Sociology 880-001 - Fall 1992
TEXTUALLY-MEDIATED SOCIAL ORGANIZATION
Prof. Marjorie DeVault
Dept. of Sociology, 104 Sims
443-4030 (office), 426-9957 (home)
Office hours: Wed. 1-5 p.m. and by appointment
Tues. 2-5 p.m.
Archbold 207
This course will explore an approach to the analysis of
texts as constituents of social organization. It will rely
primarily on the work of Dorothy Smith, with supplementary
readings to provide background and examples of work in this
tradition.
Borrowing from Smith, the course will be concerned with:
"(a) phenomenon. . .to which sociology has been
extraordinarily blind. . .(but which is) also ubiquitous--at
least in contemporary society. We are constantly implicated in
and active in it--indeed this. . .(course description is). .
.among its manifestations. . .As intellectuals we take it for
granted as much as we take for granted the air we breathe. Yet
it not only constitutes both the arena and the means of our
professional work, but permeates our everyday world in other
ways. We get passports, birth certificates, parking tickets; we
fill in forms to apply for jobs, for insurance, for dental
benefits; we are given grades, diplomas, degrees; we pay bills
and taxes; we read and answer advertisements; we order from menus
in restaurants, take a doctor's prescription to the drugstore,
write letters to newspapers; we watch television, go to the
movies, and so on and so on." (Texts, Facts, and Femininity, p.
209)
Textual practices are viewed, in this approach, as integral
to relations of ruling in contemporary society. Textual
practices are viewed as ideological; but this approach does not
involve studying ideology itself, as a phenomenon that can be
separated from social organization. Rather, we will concerned
with texts of various sorts as organizers of activity in local
settings.
We will operate as a seminar, with common readings and a
good deal of work organized around student presentations. Each
student will develop a project that involves analysis of activity
organized through texts. Such projects will typically require
880 - p. 2
both textual analysis and fieldwork. Some familiarity with
Smith's work will be helpful, though it is not required.
Textbooks (available at the Orange Bookstore):
The Conceptual Practices of Power: A Feminist Sociology of
Knowledge, by Dorothy E. Smith
Texts, Facts, and Femininity: Exploring the Relations of
Ruling, by Dorothy E. Smith
Other materials will be available on reserve.
Course requirements:
1. Regular and well-prepared participation in the seminar,
including occasional service as discussion leader.
2. A short (4-7 pages) theoretical essay that explicates some
aspect of the analysis of textually-mediated social
organization, and locates the issues involved within the
broader currents of contemporary social theory. (I will
supply a few supplementary reserve readings you may find
useful for this project.) Due Oct. 27.
3. A term paper based on your course project, a focused
analysis of some aspect of the textual coordination of social
life. Due Dec. 21.
Outline of readings:
Sept. 1
Introductions and discussion of seminar format.
[Sept. 8 redefined to Monday]
I.
Theoretical framework
Sept. 15
Texts, ch. 7: "Textually-Mediated Social Organization."
Conceptual Practices, Chs. 2-4:
"The Ideological Practice of Sociology"
"The Social Organization of Textual Reality"
"Textual Realities, Ruling, and the Suppression of
Disjuncture"
Sept. 22
Texts, ch. 2: "K is Mentally Ill"
Harold Garfinkel, "The Origins of the Term
'Ethnomethodology'"; "Studies of the Routine Grounds
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Reasons
of Everyday Activity"; “‘Good’ Organizational
for ‘Bad’ Clinic Records” (reserve)
Don Zimmerman, "Fact as a Practical Accomplishment"
(reserve)
Sept. 29
Conceptual Practices, Chs. 6-7:
"No One Commits Suicide"
"Ideological Methods of Reading and Writing Texts"
[Oct. 6 redefined to Wednesday]
Oct. 13
Texts, ch. 3 and 5:
"The Social Organization of Subjectivity"
"The Active Text"
Schutz, "On Multiple Realities" (reserve)
Review ch. 7, "Textually-Mediated Social
Organization"
II. Exemplars
Oct. 20
Oct. 27:
Oct. 27
Gillian Walker, excerpts from Family Violence and the
Women's Movement: The Conceptual Politics of
Struggle (reserve)
Short essay due.
George Smith, “Policing the Gay Community: An Inquiry
into Textually-Mediated Social Relations”
(reserve)
Peter Grahame, "Finding the Reader: Early Consumer
Activism and the Project of Consumer Literacy"
(reserve)
Nov. 3
Discourse"
Dorothy Smith, Texts, ch. 6: "Femininity as
Dorothy Smith and Alison Griffith, "Constructing
Cultural Knowledge: Mothering as Discourse"
(reserve)
Nov. 10
Adele Mueller, "The 'Discovery' of Women in
Development"
(reserve)
Roxana Ng (reserve)
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Nov. 17
Timothy Diamond, excerpts from Making Gray Gold:
Narratives of Nursing Home Life (reserve)
Alison Griffith (reserve)
Nov. 24
Seminar presentations.
Dec. 1
"
Dec. 8
"
Dec. 15
"
Dec. 21:
Final paper due.