theory query

Journalism and Women's Studies. A match made in any scholars dreams, right? right.

School began with a kick in the pants, covering gender advocacy & the gentrification of kink

Something great has registered in the last seven days and it is this: you can't learn about theory without thinking about theory.

That sounds redundant, but give it a minute. Apparently the point of theory is not to figure out its content, but rather how to think theoretically about our natural, illogical, explanatory society. It is a tool to navigate the world of information and experience.

According to a guy by the name of Craib, there are four theoretical traps that one may fall into while trying to wrap their heads around thinking about or creating our own versions of empirical sociology and its associates (theories about men, women, society, technology, medicine et al.)

The first trap is the crossword puzzle. I know what you're thinking and I agree: these are integral to Sunday afternoons with the paper & the puzzlols are my favourite part of The Link. You have a coffee, a clue, a slot, and you think like a thesaurus. good times.

When applied to theories, however, this pre-existing framework-style of of trying to fit information about our illogical, natural world into a nice paradigm is, quite frankly, reductionist. Theories are supposed to be engaged with an open mind and be as fluid as our crazy world. So add that extra letter to seven down. It works in theory...

the second trap is the brainteaser, or another fun Sunday afternoon puzzle gone to hell when applied to theoretical thinking. Getting lost working out the little problems is not theory, actually. Losing yourself - and your sight of the world and what understanding you are searching for- in the intellectual exercise of theory puzzlin' is a waste of brainpower.

number three is the logic trap. We live in an illogical world where, sometimes, logical sense is inapplicable to the reality at hand. Theory must be capable of allowing room for flexibility.

finally, number four has us lost in the details of things. Sometimes description doesn't tell us anything new. academics sometimes just like listening to themselves theory-speak.

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Now that the traps are revealed before us, the basic epistemological questions remain: what is theory? what does theory do? who gets left out of the theories? why? how do we know that this theory is right? How did we come to know what we know? What is the criteria for this knowledge?

Theory is not only about the social processes and problems that exist, but also a part of these things. think about it...

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welcome back to school, fem thought 1 & 2,
LOCO