Deck 3: B: Contemporary Social Theories

Question 1

Using an example from everyday life,discuss how whiteness is constructed as the default position.

Answer 1

For example,during the 2008 American presidential race,news coverage of Barack Obama consistently referred to him as a black senator,while no mention was made of John McCain as a white senator;McCain was referred to simply as a senator.Such marking (or non-marking)of race represents the deracializing of whiteness.In other words,whiteness is constructed as the default position,and only those who do not fit within this default category are marked.
Students may provide other examples.

Question 2

Outline the major differences between the second-wave feminists and the third-wave feminists.

Answer 2

While some second-wave theorists,like Dorothy Smith,did attempt to take social class into account,most theorizing was framed around a homogenous notion of "women"-difference was not recognized,let alone theorized.
Rather than a singular voice,third-wave feminists believe that what is needed is attention to the multiplicity of women's voices.Third-wave feminists challenge second-wave thinking that women indeed shared a common experience;they challenged the coherence of the category of woman.These feminists are interested in creating space for a feminism that takes up difference based on race,social class,sexuality,and so forth.Dichotomous positioning around gender and sexuality,for instance,is rejected and replaced with more fluid understandings.

Question 3

Discuss what we mean when we say that "it is impossible to disentangle language from knowledge since language is the vehicle of knowledge," and give an example of the power of language.

Answer 3

What we mean is that language is not transparent.Rather,it is value-laden as opposed to being a neutral description of some reality.Terms such as black and white,up and down are not merely descriptions,they contain value judgments.Up conjures thoughts of heaven and "good," while down brings to mind images of hell and "bad." These terms are not simply designations of spatial locations (up and down),then,but have come to signify much more.Similarly,the term normal is not always simply deployed to mean the statistical average;it has come to be associated with what is "good," or considered "right," and so forth,while abnormal means bad and wrong.The term normal has become the standard by which all else is measured.How we use language is connected to the concept of power,in that language produces reality.

Question 4

Using the example of Hurricane Katrina,how does critical race theory provide a view of social issues through a lens of historical racism?

Question 5

Define and give an example of hegemony in popular culture.

Question 6

How does bell hooks's feminism differ from other strands?

Question 7

What is the difference between Marx's conception of power and Foucault's conception of power?

Question 8

What does Giddens mean by "symbolic tokens," and how are they related to globalization?

Question 9

Describe Edward Said's concept of Orientalism and its relation to Foucault's notion of discourse and power.

Question 10

Explain why during the presidential campaign in 2008 every newspaper article written referred to Obama as the black presidential candidate but not once was McCain's whiteness referred to.

Question 11

Explain how the situation of Canada's Aboriginal peoples demonstrates that Canada has not yet moved past its colonial roots.

Question 12

Explain how sexuality in North America has been subjected to what Foucault calls "normalization."

Question 13

What does Dorothy Smith mean when she states that her strategy of inquiry is "the everyday world as problematic"?

Question 14

How do "whiteness" studies challenge racism?

Question 15

Explain why bell hooks argues that second-wave feminism "erases" black women's identities.