Prof David West wrote: Thank you.
Q.#1.: The umbrella culture comes into existence with a gradual change in members' identity that seeks out, accepts, and internalizes the founding story of the new culture. Q. #2.: The umbrella culture trumps the ethnocentric sensibilities of its members only after a very long period of time. Sometimes even a long period of time is not enough, if the sensibilities are not adequately acknowledged and the stimuli transformed (former Yugoslavia). But why would we want to do that? Don't we want to risk the possibility of conflict in order to maximize requisite variety? Q.#3. We ignore those sensibilities at our peril. The social constructs are infused with high emotion. Q.#4. A new set of skills for mediating the inevitable conflicts awaits the reunification of the soft social sciences and humanities with the hard science of natural systems. (And perhaps throw in a little spirituality, as well. The Dalai Lama, as you know, is exploring deeply the intersection between science and spirituality.) Merle Lefkoff > Sensibility is intended to be a very general term; basically a > sensitivity to a sensory stimulus accompanied by a change of state > (positive or negative, but usually negative) in the perceiver of that > stimulus. Examples would include: hearing a word or phrase; being > hugged or touched; viewing a graphical depiction; being challenged about > a core belief or value; being praised in public; smelling perfume at the > office; being asked to change your religion; ... > > > > On Tue, 11 Mar 2008 12:46:12 -0600, "Merle Lefkoff" > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> said: > >> How do you define/describe "sensibilities?" >> >> Merle Lefkoff >> >>> suppose you are trying to grow a diverse community. >>> >>> you want a shared culture for that community. >>> >>> you want to respect existing sensibilities that subgroups (and >>> individuals) bring to the new community. >>> >>> in many cases, gender and youth for example, a significant portion of >>> those sensibilities are not intrinsic to the group or to individuals >>> within the group, they are social constructs imposed on the group. >>> (feminism invests energy in challenging and changing many of the >>> sensibilities deriving from social construction, AARP does the same for >>> elders, relatively little is done regarding youth.) >>> >>> in all cases, sensibilities are ethnocentric - there are no cultural >>> universals! [I will be happy to discuss this with anyone who believes >>> otherwise.] >>> >>> conflict (intensity varying along a continuum) is inevitable: between >>> the umbrella culture of the new community and the existing cultures of >>> its members; between and among member cultures. >>> >>> question 1: how does the umbrella culture come into existence? (culture >>> IS a complex system) >>> question 2: to what extent does the umbrella culture trump the >>> ethnocentric sensibilities of its members? >>> question 3: should sensibilities based in social constructs be directly >>> challenged and/or ignored? >>> corollary question 3a: if you want more women in your community >>> should your interactions with them be constrained to >>> socially constructed norms? >>> corollary question 3b: if you want more youth in your community >>> should they be constrained (in terms of exposure, >>> participation, interaction, and >>> communication) to that which is >>> consistent with the social >>> construction >>> of youth? >>> question 4: how are the inevitable conflicts mediated? (recognizing >>> that the patterns, procedures, powers, and sanctions required for >>> mediation must be "built into" the umbrella culture) >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> ============================================================ >>> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv >>> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College >>> lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >> ============================================================ >> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv >> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College >> lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org >> > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org > > > > ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
