COMM Communication& Social Behavior May 25, 2005 Language in Action: Institutionalization

Discourse and Reality: Cloud’s “Fighting Words” How would you characterize Cloud’s argument? What view of ideology does she take? How does she view the relationship between discourse and reality? If you were to adopt a different perspective on ideology and the relationship between discourse and reality, how might you make sense of the strike at Staley? Which take do you agree with more? What are the strengths and weaknesses of approaching the Staley strike from these perspectives?

Burke’s “Unending Conversation” as a Metaphor for (Human, Social) Life “Imagine that you enter a parlor. You come late. When you arrive, others have long preceded you, and they are engaged in a heated discussion, a discussion too heated for them to pause and tell you exactly what it is about. In fact, the discussion had already begun long before any of them got there, so that no one present is qualified to retrace for you all the steps that had gone before. You listen for a while, until you decide that you have caught the tenor of the argument; then you put in your oar. Someone answers; you answer him; another comes to your defense; another aligns himself against you, to either the embarrassment or gratification of your opponent, depending upon the quality of your ally's assistance. However, the discussion is interminable. The hour grows late, you must depart. And you do depart, with the discussion still vigorously in progress.” --Kenneth Burke, Philosophy of Literary Form (1941), pp

Berger and Luckmann: The Social Role of Language Language typifies experience Language transcends the “here and now” Language integrates “zones” of everyday life into a “meaningful whole” Language transcends different “spheres” of reality (i.e., interpretation of dreams) Language serves as collective repository of objectivated meanings and expereinces.

From Language to (Inter-)Action Typificatory Schemes:  Typifications  Reciprocal typifications The double nature of typification in everyday interaction:  We interact with others as types  We interact within typical situations Objectivation:  Signs, or language, as mode of objectivation

Relevance Structures Knowledge of everyday life. Individual differences in relevance structures. Social differences in relevance structures.

Society and Human “Nature” World-Openness:  Underdeveloped instincts  Organismic development outside the womb  Ability to fashion environment World-Closedness:  If we didn’t have social systems, we’d live in chaos.  Once social systems develop, the must be relatively “closed”

Understanding Institutionalization What is an institution? Characteristics of institutions:  Habitualization:  Reciprocal Typifications  History  Control: power in the last instance

Institutionalization as a Process Three dialectical “moments”:  Externalization: Society is a human product.  Objectivation: Society is an objective reality. Reification Legitimation  Internalization: Humans are social products. Sedimentation Roles

Structuration Theory Anthony Giddens The “Duality of Structure”  Structure is both enabling and constraining  Structure is both an outcome of and a resource for action.

Returning to Burke: Life as a Conversation