It is residualness of culture that interests you ... Re: [Ailist] Base of social constructionism

Mon Dec 29 12:56:05 MST 2008

Further to my last and to help your consideration of how migrants base
their adoption of a new culture on their own culture ... When I first
put this framework together, instead of the term "underlying mood", I
used the term "social flux".  This is because I was using an analogue
from the "electromagnetic theory world".  "Electromagnetic flux" can be
residual and that flux can obstruct efforts to change or be damaging to
mechanical components.  In the same way, "social flux" can obstruct
efforts to change or be damaging to social situations.  I explain this
analogue in chapter 7 of my thesis pp 183-85
(http://intergon.net/phd/phdch7.doc)

<BEGIN p. 183 http://intergon.net/phd/phdch7.doc>

7.6	Creating a Complementary Social Order Through Social Flux

Recalling the social constructionist model introduced in Chapter 3, it
is apparent that positioning is an outcome of discursive action that
occurs when people act within a social order.  Discursive action – or
conversation – is influenced by positions when the conversation
commences, the story line and the speech acts that occur.  All of these
things happen at the intersection of the four components of social order
(Figure 3-5C).  To deal with sustainability issues it is necessary to
have a social order that is complementary to the sort of issues being
confronted.  The senior managers appeared to alter the social order in
such a way that enabled sustainability and OEI issues to be dealt with
appropriately.  How this occurs can be understood through the social
constructionist model, if a link is included between the place the
positioning occurs and discursive action.

In Chapter 3 a gaze-like social force was alluded to.  That force
appears to affect how ideas are accepted and used.  In a way, this
reflects Foucault’s gaze, but it is the residual effect of such a force
that is of interest here.  As will be shown in this Section, social flux
is an effective term to describe this social influence.
Gaze is part of what prevents people from doing what Michael (1973)
refers to as ‘learning to learn’.  As was shown in Section 3-5-1, gaze
can impose predispositions that blind people to appropriate decisions or
behaviour.  In dealing with sustainability issues, people need to look
beyond gaze to question concepts, perspectives, old categories and
standards of judgment that may limit thought. First Among Equals
facilitated this process by ‘framing’ and helping subordinates by
‘managing the distress’ as they would ‘critique the issue’.  These
sorts of changes enhance one’s capacity to approach situations in new
ways and create a datum for development of fundamentally new skills
(Senge 1990, Schein 1997).  Before these changes can occur, the residual
of gaze needs to be neutralized.

As implied by discussions in Chapter 3, gaze is insufficient to explain
residual effects, but something like gaze contributes to understanding
why people differ and need to resolve differences of opinion through
negotiation.  Gaze serves as a foundation for a construct that explains
residual or predisposed preference; the construct of social flux (not to
be confused with the symbolic act of flux defined by Johnson (1990)). 
The author draws on electromagnetic theory to introduce flux.

7.6.1	Broadening of Gaze to a Construct of Social Flux

There appear to be limitations to Foucault’s gaze especially when
attempting to understand how managers’ behaviour can enable or obstruct
appropriate deliberation of sensitive issues.  Murray (1990) provides a
construct that takes a step toward resolving this limitation. 
Interested in how persons are ‘understood not simply as products of
structures, but as actively involved in the reproduction of those
structures’, Murray (1990) merges Foucault’s gaze with ideas of other
philosophers.  The perspective offered by Murray has been engaged in
this research to construct a wider gaze-like phenomenon with a potential
for the conceptualization of some sort of residual social phresidue depicted by the social constructionist model (Figure 3-5C). 
Such a force could enable or oppose as well as legitimize or
de-legitimize.

Dawkins (1976) introduced the idea of cultural genes that he referred to
as memes.  Memes are those social characteristics that define one
society from another.  In the same way that genes are passed through
biological chains, Dawkins suggested that his memes would replicate
through social relationships.  Similar to genes, only worthy memes would
be accepted and passed on.  Something like a management gaze could be
seen to be inclined to replicating itself and obstructing competing
memes.

A manager’s influence is like an electric current.  It occurs when the
manager takes action and it stops when the manager’s action stops. 
However, some residual influence remains after the manager’s action
stops.  For example, when a person turns their conversation from one
issue to another, the memory of their message continues to influence
those they had just dealt with.  Others remember what is important, and
they gauge their behaviour to conform to managers’ preferences.  Direct
management action results in direct influence, but how might residual
influence occur?  An explanation could be found in electromagnetic
theory as introduced in Appendix B.

7.6.2	Extrapolation to a Social Context

When people talk about being ‘charged up’ by a situation, their comments
could be analogous to a residual charge that exists in an object after
an electrical current has been passed through or in proximity to the
object.  Here, that residue is referred to as flux; Harré and Slocum (in
press) identify the need ‘to study the flux of social life’ if the
complexities of ‘stretches of social life’ are to be understood.  With
that in mind, the analogy of electromagnetic flux discussed in Appendix
B has sensitized the author to realize the possibility that a social
flux affects social order.

