March 8, 2007
Reproblematizing the Social- 2
The following is my draft statement on social assessment. It is a draft, and has some typos I am sure. Please give me some feedback and comments if you care to. It contains a discussion on the notion of the social, the post social, and remediations of the social, as well as some discussion of the science and society literature and evolving fields of social assessment.
On Social Assessment in the Natural Sciences: Analyzing a Domain of Reproblematization
[...] relevant to this very subject. To that end, I think we could use Amelia’s field statement (which she posted last week) as a starting point. It contains a section on “the anthropology of the contemporary.” Let’s [...]
Just read Amelia’s paper; some immediate thoughts:
Notwithstanding the content of the reproblematization of the social, or her way of probelmatizing society- science relations, she is also problematizing the mode of analysis offered for this problem. Basically, what Amelia is raising as a problem (and her possible solutions) is exactly Kevin’s starting point and explicitly where Mattias lecture ended: “looking for other modes of analysis to contemporary problems/ to contemporary anthropology.”
I think Amelia’s “solutions” and Kevin’s chapter as a form of writing are possible ways to engage with contemporary problems without writing beyond them and without reducing them to the “socially constructed” solution.
In addition I think this paper is a good example of how to bring relevant literature into critical analysis without doing an exhausting theoretical background.
Question that need more clarification:
The relation between problems and solutions; I think you can elaborate more about the two different “socials”. The “social” as the problem space to which possible solutions are emerging, and when “the social” (again) is emerging as a solution, or brought back in as a possible solution.