{"id":463,"date":"2013-12-27T13:57:00","date_gmt":"2013-12-27T13:57:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/beta.dminlgp.com\/?p=463"},"modified":"2014-08-13T18:48:03","modified_gmt":"2014-08-13T18:48:03","slug":"elliot-theoretically-were-all-social","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/elliot-theoretically-were-all-social\/","title":{"rendered":"Elliot_Theoretically, We’re All Social"},"content":{"rendered":"

The idea of society is contested ground.\u00a0 There is a multiplicity of competing definitions vying for preeminence as to how society ought to be construed and enacted.\u00a0 This multiplicity is what Anthony Elliot proceeds to engage throughout Contemporary Social Theory: An Introduction<\/em> as he reviews concepts and people propagating such ideas and theories.<\/p>\n

Elliot notes that some view society as primarily good while others view it less positively.\u00a0 Some view the idea of society itself as largely an outmoded abstraction that bears little relevance to today.\u00a0 Society as it has been understood is too bounded and has essentially ceased to exist in such rigidified form according to some.\u00a0 Others suggest that the proposed demise of more structured forms of social connectivity is primarily to be understood as the phantasmical rantings of a select minority of continental European theorists.\u00a0 Again, the idea of society is contested ground.<\/p>\n

What is perhaps the most vital throughout all of the varied topics and people that Elliot explores in his text is the concept that how we are able to conceptualize the world affects our ability to engage in\/with it.\u00a0 The more limited our understanding the more limited the choice of action we have to pursue.\u00a0 The more expansive our comprehension the more options we have at any given moment. \u00a0Elliot suggests that everyone has some level of sociological understanding and it is from such understanding that people act.\u00a0 As Elliot is correct, it stands to reason then that the more well-educated people are on possibilities of social interconnectivity the more likely well-reasoned, helpful behaviors will transpire.<\/p>\n

However, there are really no easy answers when it comes to us and our interactions with each other and with the world writ large.\u00a0 Everything is fluctuating and ideas and decisions must constantly be reevaluated with less than perfect information available at any given moment.\u00a0 This is where all of the different ideas and people propagating them come-in vying for our attention and allegiance.\u00a0 The best answers tend to lie somewhere in the miasma of learning about as many concepts as possible and creating a personal quilt of ideas stitched together with the best ongoing attempt at reason available at any given time.<\/p>\n

To greater and lesser extents, Elliott looks at well-known theorists such as Giddens, Derrida, Foucalt, Zizek, Lyotard, Bauman, Habermas, Adorno, Marcuse, Barthes, Bordieu, Kristeva, Irigary, Baudrillard, Butler, Levi-Strauss, and others.\u00a0 We are led on a grand journey through nouveaux social thought and all of the newly created terminology that accompanies such endeavors.<\/p>\n

In the midst of all the discussion are the ideas of how we are and are not connected and disconnected. Does someone only possess one way of being in the world or does someone simultaneously embody and enact multiple allegiances \u2013 all both integrated with and exclusive from each other to varying extents?\u00a0 Of these discussions, the idea of globalization has been and continues to be one of the key social theory touchstones of recent eras.\u00a0 How can one be connected to the globe?\u00a0 On the other hand, how can it be understood that anyone can be anything but so connected other than through placing artificial boundaries\/blinders \u00a0around them?\u00a0 In order to attempt to move away from the dichotomy of the local and the global \u2013 seeking to give more room for nuance \u2013 terms like \u201cglocalization\u201d (a combination of local and global) have come to be conceptualized and used.<\/p>\n

Elliott ends his text considering specifically how the idea of social theory will move forward toward 2025.\u00a0 In this final section, Elliott showcases how many (perhaps even, most) of the social theorists written about have moved beyond conceptualization toward substantive socio-political engagement in society.\u00a0 For those who tend to be critical of \u201chigh-minded\u201d thinking that gets trapped in the \u201civory-tower\u201d of academia, Elliott\u2019s review should offer a pause for reconsideration.\u00a0 Developing meaningful theories does take time (often lots of it).\u00a0 However, once such theories are available for consultation, evaluation and reevaluation they often provide previously unimagined ways forward.\u00a0 Therefore, let us remember that theory and practice are not two polar opposites, but two sides of the same coin.\u00a0 Let us give time for each to do the work that is necessary under each concept and theoretically we will find ourselves overall socially better off.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The idea of society is contested ground.\u00a0 There is a multiplicity of competing definitions vying for preeminence as to how society ought to be construed and enacted.\u00a0 This multiplicity is what Anthony Elliot proceeds to engage throughout Contemporary Social Theory: An Introduction as he reviews concepts and people propagating such ideas and theories. Elliot notes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2,196],"class_list":["post-463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dminlgp","tag-elliot","cohort-lgp4"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=463"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1793,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463\/revisions\/1793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}