CHYS 2P38 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Michel Foucault, Social Fact, Positivism
14 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
"children are and must be seen as active in the construction and determination of their
own social lives, the lives around them and of the societies in which they live.
Children are not just passive subjects of social structures and processes." (1997:8)
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This "new" paradigm was a significant shift of what came before- positivistic
sociology and psychology that focused more on what the would (or would not)
become, rather than what they were
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Prout and James Constructing and Reconstructing Childhood (1990) and Theorizing
Childhood (1998)
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Ideas and values that people have on how they understand the world
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Empirical research
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"mirror of nature"
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Study of social facts
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Objective Representation- Emilie Durkheim
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"the effects of truth"
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Political forces that are trying to change neutral populations
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Knowledge as a discourse shaped by power
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Power/Knowledge- Michael Foucault
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Everything we see and study in the world is interpreted differently
depending on the individual
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Focus on interpretation
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All sentences are human constructions that have different values and
meanings
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All truths are human constructions
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"truths are sentences"
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Human beings live in webs of meanings that humans themselves weave
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"webs of meaning"
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Interpretive/ Hermeneutic
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3 Lenses of Social Scientists
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More diversity and perspective ideas than we have ever seen before
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Theory is not the purview of white man- but increasingly being created by women, LGBTQ
and scholars of color
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Missing out other sides and stories
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Theoretical lenses- can clarify phenomenon, but can also distort
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Look at it from their point of view
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How to understand a child from different perspectives
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To think theoretically is to place phenomena in a broader field of significance
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For your seminar facilitation, you will be asked to place the assigned article in a broader
field by using this framework
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Theories
Begin next week
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Engage your classmates: eye contact, ask questions or fir questions, give examples
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10 minute summary of the findings and theoretical perspective of the paper
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Write effective questions that are designed to stimulate 20-25 minute debate and discussion
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Organize and rehearse your presentation
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Effective speakers look focused and relaxed
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Seminar Facilitations
Missionary and a failed medical student
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Focused on poverty of children in the east side of London
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Provided children with food, comfort and education
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Scheme: Take orphans and find them homes in Canada and Australia
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Thomas Bernardo and the origins of child saving
Week 2- Lenses and Theories
CHYS 2P38 Page 1
