Review: [untitled]Author(s): Beryl LangerSource: Contemporary Sociology, Vol. 17, No. 1 (Jan., 1988), pp. 122-124Published by: American Sociological AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2069486 .Accessed: 19/08/2011 20:25Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jspJSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.American Sociological Association is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access toContemporary Sociology.http://www.jstor.org122REVIEWS politicaleconomy. In her analysisof Marx she argues that there are three distinct levelsof critique, butdoesn'texaminetheminthe contextof Marx'slaterwritings.HereI can only assumethat, like Habermas,she thinksthat the theoryof value, and possiblypoliticaleconomy itself,arenotasrelevant tothestudyof advanced industrialsociety.Itoothink that Habermas'works have broughtabout amajor advancein social theory,but thereis a dangerin seeing his work as a"replacement"for rather than acomplementtoavery rich intellectual tradition.For those interestedin Marxisttheory, CriticalTheory, or Continentalsocial theoryin general,this is an importantwork. InterpretationandSocialCriticism, byMI- CHAELWALZER.Cambridge, MA:Harvard UniversityPress, 1987. 96 pp. $12.50 cloth. DAVIDZARET Indiana University In the three chaptersof this slendervolume, MichaelWalzerdescribesthe practiceof social criticism(fromOldTestament prophets to RawlsandHabermas)anddefinesitsthree principalmodes, one of which he prescribesto us.Theempirical descriptions andmoral prescriptionsare trenchant,wide-ranging,and provocative. Walzerdistinguishesamongdiscovery,inven- tion, and interpretationas threetypes of critical practice. Social criticism has often proceeded from the discoveryof moralpreceptsthat are at odds with an existing morality.The discovered moralpreceptsderivefroma providentialwill or body of naturallaws whose revelationcan take the formof science (e.g.,orthodoxMarxism)or religion. In academiccircles, discovery becomes less viableas a mode of social criticism.WhereGod is dead and natureheld to be meaningless,the social criticrenouncesthe pretensionof discov- ery andturnsforthrightlyto the taskof inventing standardsthat can be the moral measureofall things, e.g.,the Rawlsiantheoryof justice and Habermas'ideal speech situation. Both discoveryand inventionplace the critic apart from theworld that iscriticized; they implicatemarginalityand a radicaldetachment as essentialfeaturesof the criticalenterprise.In contrast,the thirdtype of criticism, interpreta- tion, proceedsfrom "connected"critics, whose critical principlesderive from traditionsofthe world theywould change. Their criticism is radicallyimmanent. Walzerobserves that thoughthe social critic isarare socialtype,thepractice ofsocial criticismisquite common, as itispart ofthe moral texture ofeveryday life.The mode of criticismthatWalzercommendsto us, interpre- tation,drawsuponthis quotidianmoralitywhich endows itwith much ofitsnormativeforce. Socialcriticism inthismode"islessthe practicaloffspringofscientificknowledgethan the educatedcousin of commoncomplaint"(p. 65). Walzerattacksthose conceptionsof the social critic that emphasize, asthe sinequa non of criticism, aradical detachmentfrom everyday life and a commitmentto universalpreceptsthat havenogrounding inthetraditions ofthe societies that they are used to criticize. Impor- tantpoliticalconsequences followfroma contemptuousattitudetowardeverydaymorality that Walzer detects in those social critics who followthepaths ofdiscovery orinvention. Intolerance, opportunism, andviolenceare some of these consequencesthat Walzerassoci- ates with critics who reject (as wholly corrupt) the moraltraditionsof theirsocieties, and adopt intheirplacetranscendent standards that become the criticalmeasureof all things. "The problemwith disconnectedcriticism, and thus with criticismthat derives from newly discov- ered orinvented moral standards,isthat it pressesits practitionerstowardmanipulationand compulsion"(p.64).Thus the cardinalsin of many critics, and of those who philosophizeor proselytize ontheir behalf,istherefusal to acknowledgethe transformativecapacityof the moralcodes and symbolsthatexist in admittedly unjustsocieties. Centraltothisargumentistheassumption that nearly all moral codes (certainlythose in advancedindustrialsocieties)containinherently critical components outofwhich critics can fashiontheir criticism.Asecond assumptionis that thisisthe most efficient and acceptable means tothegoalofajustsociety.These assertions willreceive moresupport from a forthcomingbook by Walzer, for which Inter- pretation andSocialCriticism constitutes a theoreticalpreamble.It shouldbe good. The Practice of EverydayLife, by MICHEL DE CERTEAU.Berkeley:UniversityofCalifornia Press,1985.229pp.