Spoon Theory: A Form Of Capital

As social stratification is something that sociologists study, it's also something that we sociologists have spent a fair bit of time thinking and theorizing about. One of our modern understandings of class & social stratification comes from French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu. Bourdieu argued that there are multiple forms of capital which together determine class.

In this essay I argue that spoon theory, a common metaphor for units of physical/emotional energy used in disability circles, are a Bourdieusian form of capital. I'll explain Bourdieu's forms of capital, spoon theory, and why "spoons" as a unit of energy are a form a capital. Thinking of spoons in this framework is something that would be useful in social theory, as well as disability studies.

"'Women in Computing' As Problematic": A Summary

I've long been interested in why, despite so much organized effort, there percentage of women in CS has been so stagnant. One hypothesis I had for some time was that the efforts themselves were unintentionally counter-productive: that they reinforced the gender subtyping of "female computer scientist" being separate from unmarked "computer scientists".

I was excited earlier this week when Siobhan Stevenson alerted me to this unpublished thesis from OISE: "Women in Computing as Problematic" by Susan Michele Sturman (2009).

In 2005-6, Sturman conducted an institutional ethnography of the graduate CS programmes at two research-intensive universities in Ontario. In institutional ethnography, one starts by "reading up": identifying those who have the least power and interviewing them about their everyday experiences. From what the interviews reveal, the researcher then goes on to interview those identified as having power over the initial participants.

Interested in studying graduate-level computer science education, she started with female graduate students. This led her to the women in computing lunches and events, interviewing faculty members and administrators at those two universities. She also attended the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing (GHC) and analysed the texts and experiences she had there. Her goal was to understand the "women in computing" culture.

In the style of science studies scholars like Bruno Latour, Sturman comes to the organized women in computing culture as an outsider. As a social scientist, she sees things differently: "Women in the field wonder what it is about women and women's lives that keeps them from doing science, and feminists ask what it is about science that leads to social exclusion for women and other marginalized groups" 

Impostor syndrome viewed through the lens of social theory

Sociologists like to use performance as a metaphor for everyday life. Erving Goffman in particular championed the metaphor, bringing to light how our social interactions take place on various stages according to various scripts. And when people don't follow the right script on the right stage, social punishment ensues (e.g. stigma).

Pierre Bourdieu rather similarly described social interactions as taking place in arenas, seeing them more like games than plays. (Sometimes champs is translated as 'field' rather than arena; it's worth noting Bourdieu intended for it to have a connation of sport/war.) Rather than a script, people get a sense for the rules of the game. And when people don't follow the rules of the game, social punishment ensues.

Whether one is failing at a social game or performance, social punishment can take many forms. For example, sexual harassment is most reported by those who go against gender roles. Powerful women are more likely to be harassed than less powerful women. Women in male-dominated fields are more likely to be harassed. Men who are effeminate, gay, or champions of feminism, are more likely to be harassed. Harassers act to keep people "in their place".

Since not following the script/game is costly for individuals, we're trained from a young age to be on the lookout for cues about what stage/arena we're on and what role we should be playing. Looking for and responding to cues is something we do automatically most of the time. Kahneman would see it as an example of System 1 thinking.

Impostor syndrome is the sense that you're the wrong person to be playing the role you're in. You're acting a role that you've been trained in and hired for -- but your brain is picking up on cues that signal that you're not right for the role.

A brief introduction to social theory

Theories from psychology enjoy a fair bit of use in computer science education, but education is not merely a cognitive process: it's also a social one.

I've found it useful to learn about social theory as a CS education graduate student, and I thought I'd share a quick introduction to social theory that I initially wrote for my research proposal to my thesis committee this fall.

Classical Social Theory

Classically, sociology has had four major schools of thought, each of which goes by various names and is associated with one of the four "founders" of sociology:

1. Auguste Comte (1798-1857) coined the term "positive philosophy", now better known as positivism. Comte’s sociology was inspired by the French Revolution: sociology was envisioned as a means to produce the perfect society. (Indeed, Comte was incensed that the lower classes wouldn't simply accept their "place" in society.)
   
   In Comte's world, one would test out different ideas for how to run a society, and find the optimal approach. While Comte himself argued for holism, (post)positivism has since come to be associated with reductionism.
   
   
2. The sociology of Max Weber (1864-1920) contrasts with Comte's: Weber was a proponent of anti-positivism (also known as constructivism or interpretivism). Weber saw verstehen (understanding) as the goal of research, rather than hypothesis verification. Weber theorized upon social stratification; he also wrote about closure (how groups draw the boundaries and construct identities, and compete with out-group members for scarce resources.)
   
   Weber's sociology put an emphasis on ideology. Capitalism, for example, was the result of ideological conditions unique to Northern Europe; capitalism has only succeeded where these ideological conditions hold.
   
   
3. Emile Durkheim (1858-1917) built on Comte's positivism, setting forth structural functionalism. In structural functionalism, a society is viewed like a biological cell: different parts of a society are likened organelles. Durkheim's sociology looks at how the parts work together to comprise the whole. It is also holistic -- much of how systems thinking was used in the social sciences built on Durkheimian notions of society.
   
