“Encyclopedic Version of Knowledge”
When it comes to knowledge as to what we learn either form the textbooks or form other individuals, often times we are narrowed minded and blind-sided when we receive information form others. Joey Sprague’s piece opens up by talking about the sociological cannon being a group of, “dead white guys” coming from a white male capitalist perspective. She talks about the “founding fathers” of sociology (Mills, Weber, and Durkheim) and the reason as to why they are important is because of how much they have contributed to society. Sprague explains that the reason as to why social theory is biased is because their theories come from their perspective and influences.
Within the Roman Catholic or Orthodox Church, the term canonization means, that if an individual is deceased he or she can be then included in the canon or recognize as a saint, which you must suffer in order to get the hierarchy’s attention. However, before anyone can become a saint you needed to be a martyr. Martyrs were people who would be killed for their religious beliefs. However, social theory is biased, sort of like within the Catholic Church, if you cannot perform miracles then you cannot be canonized. Similar to the Catholic Canonization and the canon of sociology, the canon is a set of privileged texts. There is the bible and there are the texts that these sociologists wrote to frame society. In other words the meaning of the texts in its form is for the community who uses it.
Standpoint theory is more of a postmodern method for conceptualizing the social relation between people. So instead of looking at classical sociology we should think about modern sociology (where the canon does not apply). Thinking about all of this this, I feel that as a society, individuals only recognize people who have earned a title. Individuals only pay attention or only take into account those who are in the public view, which is another way of looking how the canon limits us to expanding our knowledge. Society should take on the standpoint theory instead of receiving information that the canon provides based on what they feel applies to our interactions between people. Because the canon itself is selective and says who gets to be apart of the canon and who does not or what texts can be included and what texts cannot, everyone has their own understanding of the world and by not including everyone’s standpoint, social theory becomes biased because the canon does not really leave any room for choice or opinions, thus limiting our understanding of society and the world.
Outside religious institutions we also see this happening with education. Currently you can look at the issue happening in Tucson, Arizona in the ending of Ethnic Studies Program among Tucson’s Unified School Districts courtesy of Jan Brewer’s SB 2281. The Raza Studies program was created to get Latino/a students to want to obtain a higher education and improve graduation rates, but also to become critical thinkers. The political aspect of the state is that politicians are using tactics to enflame the citizens of Arizona, tactics such as crime problems with immigrants, specifically focusing on Latinos crossing the southern border. With the banding of the program series of books that have been banned from being taught in classes. What’s happening in Arizona is that not only are politicians preventing students from applying theories and practices that lets them aim a full development of human being. The purpose of ethnic studies classes that have been fought for and remain a battle was to change the outmoded "canon" of his-story to no longer be a closed, ivory-towered wall of white male elites.
Lastly, Sprague touches how the canon ignores women who have contributed to society, who have not been canonized and although this is true, the canon should not just exclude women, but also ignores race, people from different religious backgrounds, class, gender and even culture. The professor brought up this idea of canonized people versus an encyclopedia. So instead of taking selective pieces, we should challenge the canon by receiving information on many subjects or on many aspects of one subject instead of this narrow myopic view of sociology.
When it comes to knowledge as to what we learn either form the textbooks or form other individuals, often times we are narrowed minded and blind-sided when we receive information form others. Joey Sprague’s piece opens up by talking about the sociological cannon being a group of, “dead white guys” coming from a white male capitalist perspective. She talks about the “founding fathers” of sociology (Mills, Weber, and Durkheim) and the reason as to why they are important is because of how much they have contributed to society. Sprague explains that the reason as to why social theory is biased is because their theories come from their perspective and influences.
Within the Roman Catholic or Orthodox Church, the term canonization means, that if an individual is deceased he or she can be then included in the canon or recognize as a saint, which you must suffer in order to get the hierarchy’s attention. However, before anyone can become a saint you needed to be a martyr. Martyrs were people who would be killed for their religious beliefs. However, social theory is biased, sort of like within the Catholic Church, if you cannot perform miracles then you cannot be canonized. Similar to the Catholic Canonization and the canon of sociology, the canon is a set of privileged texts. There is the bible and there are the texts that these sociologists wrote to frame society. In other words the meaning of the texts in its form is for the community who uses it.
Standpoint theory is more of a postmodern method for conceptualizing the social relation between people. So instead of looking at classical sociology we should think about modern sociology (where the canon does not apply). Thinking about all of this this, I feel that as a society, individuals only recognize people who have earned a title. Individuals only pay attention or only take into account those who are in the public view, which is another way of looking how the canon limits us to expanding our knowledge. Society should take on the standpoint theory instead of receiving information that the canon provides based on what they feel applies to our interactions between people. Because the canon itself is selective and says who gets to be apart of the canon and who does not or what texts can be included and what texts cannot, everyone has their own understanding of the world and by not including everyone’s standpoint, social theory becomes biased because the canon does not really leave any room for choice or opinions, thus limiting our understanding of society and the world.
Outside religious institutions we also see this happening with education. Currently you can look at the issue happening in Tucson, Arizona in the ending of Ethnic Studies Program among Tucson’s Unified School Districts courtesy of Jan Brewer’s SB 2281. The Raza Studies program was created to get Latino/a students to want to obtain a higher education and improve graduation rates, but also to become critical thinkers. The political aspect of the state is that politicians are using tactics to enflame the citizens of Arizona, tactics such as crime problems with immigrants, specifically focusing on Latinos crossing the southern border. With the banding of the program series of books that have been banned from being taught in classes. What’s happening in Arizona is that not only are politicians preventing students from applying theories and practices that lets them aim a full development of human being. The purpose of ethnic studies classes that have been fought for and remain a battle was to change the outmoded "canon" of his-story to no longer be a closed, ivory-towered wall of white male elites.
Lastly, Sprague touches how the canon ignores women who have contributed to society, who have not been canonized and although this is true, the canon should not just exclude women, but also ignores race, people from different religious backgrounds, class, gender and even culture. The professor brought up this idea of canonized people versus an encyclopedia. So instead of taking selective pieces, we should challenge the canon by receiving information on many subjects or on many aspects of one subject instead of this narrow myopic view of sociology.