$24.95cloth. BERYL LANGER La Trobe University Michel de Certeau's The Practiceof Everyday Lifeisanattempttotheorizethetacticsand practicesbywhich"ordinary people"subvert thedominanteconomicorderfromwithin.It rejectstheassumptionoftotaldomination implicitinboththeterm"consumer"andthe Foucauldiannotionofdiscipline,drawingon REVIEWS123 linguisticmodels to demonstratethat individual actionis nevertotallyreducibleto the structures in which it occurs. It conceptualizesconsump- tion as an activeprocess, a secondaryform of productioninwhich people useurban space, televised images, or commoditiesin their own way, not escaping the dominantculturalecon- omy,butadapting ittotheirownends. Similarly, itargues that discipline iscontinu- ously deflected and resisted by those who are caughtin its "nets," and that their "dispersed, tactical,and makeshiftcreativity"constitutesan "antidiscipline"which Foucault's analysis ig- nores. AccordingtodeCerteau, the fact that everyday lifetakes placewithin animposed systemdoes not meanthateverydayactorshave no freedom.He sees themnot as automatonsbut asartful "poachers,"using the productspro- vided by the dominantculturaleconomy in the service ofprojects anddesires whichelude public definitionor control. Everydaylife,he says,"invents" itselfbypoaching onthe propertyof others. De Certeau'sinvestigationof everydaylife is second-order,conductedthroughreflection on language,narrative,and reading.The title may evoke Goffman,but the text is a denselylayered explorationof theorieswhich left me impressed by the eruditionbut skepticalas to the pointof it all.Too often the abstruseexcursionslead to ratherbanal conclusions. For example, do we really need linguistic theory and talk ofthe "modalitiesofpedestrianenunciation"(p.99) in orderto makethe ratherobviouspointthatthe administrativeabstractionof"the city" embod- iedinastreet map ortheviewfrom atall buildingcapturesneitherthe limitless diversity of pedestrianbehaviornor the experientialmaps ofindividualactors?Does the observationthat the street names evoke personaland collective meaning becomemoreprofound forbeing expressedin such sentencesas "A rich indeter- minationgives them, bymeans ofasemantic rarefaction, thefunctionofarticulating a second,poeticgeographyontopofthe geographyof the literal, forbiddenor permitted meaning"(p.105)? This kind ofprose obvi- ouslyhasitsaudience,butthosewhose preferenceis for claritywill find the book heavy going.Therearecertainly usefulinsights (particularlythe analogy between consumption and reading), and moments ofbrilliance (the chapteronRailway Navigationand Incarcera- tion, for example),but it is not alwaysclearthat it does more thanrestatewhat we alreadyknow in arcaneform. De Certeau'sargumentthatthereare limits to theextent towhichactors areeverwholly dominated byorintegrated intocentralized systems of controlis indisputable.However, it isdifficult totakemuch comfort fromthe examplesof"resistance"that he provides:that of colonizedpeople who remain"other"within the systemthey have no choice but to accept(p. 32), or the TV viewer who says "It was stupid and yet I sat thereall the same," captivatedby a place which "was and yet was not that ofthe image seen" (p.174). This might be a healthy correctiveto what he sees as an "exclusiveand obsessive" concernwith mechanismsof repres- sion, but carriedto its own extreme, it simply becomes aconservativedefense ofthings as they are. Thebookisalsogender blind,defining humanity asmale(theordinary "man" and "his" resistancetodomination)oringender- neutral terms like"user" and"consumer," which glosstherelations ofdominationand subordinationwithin these categories. Thisis not a trivialpoint, for in ignoringthe profoundly gendered nature ofeveryday life,deCerteau ignores the differentialconstraintsimposed on users, andthe ways in whichdominantmodesof representationand spatialorganizationassist in thecontinuing domination ofsome"users" (women) byothers (men). The point isbest illustrated inrelation tothediscussionof "spatialpractices,"which opposesthe "rhetoric ofwalking"inwhichpedestrians execute Denunciatoryoperations"of"unlimiteddiver- sity"(p.99)tothe"Concept-city"which conceives of space in termsof a "finitenumber ofstable, isolatableand interconnectedproper- ties"whichallowfor"panoptic administra- tion." De Certeau's"walker"is always a "he," free to"make aselection" from the range of possibilitiesorganizedby the spatialorder.The femalewalker confronts adifferent setof tactical problems,her "possibilities"restricted not just by the "panopticspatialorder"but by some ofthe"tricky and stubbornprocedures that elude discipline without being outside the field in which it is exercised"-i.e.,some of the "everydaypractices"of urbanmen. Beyond a passing referenceto Erving Goff- man, the book takes no accountofthe sizable Anglo-Americanliteratureon the ways in which ordinarypeople subvert,evade, andredefinethe dominant culture economy. Thisliteratureis theoretically andideologicallyvaried,and includesthe SymbolicInteractionisttraditionin Americansociology, the workof StuartHall and hisassociates attheBirminghamCentre for CulturalStudies, the "uses and gratifications" research onthemassmedia,anditsmore fashionablepoststructuralvariants.Readersfa- miliarwiththisliterature arelikelytobe somewhatpuzzledby de Certeau'sassertionthat usersare "commonlyassumedto be passive and guided by establishedrules." Just who makes this assumptionis not specified, and one is left with the sense that what isbeing opposed isa 124REVIEWS positiontaken seriouslyonly by those who are unable todistinguishbetween the conceptual abstractionsof social theoryandthe lived reality of social actors.It is surelyself-evidentthatthe behavior ofindividualactors isconsiderably more quirkyand indeterminatethanmacrotheo- retical models suggest, and itsdemonstration hardlyrequiresweightyintertextualelaboration. The book might thus be seen as a case ofthe emperorwearingtoo many clothes, all of them French! TheSocialFabric:DimensionsandIssues, edited by JAMES F.SHORT, JR.Beverly Hills: Sage, 1986. 