As shown in Figure 7-5A, a social flux could be used to explain the
residual social forces that exist in any society.   This social flux
could be considered a type of mask that alters perception.  Both
Foucault (1977a, 1977b, 1978, 1986 and 1988) and Goffman (1959 and 1963)
spoke about masks and masking; Foucault (1978, p. 130) suggested that
unmasking results in identifying the truth and motive; ‘the challenging
of taboos’.  Goffman spoke about taking down masks in terms of
‘dis-identifiers’.  Austin (1997) suggests that change initiators can
‘mask the tradition-challenging intent of the social change by
advocating for the change within the current goal structure of the
organization’.  Similarly, Neimark (1990, p. 104) suggests that ideology
is masked in common sense.  Consider how the widely accepted quality
management tool, Failure Mode Effects and Analysis explores and
prioritizes design and process issues that could go wrong.  Should there
be a parallel process – to understand disruptive social forces – that
should be taken prior to negotiation about sensitive or unfamiliar
issues?  If so, should the components of the social constructionist
model provide categories for such an inquiry?

With a construct of social flux it is possible to envisage how
sub-categories of effects can be derived – organizational flux, to
denote the flux imposed by an organization; financial flux, to denote
the flux imposed by the financial community.  For example, the financial
community has approached the sustainability movement with a residual
that causes sustainability to have become an accounting exercise. Rather
than dealing with social and environmental issues, as discussed in
Sub-Section 2.3.3, these are reduced to financial terms.  All of these
sorts of flux describe the subsets of force that affect the set of
solutions to issues to be dealt with.  Figures 7-5A and 7-5B demonstrate
the creation of social flux and the channelling of a social force. 
Dynamics of the social constructionist model cause residual social flux.
 This flux can alter discursive action and resulting positioning. 
Foucault (1986, p. 151) alluded to the residual nature of this flux.

‘True discourse, liberated by the nature of its form from desire and
power, is incapable of recognizing the will to truth which pervades it;
and the will to truth, having imposed itself upon us for so long, is
such that the truth it seeks to reveal cannot fail to mask it’.

Schein (1997) argues that, in order to develop the capacities needed to
deal with contemporary issues, one must undergo a learning process that
is functionally equivalent to coercive persuasion.  This implies that
there are residual forces affecting individuals and perhaps
organizations.  In this research, positioning theory will enable the
identification of actions taken by senior managers to deal with residual
social flux.  That is, we can show how they develop the right set of
capacities to enable themselves and others to accept the challenge of
dealing with sustainability issues.
<END p. 185 of http://intergon.net/phd/phdch7.doc> 

Lionel Boxer CD PhD MBA BTech(IndEng) - +1-416-482-3203
Associate of RMIT University - lionel.boxer at rmit.edu.au
Graduate School of Business
my "Assessment of Quality Systems with Positioning Theory" 
now in a googe book - see link at http://intergon.net
>>> "Lionel Boxer" <lionel.boxer at rmit.edu.au> 30/12/08 2:51 AM >>>
My framework helps me to articulate this.  I have used the four
components of underlyling mood (perhaps a measure of culture) to create
a gap analysis.  By changing the discourse (dialogue) you can change the
various components of underlying mood.

In brief, each culture has a unique:
- system of rights
- system of duties
- moral order
- acceptable and expected actions

Also, in each culture, conversation follows certain rules about:
- story line
- speech acts
- positions that individuals are expected to take (see harre's
positioning theory for more on this)

For a single page summary of the framework see:
http://intergon.net/tsw/sustainableceos.pdf

Lionel Boxer CD PhD MBA BTech(IndEng) - +1-416-482-3203
Associate of RMIT University - lionel.boxer at rmit.edu.au
Graduate School of Business
my "Assessment of Quality Systems with Positioning Theory" 
now in a googe book - see link at http://intergon.net
>>> "Parashu" <parashu at wlink.com.np> 29/12/08 6:42 AM >>>
As social constructionism says, meaning is created through 
interaction/dialogue. But I am curious to know what shapes/directs the 
dialogue. Let's take a case of Cultural Adaptation. Migrants have to be 
adjusted in a different culture. Definitely, they have to create a new
way 
of living life, make a new meaning. what can be the foundation of making

meaning? While creating meaning, don't the migrants base on their own 
culture during the process of adaptation? I mean the migrants create a
new 
reality in a new place on the foundation of their own culture no matter
how 
big the gap between the two cultures.
Do you know if anyone has done research on this case? or if there are
any 
article regarding this, it will be useful to me.

Appreciatively

Parashu Ram Timlasina
Secretary General
Nepal Appreciative Inquiry National Network (NAINN)
977-985-101-9145 (cell)
977-1-552-9844 (Res)
parashurt at gmail.com
parashu at wlink.com.np 

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