   
4. Finally, Karl Marx (1818-1883) provided an approach which contrasts with Durkheim's: instead of seeing harmony, it emphasizes the role of class conflict in society and the historical-economic basis thereof. Marxist sociology has also been known as conflict theory, though the historical-economic basis is not the only way one could study conflict. For example, Weberians see conflict rooted in ideology, rather than in a clash over resources.
   

20th Century Social Theory

While classical theory is often referred to in terms of thinkers (Marx, Weber, etc), the more modern movements tend to be known more by schools of thought. Some of the major ones would be:

1. Neo-Marxism refers to the 20th century updates of Marxist theory, which has pulled in Weberian and poststructuralist work on status and power. Antonio Gramsci is a well-known neo-Marxist, who was curious about the question of why the revolution Marx had predicted never seemed to come about. Gramsci is most famous for his theory of cultural hegemony.
   
   Critical theory is also based on Marxist thought, and is often conflated with it. Critical theory emphasizes praxis, the combination of theory and practice. Critical theory is most associated with the Frankfurt School, including names such as Theodor Adorno and Jurgen Habermas.
   
   
2. Interactionism assumes that all social processes are the result of human interaction. It emerged in the early 20th century. Interactionaists focus their studies on the interactions between individuals. As a result, interactionists do not `see' the effects of physical environment -- or even solitary thought/work. They also reject quantitative data in favour of qualitative approaches: grounded theory and ethnomethodology were both developed by interactionists. The notion of social interaction as a performance was first developed in interactionist thought; poststructuralists have since refined it. While there's no single name associated with this perspective, some associated names include George Herbert Mead, Erving Goffman, and Dorothy Smith.
   
   Sociologists also look at social systems at different levels: the macro level looks at entire societies, nations, etc; the meso level looks at organizations, institutions, etc; the micro level looks at individuals. While classical sociology was generally macro, interactionism focuses on the micro level.
   
   
3. Structuralism might be seen as a macro-focused backlash against interactionism's focus on the micro. Structuralism sees social processes as stemming from larger, overarching structures, and also emerged in the early 20th century. Structuralists see society as being governed by these structures in a somewhat analogous fashion to how physicists may see the universe as being governed by laws of nature. A criticism of structuralism is that it sees these structures as fixed; in contrast a Marxist would focus on historical change. Some structuralists include Claude Levi-Strauss, Ferdinand de Saussure, and Jean Piaget.
   
   
4. Poststructuralism (more or less interchangeable with "postmodernism") is not a particularly coherent school of thought. This is not altogether surprising as the key poststructuralists both reject the label and the very notion that there is such a real thing as poststructuralism. Poststructuralists reject the idea of "objective" knowledge: since the study of sociology is done by humans who are biased by history and culture, they argue that any study of a social phenomenon must be combined with how the study of that social phenomenon was produced. For example, a poststructuralist would not take a concept like `gender' as a given, but problematize the concept. Poststructuralism evolved out of structuralism in the mid 20th century. Some major poststructuralists include Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, and Judith Butler.

I drank the critical theory koolaid.

For our last LHA1803Y class of the term, we had a potluck in the class. I had fun putting together drinks:

Positivist koolaid: your standard red koolaid. People will disagree what the red is supposed to be -- cherry? strawberry? "red"? You grew up with it and remember it nostalgically but don't really want to have some now that you've had more grown up drinks.

Postpositivist koolaid: it's the same red koolaid as the positivist koolaid, but your drink comes garnished with a lemon slice.

Critical theory koolaid: the praxis of the sweet-yet-sour lemonade of theory with the harsh reality of ginger ale. While some would point out this is not actually "koolaid", they're missing the point. Drinking it makes you feel a little better about yourself.

Postmodernist "koolaid": there is no such thing as "koolaid", nor the little umbrella that your drink is garnished with. After all, "koolaid" exists only through discourse and is socially constructed. A Foucaultian archaeological analysis indicates that the discourse originates through a combination of cranberry juice and tonic water, its bitterness a nod to Nietzsche -- and the fact that the drink is an acquired taste that is generally seen as unpalatable without gin.

A quick and dirty introduction to Bourdieu for systems thinkers

I've been on a Bourdieu kick for the course I'm currently taking on social theory (LHA 1803Y: Theory in Higher Education), and since Steve Easterbrook mentioned he wasn't familiar with Bourdieu, I figured I'd write a quick and dirty introduction to Bourdieu's social theories. Steve's a systems thinker so this is written for such an audience.

In systems thinking we like to think of people as existing in many (overlapping) social systems (because, after all, pretty much everything to a systems thinker is a system.) These social systems can be things like school, work, a professional community, or even your favourite internet community.

Bourdieu would call those systems fields. (Specifically, a field is a system of social positions, with internal structure.) In his terminology, the rules determining the system/fields are known as nomos. (Fields are not the same as class, which I'll get to later.) When people in fields 'play by the rules' of the system, and invest in it, he calls this illusio.

If you're wondering if he also has paradigms in his systems, the answer is yes! He calls them doxa, the concepts and ideas which go without saying as it comes without saying -- "the universe of possible discourse".