366 pp. NPL paper. RICHARDROBBINS University of Massachusetts,Boston Not every year, but frequentlyduringthe past decade successive presidentsofthe American SociologicalAssociationhave chosen for publi- cationa selectionof paperspresentedat plenary or thematicsessions duringthe annualnational meeting. Here wehave,then, eighteen such contributionsfrom the ASA meeting of1984, edited and introducedby that year's president, JamesF.Short, Jr. Thatyear's theme was "the socialfabric";hencethe title. But let us be frank aboutit: these "themes"mean very little. They are simply conveniences, even contrivances- thesocialorder, framework, loom,mosaic, territory,or foundationwould do as well. What iscommon toalltheessaysistheage-old questionof orderanddivision, and no metaphor isrequired toseethatsomeofthemare theoretical-generalwhile others are theoretical- substantivefocused onsuch issues asnuclear war,utopias,anddystopias(andOrwell, naturally,in1984), the world resourcecrisis, governmentand bureaucraticorganization,reli- gion,themass media. Sociologists willfind virtually allofthe papers useful and perhaps half ofthem provocativeand valuable. Alla reviewer cando,inbriefcompass,isto concentrateonthe better half,thus making a selection ofShort's selection onaconsidered but admittedlysubjectivebasis. Five ofthe essays fall underthe theoretical- general heading (byNeilSmelser,William Goode, MaryDouglas, PeterRossi and Richard Berk, andMorrisZelditch).I profitedfromonly two.William Goode makes avaliant effort to apply principles ofindividualcalculationand normativesocial order toeconomic behavior. He is right to insist that "messier"sociological theory has somethingvital to contributeto the more austereand rigorouseconomicdiscipline. Mary Douglas, onthe same subject ofsocial order, draws on adifferentdiscipline linkage, that ofsociology and anthropology.Taking as pointof departureMerton'sstimulatingworkon scientificcontinuity anddiscontinuity, she provides astute reflections on"socially struc- turedforgetting,"on "structuralamnesia."The result isadistinctive contributiontoward the understandingofthe relationofcognition and attitudeto social constraints. TheASA'shomagetoOrwellprovides anotherthreeessays. MorrisJanowitzis content largely tosummarizeOrwell's picture ofthe emergent totalitarianstate,andKaiErikson outlines eloquentlyhow Orwell's Oceaniaas a text beforeus can open up againthe studyof the process of dehumanizationwhich enables us to wagewar against anabstract "enemy." But Gary Marx, inthe most original paper inthe book, demonstratesin chilling detail why "the new surveillance,"electronicand otherwise,in our democraticsociety, carriesimplicationsfor adomestic totalitarianismshould webecome lessvigilant inprotectingprivacy against the state and the privatesector. Underthe broadumbrella"Institutions,Sys- tems, and Processes"and "Science, Scientists, and the Social Fabric"(Short'scategories),are found the remainingnine essays,byRichard Schwartz, Thomas Moore and S.M.Miller, EricLeiferandHarrisonWhite,CharlesMoskos, Irving Tallman, Robert Wuthnow, Sandra J. Ball-Rokeach,Theodore Caplow, and Harriet Zuckerman.(An informativebut entirely con- ventional essayontheecologicalwebby WilliamCattonand others, admonishingsociol- ogists topay more attentiontothe"resource base," getsacategory allitsownbut really belongs with the other nine.) Among these I would single out four. Schwartzargues that if there is ever to be an emergentworld orderof lawitmust bedrawn from worldwide great cultures:imagine "the toleranceof the Chinese tradition, thetemperingofauthorityand the reverence forlifeofIndia, the protectionof human rights and opportunityintheWest." Leifer and White add an interestingdimension toorganizationaltheory: how"wheeling and dealing, and annealing"need tobeanalyzed moredeeplyasprocesseswithinthemore formal organizationalstructure.Wuthnowex- plores the shortcomingsof variousevolutionary theorieswhen appliedto the matrixof American religion,andHarriet Zuckermancontributes fresh insights intoanelusive problem: what constraintsare laid upon scientific knowledge owing to the necessity ofsupportand funding from outsidethe scientificcommunity. Those who have readthe previousvolumesin the ASA PresidentialSerieswill know generally whattoexpectfromTheSocialFabric:a wide-rangingsetofessaysofvarying merit. This new collectionis squarelyin thattradition.