Dorothy Smith was a very prominent female social thinker.
She developed a theory that is widely known and used today. The Standpoint
Theory’s whole premise is to immerse oneself into a culture to be able to learn
it from the inside out. There are however, a few issues with this approach. It
can be hard to become involved in a society without going fully native. This
means that in the process of learning about a new society you become that society
and have no means of detachment. This approach focuses on not being cold or
objective as a means of gathering information. It uses Geertz’s idea of “thick
description” and is used for ethnographic research. The standpoint theory
compares experience vs. perspective. Experience is the immersion into the
culture and perspective is how one views such culture. This theory helps
sociologist’s go into more depth and truly find out what lies beneath the
surface.
The clip that I chose is from the movie Hitch. The first man
that approaches Sara doesn’t listen to her, buys her the wrong drink, and
basically just does what he’s known from experience. Hitch asks the bartender
what she is drinking and for a few details about her before approaching her. He
listens to what she has to say and responds in a meaningful way. Although this
video is only a first meeting, Hitch did almost everything in his power to find
out more about her, before actually interacting with her, compared to Chip, who
just assumed she would be interested in him.
This theory is an important one for us to remember when we
are studying people of diverse cultural backgrounds. It can also be used as a
life skill, when traveling to areas with a different culture than ourselves,
the standpoint theory can help to better understand and get to know the people
one may encounter for a more positive interaction.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uU59kXuJHhI
No comments:
Post a Comment