| Para-Sites: A Casebook Against Cynical Reason Volume 7 Contributor(s): Marcus, George E. (Editor) |
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ISBN: 0226504379 ISBN-13: 9780226504377 Publisher: University of Chicago Press OUR PRICE: $141.57 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: April 2000 Annotation: "Para-Sites", the penultimate volume in the Late Editions series, explores how social actors located within centers of power and privilege develop and express a critical consciousness of their own situations. Departing from the usual focus of ethnography and cultural analysis on the socially marginalized, these pieces probe subjects who are undeniably complicit with powerful institutional engines of contemporary change. In each case, the possibility of alternative thinking or practices is in complex relation to the subject's source of empowerment. These cases challenge the condition of cynicism that has been the favored mode of characterizing the mind-set of intellectuals and professionals, comfortable in their lives of middle-class consumption and work. In their effort to establish para-sites of critical awareness parallel to the levels of political and economic power at which they function, these subjects suggest that those who lead ordinary lives of modest power and privilege might not be parasites in relation to the systems they serve, but may be creating unique and independent critical perspectives. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Art |
| Dewey: 700.904 |
| LCCN: 99027658 |
| Series: Late Editions: Cultural Studies for the End of the Century |
| Physical Information: 1.12" H x 6.6" W x 9.44" (2.01 lbs) 507 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Para-Sites, the penultimate volume in the Late Editions series, explores how social actors located within centers of power and privilege develop and express a critical consciousness of their own situations. Departing from the usual focus of ethnography and cultural analysis on the socially marginalized, these pieces probe subjects who are undeniably complicit with powerful institutional engines of contemporary change. In each case, the possibility of alternative thinking or practices is in complex relation to the subject's source of empowerment. These cases challenge the condition of cynicism that has been the favored mode of characterizing the mind-set of intellectuals and professionals, comfortable in their lives of middle-class consumption and work. In their effort to establish para-sites of critical awareness parallel to the levels of political and economic power at which they function, these subjects suggest that those who lead ordinary lives of modest power and privilege might not be parasites in relation to the systems they serve, but may be creating unique and independent critical perspectives. |
Contributor Bio(s): Marcus, George E.: - George E. Marcus is professor of political science at Williams College and the author, coauthor, or coeditor of seven books, including, most recently, Political Psychology: Neuroscience, Genetics, and Politics. |