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Because reality isn't what you think it is, it's what you PERCEIVE it is!
"The Judges of Normality are Present Everywhere" ~ Michel Foucault
This Blog Represents the Postmodern Writing & Thought of J. David Zacko-Smith
www.contextualmusings.com
© 2008 by J. David Zacko-Smith
Questions and Contemplation Pave the Path to Truth
Why Social Constructionism is Important
"Constructionism is concerned with the minority view because it is a minority view - the deviant, the unusual - one which offers something new as a cultural resource". ~ Kenneth J. Gergen
What is this blog about?
This blog represents thought and writing that flows from a distinctly post-modern mentality. It embraces things like social constructionism, critical theory, feminism, liberation pedagogy and psychology, liberalism, subjectivity, and Zen Buddhism. What you see here runs counter to notions of objectivity, empiricism, conservatism, positivism, and the celebration of strictly quantitative inquiry or narrowly defined notions of God. The blog's author believes that it is humankind's tendency to cling to simplicity (notions of black/white, right/wrong), myopic views (thinking "inside the box"), an unwillingness to question reality and decide for ourselves, and our attachment to outcomes, people and things that causes our greatest suffering and injustices. He believes that it is only in questioning that we find truth.
What is a contextual musing?
It is several things all at once...
It is a statement. It is a thought. It is a beginning. It is an expression. It is a question. It is a prayer. It is a conclusion. It is an opinion. It is a feeling.
It embraces all things and in that embrace it is nothing.
Yet, it is something.
It is an attempt to make you think.
Check it out!
The ORIGINAL Contextual Musings can be found here.
Discussions of news, politics, entertainment, pop-culture, travel and gay life -- all ripe for the picking!
Links That Inform
- Philosophy:Resource
- Social Constructionism:What Is?
- Henry Giroux: Critical Theory
- Critical Theory:What Is?
- John Shotter:Cultural Politics
- Postmodernism:Controversy
- Dian Marie Hosking:Constructionism
- Foucault:Resource
- Critical Theory:Critics
- Kenneth Gergen:Constructionism
- Society for Philosophical Inquiry:Questioning
- Meg Wheatley:Leadership and the New Science
- Peter McLaren:Critical Pedagogy
- Revolutionary Activist:Bell Hooks
- Michel Foucault:Resources
- Paulo Friere:Critical Pedagogy
- Theory:Resource
Archive
Context
I received my Doctorate in Education from Seattle University, where I also obtained my Masters in Public Administration (MPA) in 2004. I have a BA in Industrial Psychology from Penn State University (1991). Spent a few years working in banking, non-profit administration & finance, and now plan to teach, write & consult in the areas of leadership and leader education, social constructionism (particularly of the family and sexuality), and language. Originally from Pennsylvania, I've lived in Seattle for 13 years and now divide my time between the Pacific Northwest, Buffalo, New York and Paris, France. I love coffee, wine, sake, philosophy, running, travel, the beach, music and urban life.
Thought does exist, both beyond and underneath systems and edifices of discourse. It is something that is often hidden but always drives everyday behaviors. There is always a little thought occurring even in the most stupid institutions; there is always thought even in silent habits. Criticism consists in uncovering that thought and trying to change it: showing that things are not as obvious as people believe, making it so that what is taken for granted is no longer taken for granted. To practise criticism is to make harder those acts which are now too easy... [A]s soon as people begin to no longer be able to think things the way they have been thinking them, transformation becomes at the same time very urgent, very difficult and entirely possible. ~ Michel Foucault, (1981) [2000] "So is it important to think?" in In J. Faubion, ed., Power (New York: New Press, 2000), pp. 160-1.
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