[lbo-talk] not theory

[Alan Rudy]

On Wed, Jan 25, 2012 at 7:48 AM, shag carpet bomb <shag at cleandraws.com>wrote:
>
> ... SNIP ...
> it seems like people want theory to be "sitting around talking about what
> other people are doing." I certainly appreciated Sitrin's book,
> HOrizontalism, but it wasn't theory-building in the sense that she could
> tell us much about general operations - generalizable claims - about social
> life, social interaction, etc.
>

Fits very well with the widespread idea - held by just about every student
who walks into my theory class and/or resists unpacking theoretical
traditions embedded in topical readings - that theory is "just theory",
opinion mixed with a little more intense thinking.


>
> ... SNIP ... So, visually, it was, like, practice at the top, and some
> very interesting theory undergirding it­which is exactly right."
>
> personally, i disliked n+1's newsletter design. ugh.
>
> My students were initially quite drawn to it but then found it well nigh
impossible to work with as a pdf... none saw the reportage over
conceptualization dynamic at work.