There's a shitload of books about what "theory" is. My favored approach is Alison Jaggar - theory is empirical, practical, practicable, and ethical (I think, on that last bit).
When I taught social theory, I included a discussion of Alain Touraine's work. This was an approach to theory building where the "theorists" were *in* the movement, but also took the role on of "analyzing" what was going on. They'd mirror back to folks what they saw going on in the way a good meeting facilitator might do. The idea is that the "theory" is a little bit like the relationship between analyst and analysand - and there are a bunch of books/essays out there about that as the role of "theory" in social movements. (Friere, etc.)
<> Some years ago I suggested that one could not theorize without doing a <> critique of theory itself, of what it consistes in, etc. That was an <> attempt <> to get at what shag does well here. <> <> No theory can direct practice, BUT the theorist has an essential role <> in <> practice, raising that practice to the level of theory. Practice which <> is <> not continually theorized _from the inside_, becomes mere motion. <> <> Carrol <> <> -----Original Message----- <> From: lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org <> [mailto:lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org] <> On Behalf Of shag carpet bomb <> Sent: Wednesday, January 25, 2012 6:48 AM <> To: lbo-talk <> Subject: [lbo-talk] not theory <> <> this is interesting. n+1 had a post up about the background behind the <> n+1 <> gazette that would come out regularly about zuccotti park. here's a <> good <> example of why I think a lot of people who use the word "theory" are <> really <> just talking about "thinking" and more often just talking about <> "thinking <> correctly." What n+1 describes isn't "theory" in the sense of <> generalizable, explanatory theory. <> <> what's worse is that here the idea seems to be that "theory" is a <> corrective to be applied to the mistaken practice. he writes as if <> they are <> two separate things, as if no theory is going on with regard to <> pratice. In <> this approach, for instance, Sitrin's discussion of the history of <> horizontalism and Offner's history of another occupation are "theory". <> So, <> if it happened in the "past" - how long ago is an appropriate past, <> not <> sure - and its reportage, then it's "theory" rather than just another <> account of what was happening in practice at the time. <> <> 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. <> <> <> "Then our designer Dan O. Williams came up with a brilliant design-I <> had <> imagined something much more like a newspaper, with kind of static <> one-page <> or two-page spreads, whereas Dan O made it really dynamic, in two <> colors <> and lots of different type-faces, so that we were able to basically <> run our <> reportage of the day-to-day events at Zuccotti in the top half, and <> then <> various historical analyses-Marina Sitrin on the history of <> horizontalism, <> Amy Offner on the Harvard living-wage occupation from 2001, Doug <> Henwood on <> whether to abolish the Federal Reserve-along the bottom. So, visually, <> it <> was, like, practice at the top, and some very interesting theory <> undergirding it-which is exactly right." <> <> <http://www.versobooks.com/blogs/881-a-roundtable-with-the-editors-of-occupy <>>http://www.versobooks.com/blogs/881-a-roundtable-with-the-editors-of-occupy <> <> <> <> personally, i disliked n+1's newsletter design. ugh. <> <> <> -- <> http://cleandraws.com <> Wear Clean Draws <> ('coz there's 5 million ways to kill a CEO) <> <> ___________________________________ <> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk <> <> ___________________________________ <> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk <>
-- http://cleandraws.com Wear Clean Draws ('coz there's 5 million ways to kill a CEO)