General Concepts

Question 1

What is Reflexivity?

Answer 1

1. Researcher’s awareness of their relationship to field of study
2. How cultural practices involve commentary on themselves

• Reflexivity has two distinct meanings: 1. The researcher’s awareness of an analytical focus on their relationship to the field of study. 2. The way that cultural practices involve consciousness and commentary on themselves.*

Question 2

How or why is Reflexivity used?

Answer 2

• to promote authenticity
• to increase self-awareness

• One use of studying Reflexivity is in connection to authenticity. It shows that people have both self-awareness and creativity in culture by commenting upon, debating, modifying, and objectifying culture through many different ways.*

Question 3

What is Emic vs Etic?

Answer 3

• Emic = within a culture (native)
• Etic = outside a culture (neutral observer)

• An ‘emic’ account is a description of behaviour or a belief in terms meaningful (consciously or unconsciously) to the actor; that is, an emic account comes from a person within the culture. Almost anything from within a culture can provide an emic account.*
• An ‘etic’ account is a description of a behavior or belief by a social analyst or scientific observer (a student or scholar of anthropology or sociology, for example), in terms that can be applied across cultures; that is, an etic account attempts to be ‘culturally neutral’, limiting any ethnocentric, political, and/or cultural bias or alienation by the observer.*

Question 4

How or why is Emic & Etic used?

Answer 4

• to provide a “rich” view of a culture or society
• to prevent a one-size-fits-all approach

• When the approaches of Emic and Etic are combined, the “richest” view of a culture or society can be understood. On its own, an emic approach would struggle with applying overarching values to a single culture. The etic approach is helpful in preventing researchers from seeing only one aspect of one culture and then applying it to cultures around the world.*

Question 5

What is Synchronic vs Diachronic?

Answer 5

• Linguistic Analysis
• Sychronic = rules within a specific point-in-time
• Diachronic = development & evolution of a language

• Synchrony and diachrony are two different and complementary viewpoints in linguistic analysis:*
• 1. Synchronic linguistics aims at describing language rules at a specific point of time, even though they may have been different at an earlier stage of the language.*
• 2. A Diachronic approach considers the development and evolution of a language through history.*

Question 6

How or why is Synchronic and Diachronic used?

Answer 6

• Theorised by Saussure
• to emphasise the primacy of synchronic analysis

• The concepts were theorized by the Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure, professor of general linguistics in Geneva from 1896 to 1911, and appeared in writing in his posthumous Course in General Linguistics published in 1916. In contrast with most of his predecessors, who focused on historical evolution of languages, Saussure emphasized the primacy of synchronic analysis to understand their inner functioning.*

Question 7

What is Materialism vs Idealism?

Answer 7

• Idealism = reality is within conscious minds
• Materialism = matter outside of the mind forms everything in existence (including minds)

• Idealism is the belief that the reality is contained entirely within conscious minds. It can be the mind of you, or the mind of God, or the mind of others. Or all of the above. However, there is nothing outside those minds. Materialism claims that minds aren’t enough to explain the reality, and that another “stuff” has to exist. That stuff is the unthinking, unfeeling matter which forms everything in existence, even minds themselves.*

Question 8

What is Structure vs Agency?

Answer 8

• Structure = influential patterned arrangements
• Agency = independent action & free will

• Structure is the recurrent patterned arrangements which influence or limit the choices and opportunities available.*
• Agency is the capacity of individuals to act independently and to make their own free choices.*

Question 9

What are the problems/limitations of Structure vs Agency?

Answer 9

In the social sciences there is a standing debate over the primacy of structure or agency in shaping human behaviour.

Question 10

Where was Structure vs Agency first cited?

Answer 10

Bourdieu

1972

Outline of a Theory of Practice