the social change thing

kelley kcwalker at syr.edu
Tue Aug 10 08:34:36 PDT 1999


ange writes,


>many people, including me. what institutional research agenda are you
>part of?

i think i'm speaking more generally than you are. maybe you could tell me what you meant by "institutional research agenda"?

otherwise i have been part of several official, funded research agendas in terms of getting grants for work on citizenship [kettering] and work and worker training outside the formal institutions of schooling [spencer].

but why suggest people who are part of an institutionalized research agenda are somehow morally culpable? that is, would you tell a middle manager on this list to get the hell out of her job b/c she's a capitalist tool? what justifies this claim that people should get the hell out of other people lives insofar as you are essentially telling people who do this sort of work to stop doing it as if they have that sort of choice to begin with, as if whatever brought them to this point can only be maliciously motivated at worst and disingenuous and ignorant at best? as of yet, i've not read anything that suggests anything more than a sweeping set of generalizations about interpretive methodologies that are based on a set of preferences that you hold. i guess i think these claims need some argument rather than assertion. that's my immediate reaction. perhaps i need more coffe and some of the good stuff too!

kelley



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