Dear All,
I have followed the language debate with interest, having a  
background in marketing where the discipline necessary is to state  
plainly for the client what is required in a given situation and why.
This could apply to marketing for a charity, and equally to  
developing an education system etc.
This is not knocking the use of longer and classically based words,  
but I agree with the last posting that it is usually necessary to  
look up the intended meaning, and that should be a warning signal, I  
think.   A good deal of sociology has come from continental Europe  
where there is a different tradition of language use.

What lies behind this, includes the concept of professionalism and  
the use of language within a specialist framework.  I did study  
sociology, though probably Foucault was not born when I was first at  
University and so will not try to quote an authority to cover this  
(Weber possibly).  Part of this professional discourse in the social  
sciences is indeed about "oppression".

There seem to me to be abundant examples of the attempt to counter  
"oppression" creating another "oppression".  To give a few examples,  
the denial or obscuring by sociologists for many years that divorce  
is bad for children, the failure to recognise that  children leaving  
school unable to read  is destructive and unnecessary and follows  
from arguments about method which are based more on prejudice than  
fact,  and at a different kind of level - the failure to deal with  
lack of reading and other skills of those in gaol for petty crimes.    
I thought of a number of others
but it is exhausting, and we all suffer as a result of these social  
neglects.  Some people see these things as part of capitalist  
plots.   Whatever the reason, I have confidence in the reasonable  
common sense of ordinary people in many contexts (allowing for  
prejudices) and that is why I think community psychology is  
important, and the posting of practical examples, information and  
encouragement (heart) is very desirable.  I hope this is of some use  
to someone.


of those in prison for often petty crime.

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