The Voice and the Eye: Social Movements, prequel.

Alain Touraine writes on page 78 of The Voice and The Eye:

“The representation of social movements that we have inherited from industrial society is as follows: a dominator imposes laws, beliefs and a political regime just as much as it imposes an economic system; the people submit to these impositions but revolt against them when their physical and cultural existence becomes threatened. This revolt is not only defensive, it is also a preparation for the future since it explodes the contradictions of the social order and destroys the barriers erected by individual interest and blocking the way for the general and natural progress of society. This vision conflicts with the idea of social movements as I have defined it over two vital issues” (Touraine, Alain (1981) The Voice and The Eye. An analysis of social movements. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. Emphasis is mine)

I highlight this piece of text here since it pins down two things about Touraine I am working on and what also may be of interest to someone else. Social movements sit at the heart of society and without them there is no “real” movement in society. All societal change has to do with social movements that convey the energies of individual actors. The way Touraine explains this is elegant and very exact and is best found in the mentioned book The Voice And the Eye. I am currently working on the analysis of my first article so this is something I’ll be using later.

So, Touraine is using a very concrete example to tell us how his vision of social movements is different from all the other contemporary (it was published originally in French in late 70’s) accounts. Remember, at that time it was customary to (over) emphasize the Working Movements meaning to world history. Touraine is not saying that it’s not so but his account cautions us to attribute any collective phenomenon as a true social movement.

The representation of social movements in industrial societies miss the point of Touraines Social Movements in two key dimensions.

1. The actor (or a ‘group’) is not truly social. This is because the ‘revolt’ is only an expression of ad hoc tensions or a product of natural phenomena (people who are forced to act in order to save themselves, for an example). A true actor (or a ‘group’) is truly social: the tension is not in the situation of the revolt. The situation only expresses the tension but the movement is real and in the heart of the entire society. A social actor (or historical actor, as Touraine calls them) is defined by a social relation between it and the ‘other’ he/she is struggling against.

2. The action is not seen as emanating from society but it can only be understood by looking at what it is trying to achieve. This means, the social movement is reduced to it’s utopia: it has separated the original action from the interpretation of the action. A true Social Movement ‘happens’ right now. Utopia, or the alternative cultural relation of the revolting group is an important part of the Tourainean vision but it’s not the source of action as such. To be precise: the struggle creates it’s own aims: it is not going towards  a certain anticipated end but towards an end-in-the-making by the actors themselves.

Touraine himself gives an exhausting and careful explanation of what he sees as a Social Movement. On page 31 he writes:

“A Social Movement is the collective organized action through which a class actor battles for the social control of historicity in a given and identifiable historical context”.

And he elaborates this on page 77.

“A social movement is the organized collective behavior of a class actor struggling against his class adversary for the social control of historicity in a concrete community”.

 

 

What I will do this spring is an article where I will analyze certain aspects of Transhumanism (as a general term). I will try to see it as a historical actor, or, a genuine and real Social Movement. From now on I will not elaborate too much on the details but I will try to keep my thinking “out in the public” during the writing process of the article.

The Flow I keep missing

I’m sick and can barely speak. There’s no fever but I feel damn weak. Right now I’m not working on anything but had I the strength, I’d probably be sketching a new essay for IEET. I’m preparing a series of essays that cover technological progressivism from an activist stand point. So, when I get well, I’ll do that.

However now, I am listening to Spotify. Thanks to the latest update Spotify is now more social. Finding new and interesting music has always been a problem with the service but it seems they have given this issue some thought. The playlist feature that has been there for a while, is also something pretty new to me. So, as I began writing this I realized I had “tuned in” to the Flow Festival 2013 playlist.

If you could visit three Finnish summer festivals they would have to be Tuska, Ruisrock and Flow. For some reason I have missed all of them. Every year. I mean, it’s not like i’m “not that kind of a person” – I have been to Roskilde TWICE – but for some obscure reason I have never visited these three.

I think I’ll think about that and try t get some rest.

So far the human body is weak

Here’s to all ya Masters out there.

Sick. I can’t believe it. I am double sick. Last week I was issued sick leave from work due to a near-total-mental-collapse. That’s when I began thinking about research after a few months pause. I’m also changing jobs and the future work will be better for me.

But now, I’m sick. I had bubbles in my stomach last night and spent a few messy hours in the toilet. Aren’t you glad I told you that. 🙂

Perhaps it’s something I ate or then I caught the bug last night when I attended the first ever Master Class for a Good Society. It’s a two month program run by the University of Helsinki and LähiTapiola Group. Why this is is due to the fairly new idea of connecting university level education with businesses. This time the idea is to connect people from different fields (especially including the humanities) to the world of business and problem solving.

The program rests on the idea of Social Entrepreneurship or more widely “BIg Society”. It was a good start with, I think, 40-50 attendees. I sat in a table full of clever young professionals and one of the Mentors, a person I deeply respect, Outi Alanko-Kahiluoto form the parliament (The Greens of Finland party).

In any case, I’m sick now and I have to cancel my short talk at the Sociology Days in Turku. All is not lost since I did manage to solve some theoretical problems while working on the text. But, there is a sense of not belonging. They are thinking of revitalizing the Finnish Network for the Sociology of Knowledge and I hope they do and I hope I can be a part of it.

So far, waiting for my FrenchPress to hatch me a nice mug of strong, bacteria killing, coffee.

Stick your neck out

I began this day over a cup of coffee with a very inspiring chap from Ireland. Among other things he is a professional journalist so we began talking about international publishing. What else?

I mentioned him my blog and that it was supposed to be ‘a blog about my PhD’. “You never mentioned you had an English language blog”, he replied. Due to my almost total lack of self esteem I apologized and gave him the address.

In a way, that’s the reason I am writing now. In the beginning I thought this blog would be a serious installment of my academic thinking. At least I thought my blog would inspire research into (and about) Transhumanism. Now I understand that this is a blog for me first and for you (who I still believe are out there) second.

And that’s not bad. In fact, that’s just the honesty a project like this needs.

Right now I am sitting and writing this in bed. Next to me is my wife and my 3 year old daughter. She has trouble sleeping tonight and I’m waiting for her to calm down so that I can piece together my talk for the Sociology Day. There was a rescheduling and my talk is on Thursday. No worries, I have it covered.

The Annual Sociology Days in Turku begin on Thursday and I’ll post a report on the whole ordeal later this week.

Analysis

What to do with this blog? I hardly have time to write anything anything, not to mention anything of any value. Then again, this is basically written for myself as a document etc. on my PhD project. So, I’ll try to do just that in the future.

Right now I am preparing to give a small talk at the annual Sociology Days in Turku, Finland. My workshop group is focused on the sociology of knowledge and I’ll be talking about how I see Touraines analysis of social movements in connection with science and technology. I’ll post the damn thing here in English once it’s done.

Meanwhile I have gathered a good collection of books and other readings. For instance, yesterday I found Robert C Bannister’s Sociology and Scientism – the American Quest for Objectivity, 1880-1940. I’m also enjoying Ruth Schwartz Cowan’s A Social History of American Technology, and the superb Thomas Kuhn – A Philosophical History for Our Times by Steve Fuller.

This Fuller chap I’m going to keep my eye on. After reading Humanity 2.0 and (his PhD) Social Epistemology (see, wiki and Journal founded by Fuller) I was deeply convinced.

My own research is now going in a simple straight line. I’m deep inside data analysis and familiarizing myself with 19th century thinking on science and technology. I’ll blog about the talk at the sociology day later this month on some initial ideas and results.