Dear all,
On 27/06/2012, at 4:03 AM, Tim Smithers wrote:
>
> ... for taking the time to describe your respective
> PhDing experiences in some detail.
>
> These are, I think, both very good contributions to
> the discussion. They help to fill out the realities
> we all need to be aware of and mindful of. It'd be
> very good to have more of these kinds of reflective
> experience reports from others on the list!
The kind of detailed, in and out, backwards and forwards experiences
Danielle and I described are a good way to begin to build
understanding of how the 'system' works (from the perspective of
those 'subject' to it) – as a participant in my research said, 'we
think it's the system, but it's not, it's the people'. This builds on
Dorothy Smith's understanding of 'institution' as a network of power
relations – the interactions between people that organise (through
texts) systems determining what can and can not be done and how it is
done. This means that we have to pay more attention to how
individuals negotiate 'institutional' obstacles and how this
negotiation makes a difference to them, their 'institutions' and the
'discipline' more broadly. That means, rather than trying to lock
down 'the discipline', discipline itself is opened up to new ways of
working.
A key point in this way of thinking about institutions and discipline
is the Foucauldian idea of how people are subject to and by
(disciplined) the anonymously organised ways of working that
determine what can and can not be done and/or said. When we talk
about 'the discipline' we are talking about a set of rules and
practices that bind a community in both constraining and enabling
ways (Foucault's idea of power as productive). Danielle's description
of how she negotiated the limitations of space in her university that
enabled her to travel and work overseas, the outcome of which
undoubtedly benefited her, (the people in) her institution (despite
its resistance) and the 'discipline' itself. That is, she worked
around the obstacles to produce something that may not have been
produced if she resisted them.
Edwards & Usher's text explains Foucault's 'discipline' really well,
as does Threadgold (p. 23). If you are interested in a (very) quick
overview, check my paper.
cheers, teena
Clerke, T. 2010, 'Gender and discipline: publication practices in
Design', Journal of Writing for Creative Practice, vol. 3, no. 1, pp.
64–78.
Edwards, R. & Usher, R. 1994, 'Disciplining the subject: the power of
competence', Studies in the Education of Adults, vol. 26, no. 1, pp.
1–14.
Smith, D.E. 1987, The everyday world as problematic: a feminist
sociology, Northeastern University Press, Massachusetts.
Threadgold, T. 1997, Feminist poetics: poiesis, performance,
histories, Routledge, London.
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