ETHN 14:
Introduction to Asian American Studies
Department of
Ethnic Studies &
Asian American
Studies Program
California State
University,
Sacramento
Week 4 Session 1
Key Theories and Concepts
Last Time
• Described the idea of experience from a
phenomenological perspective.
• Introduced an interdisciplinary framework that
we will use to explore racialized experiences
in the United States, with special focus on the
Asian and Pacific Islander American
experience.
Today
• Define and discuss power, culture, social structure,
and identity
Phenomenology
• Phenomenology studies structures of conscious
experience from the first-person point of view.
• Scholars who work from a phenomenological
orientation are concerned with the relevant conditions
of “experience,” or what shapes experiences.
Experience and Ethnic Studies
• In ethnic studies and related fields, the notion of experience is
often central to how researchers analyze complex social
dynamics.
– African American Experience
– Chicana/o Experience in Post-World War II United States
– Deaf Experience
– How the industrial revolution altered the working class
American Experience
– The experience of Asian American gay men
– The experience of high school drop-outs
Interdisciplinary Framework for Exploring
and Analyzing “Experience”
Power/Resistance
Overt and Covert control
Identity
Structure
How groups
and
individuals see
themselves
and are seen
by “others”
Institutions
and patterns
of social
interaction
Culture
Bounded system of values
and traditions shared by a
group
Power (Robert Dahl - Yale)
In “The Concept of Power” Dahl focuses on the variety ways “A”
gets “B” to do what “A” wants. He uses the term “influence terms”:
• Rational Persuasion - Telling the truth and explaining why someone
should do something.
• Manipulative Persuasion – Lying or misleading to get someone to
do something.
• Inducement – Offering rewards or punishments to get someone to
do something.
• Power- Threatening severe punishment to get someone to do
something.
• Coercion – Power with no way out.
• Physical Force – Backing up coercion with use of or threat of bodily
harm.
Power (Steven Lukes – NYU)
Luke’s Three Dimensions of Power in Power: A Radical View:
• 1-dimensional power: We can see power in action. We can
observe conflict between interests.
• 2-dimensional power: When conflict is not obvious and remains
unresolved. Less powerful group’s issues don’t reach the
agenda.
• 3-dimensional power: When less powerful people have
internalized the idea that they are less worthy or important.
Notes on the Third Dimension
• Focus in Ethnic Studies: Who controls how we understand reality,
objectivity, and accepted truth? This third dimension focuses on the
power to shape the dominant ideology, or a set of beliefs.
• Select scholars who contribute to this conversation:
– Antonio Gramsci: Cultural hegemony – focus on how power is
embedded in what becomes “common sense,” accepted truth, and
unquestioned knowledge.
– Michel Foucault: knowledge/power – focus on how knowledge shapes
power. Power is discursive. That is, it is transmitted through the various
knowledge structures in society.
– Howard Zinn argues that historians need to use their understanding of
the past to advocate for a better future.
• History as a vehicle for more than just documentation of the past
• Emphasizes the relationship between power and the telling of history.
Elements of Social Structures
• In general this is a term that refers to the inter-relationships of
institutions. Philosophy and sociology provide key thinking on
this concept.
• From a sociological perspective, social structure Refers to the
linkages between complex social forms that reproduce
themselves such as governments, the family, human languages,
universities, hospitals, business corporations, and legal
systems.
• Institutions are organizations or systems of organizations that
consist of embodied structures of different roles.
Culture
• Culture is talked about in a variety of ways in numerous
disciplines. For the sake of our course, we will adopt this
definition (Nieto, 2012):
• Culture is ever-changing. Culture is:
– represented by values, traditions, social and political
relationships, worldview
– shared by a group of people
– and bounded by a combination of common history,
geographic location, language, social class, religion, sexual
orientation, and other dimensions.
Identity
• Identity: how we understand ourselves in relation to others.
• Some key dimensions:
– Identity is fluid and is shaped by social context.
– Identity is imposed and selected. It is both how we see
ourselves and how others see us.
– Identities are marked in terms of race and ethnicity, class
(socioeconomic status), gender, ability, and sexual
orientation. People who study identity are often concerned
with the body as the unit of analysis.
– We will focus on the “intersections” of these collective
identities, or how different markers of identity intersect and
shape one another.
– Identities have social and materials consequences.
Dimensions of Identity
• Identities is fluid and is shaped by social context.
• Identity is imposed and selected. It is both how we see ourselves
and how others see us.
• Identities are marked in terms of race and ethnicity, class
(socioeconomic status), gender, ability, and sexual orientation.
People who study identity are often concerned with the body as
the unit of analysis.
• We will focus on the “intersections” of these collective identities,
or how different markers of identity intersect and shape one
another.
• Identities have social and materials consequences.
5
2
Identity
1
Structure
11
Institutions
and patterns
of social
interaction
Power/Resistance
8
7Overt and Covert control
13
10
How groups
and
individuals see
themselves
and are seen
by “others”
12
4
6
9
Culture
Bounded system of values
and traditions shared by a
group
3
To Prepare for Next Session
• Reading Notes on Okihiro and Maeda