Dear all,
I've followed the recent intense exchange regarding various forms of
radicalism and their discontents with interest. In addition to the many
important points raised, I feel that the entire debate foregrounds three
critical issues, which affect not only geography but social theory more
generally. These are:
1. What (act or theory) counts as 'legitimatly' radical appears to be
highly dependent on the contributor's stated positioning. This positioning
is sometimes expressed in a material sense - that is, the contributor is
reporting their direct experience of the world. More often (although
sometimes at the same time) however, positionings are made vis a vis a
particular body of theory. One 'states one position' as a
post-strucuralist, or a post-marxist, or a feminist. or whatever.
2. Related to (1), I wonder how far there is a danger of adopting a
particular 'way of seeing' the world _because_ it offers a pre-legitimated
and bounded way of approaching debate; there is less need to defend a
position on the grounds of experience, observation or logical consistency
if a whole body of literature is there to do the job.
3. Related to (2), I wonder if there is a danger, not only on this forum
but across social theory in general, of losing sight of the question:
'Who's reality are we talking about?' A few postings back, someone (I
think it was Raju) made the point that if you offered many of the
'critical' analyses that fly around to those who are supposed to be the
subject - and, one supposes, the beneficiaries - of them, they would have
no meaning for them in terms of their lived realities.
In short, I suppose what I am trying to say is, while we are all arguing
about how radical or critical we and others might or might not be, we
should also critically ask ourselves, a) why are we being critical/radical
in a particular way, and
b) _why_ and _for who_ we are being radical/critical.
Just some thoughts,
Best wishes,
Graham Gardner
University of Wales
Aberystwyth
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