiences. The book is also relevant for researchers interested in the substantive areas of women's lives and medical sociology . . . . Riessman's book provides a useful guide for marketing researchers; particularly those aligned with the interpretive camp . . . . because marketing researchers are increasingly interested in studying both consumers' and managers' stories. . .
Narrative Analysis should be useful to an even wider audience."
--George M. Zinkhan & Denise E. Delorme in Journal of Marketing
"Catherine Kohler Riessman's handbook not only provides a basic introduction to the social scientist using narrative as a tool, but also offers a strand of feminist research as her central example . . . . It is a useful text to include in course offerings on discourse analysis."
--Discourse and Society
"The book offers communication researchers some of the best recent work on qualitative inquiry in the human disciplines . . . . Published by Sage, the leading publisher of qualitative research in the social sciences today . . . . The heart of her tightly argued text turns on forms of narrative (linked stories, conversations, life stories) and their analysis . . . . This work should be read against and alongside Atkinson and Silverman . . . . This work brings the communication scholar up-to-date on where qualitative methods are in current sociological and educational discourse." --Norman K. Denzin in Journal of Communication "[This book] does what it intends to do and does that clearly and with lively and interesting examples. I think both students and teachers will find it compelling and useful. I plan to assign it in my seminar on narrative and description next semester."
--Jay Gubrium, University of Florida
"In this text, Catherine Kohler Riessman discusses many of the important questions that face narrative scholars. As such, the book is a good introductory text for narrative methodology. For those who have read within the field previously, this work reminds the reader of some of the important questions that need to be addressed in narrative work . . . . This text is a valuable effort in an attempt to synthesize some of the main aspects of narrative methodology."
--Journal of Contemporary Ethnography
"An excellent resource for individuals interested in the systematic use of narrative in social science research."
--The American Journal of Family Therapy
People tell stories to help organize and make sense of their lives. In the past, their narratives have often been torn apart by social scientists looking for themes, variables, and specific answers to specific questions. But in recent years, the development of narrative analysis has given life to the study of the narrative as a form of information for social research. Why are they constructed as they are? How does one dissect a narrative to understand the lived experience of the narrator? What steps can the researcher take to translate these tales and life stories into usable research? Catherine Kohler Riessman provides a detailed primer on the use of narrative analysis, its theoretical underpinnings and worldview, and the methods it uses. Replete with examples and transcriptions from previous narrative studies, her book is a useful introduction to this growing body of literature.
Customer Reviews:
Concise and enlightning book.......2007-02-07
Excellent guideline to how to approach narrative analysis. Gives clear examples and their advantages and pitfalls.
Succinct, Instructive, and Accessible.......2001-05-22
Riessman's Narrative Analysis is an excellent tool for those beginning research using narratives as the primary source of data and/or conducting ethnographic inquiry. Written in clear, accessible language the text introduces readers to the advantages of using narratives in research, the current debates in use of narratives, and the various perspectives on narrative inquiry. More than anything, the text provides an overview of current paradigms and schools of thought.
Though many additions have been made to the area of inquiry since the book was written in 1993, it nonetheless provides a great introduction to the use of narrative in research and the reading of texts based on narratives.
Further, Riessman is not afraid to cross disciplinary boundaries. Weaving together semiotics, feminist theory, post positivist schools of thought, hermeneutics, anthropology, and sociology, she provides a basic framework that, if not exhaustive, at least gives a picture of the current state-of-the-art. The references section alone is worth the cost of the book!
Narrative Analysis.......2000-11-29
Narrative Analysis by Catherine Kohler Riessman presents the reader with a strong rationale for conducting qualitative research in the humanities from the perspective of the personal experience narrative. Notions of re-presenting to a reader or audience from personal lived experience in order to make meaning from that experience is a theme often stated in this monograph. Vivid examples are given throughout the text, making the theoretical come alive for the reader. Not only is the book written in a friendly style, but the examples yield practicality for a researcher as well. I have used the methodology that Riessman describes for several years with significant success.
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