The Promise of Poststructuralist Sociology: Marginalized Peoples and the Problem of KnowledgeIn this fresh look at the serious challenges posed to sociology by poststructuralist philosophy, Clayton W. Dumont Jr. maintains that disempowered, marginalized peoples have much to gain from a poststructuralist interrogation of sociology s philosophical and theological presuppositions. He argues that debates among American sociologists in the 1980s and 1990s over the value of difficult poststructuralist writings failed to examine cultural assumptions rooted in the discipline s extended Greek and Christian inheritances. Writing in an accessible style, the author situates complex poststructuralist ideas in tangible examples drawn from everyday life. The book concludes with analyses of the heated political conflict surrounding the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990 and affirmative action programs, illustrating the promise of increased political efficacy and civic responsibility of a poststructuralist-informed sociology. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
Meeting the Monster Understanding Poststructuralist Assumptions | 9 |
A Genealogy of the Scientific Self | 32 |
Toward a PostChristian Ethic of Responsibility in Sociology | 54 |
The American Debate on Postmodernism | 78 |
Whos Understanding Whose Past? Telling the Truth about Native Dead | 108 |
Taking Charge of the Affirmative Action Debate Social Science and Racial justice | 149 |
Parting Thoughts | 200 |
Notes | 203 |
| 211 | |
| 223 | |
Other editions - View all
The Promise of Poststructuralist Sociology: Marginalized Peoples and the ... Clayton W. Dumont No preview available - 2008 |
Common terms and phrases
academic affirmative action African Americans ancestors anthropological anthropologists archaeological archaeologists argued assume attack attempt believe century chapter civil rights claim color critics cultural dead debate Denzin Derrida Descartes différance discipline discourse discrimination empirical epistemological ethnic European European Americans example existence experiences federal Foucault genealogy graves Greek and Christian Greek philosophy human Indians individual insist institutionalized intellectual Jacques Derrida Klamath knowledge Larsen Bay learned Lemert lives logic means metaphysical Michel Foucault minorities modern moral Museum NAGPRA narrations narratives National Native American never numbers objective oral percent philosophy Plato political possibility postmodern poststructuralism poststructuralist Press pursuit quest race racial racism reality recognize remains repatriation responsibility Ritzer scientific sense society sociologists sociology Socrates speak stories structuralist structuralist sociology structure struggle subjectivity teleology tell textual theological theory things tion tive tribes truth understand understood University white Americans words writings