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Book ChapterDOI

The archaeology of knowledge

01 Sep 1989-pp 227-260
TL;DR: We may not be able to make you love reading, but archaeology of knowledge will lead you to love reading starting from now as mentioned in this paper, and book is the window to open the new world.
Abstract: We may not be able to make you love reading, but archaeology of knowledge will lead you to love reading starting from now. Book is the window to open the new world. The world that you want is in the better stage and level. World will always guide you to even the prestige stage of the life. You know, this is some of how reading will give you the kindness. In this case, more books you read more knowledge you know, but it can mean also the bore is full.
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that dominant and enduring institutional discourses of mobility, which are pervaded by a privileging of individualised automobility, can be conceptualized around a framework of morality, modernity and freedom.

80 citations


Cites background or methods from "The archaeology of knowledge"

  • ...‘Words and things’, writes Foucault (1972, 49), ‘is the entirely serious title of a problem’....

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  • ...We place our emphasis on the ‘interpretative repertoires’ (Potter 1996), the sets of thinking and embodied practices that underlie all mobilities and the ‘conditions of possibility’ (Foucault 1972) for the emergence of knowledge....

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  • ...Our analysis draws from Foucauldian discourse analysis, in that it seeks to identify dominant discourses of mobility through textual analysis of policy and institutional practices: focusing on power, regimes of truth, inherent contradictions and also what is not visible (Foucault 1972, 1977)....

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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that political discourses work in the same vein and create continuities constraining the array of possible policy options, and highlight how politicians have used these hegemonic discourses to maintain the legitimacy of certain policy options.
Abstract: Debates on welfare reforms have revolved around institutional inertias with the emphasis on institutions as structures. We argue that political discourses work in the same vein and create continuities constraining the array of possible policy options – political frames as carriers of institutional inertia and path dependence. The data are based on political debates on child home care in Finland and Sweden. The ‘trap for women’ frame became dominant in the Swedish discourse, while in Finland ‘freedom to choose’ has been hegemonic. According to the Swedish frame, public day care offers children the best preconditions for later development and enhances social equality, whereas in Finland care at home with all its positive characteristics was contrasted with bureaucratic institutional care. The article highlights how politicians have used these hegemonic discourses to maintain the legitimacy of certain policy options.

80 citations


Cites background from "The archaeology of knowledge"

  • ...We can also speak of hegemonic discourses in the sense that if policy-makers wish to change something in society, the structures and content of thinking must be changed (Gramsci, 1971; Laclau and Mouffe, 1985; Foucault, 1986)....

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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Enchanted determinism is analyzed, which sitsuate it within a broader epistemological diagnosis of modernity: Max Weber’s theory of disenchantment, and how discourses of magical deep learning produce techno-optimism.
Abstract: Deep learning techniques are growing in popularity within the field of artificial intelligence (AI). These approaches identify patterns in large scale datasets, and make classifications and predictions, which have been celebrated as more accurate than those of humans. But for a number of reasons, including nonlinear path from inputs to outputs, there is a dearth of theory that can explain why deep learning techniques work so well at pattern detection and prediction. Claims about “superhuman” accuracy and insight, paired with the inability to fully explain how these results are produced, form a discourse about AI that we call enchanted determinism . To analyze enchanted determinism, we situate it within a broader epistemological diagnosis of modernity: Max Weber’s theory of disenchantment. Deep learning occupies an ambiguous position in this framework. On one hand, it represents a complex form of technological calculation and prediction, phenomena Weber associated with disenchantment. On the other hand, both deep learning experts and observers deploy enchanted, magical discourses to describe these systems’ uninterpretable mechanisms and counter-intuitive behavior. The combination of predictive accuracy and mysterious or unexplainable properties results in myth-making about deep learning’s transcendent, superhuman capacities, especially when it is applied in social settings. We analyze how discourses of magical deep learning produce techno-optimism, drawing on case studies from game-playing, adversarial examples, and attempts to infer sexual orientation from facial images. Enchantment shields the creators of these systems from accountability while its deterministic, calculative power intensifies social processes of classification and control.

80 citations

Journal ArticleDOI

80 citations


Cites background from "The archaeology of knowledge"

  • ...Although intersections of privilege and dominance are not as commonly thought about as orienting our actions, our choices are always informed by our discourse-mediated identity and our interactions with others (Foucault, 1972)....

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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine a successful Latin American media product -the Venezuelan telenovela El Pais de las Mujeres [The Country of Women] -and analyze how feminism and feminists are represented in it.
Abstract: This study examines a successful Latin American media product - the Venezuelan telenovela El Pais de las Mujeres [The Country of Women] - and analyzes how feminism and feminists are represented in it. Through interviews with the head writer and actors, the study also explores the production of these portrayals. In addition, consumption of the serial's representation of feminism is analyzed through individual and group interviews with audience members. The study highlights the paradoxes involved in the production and consumption of a media text that simultaneously delivers a critique of Venezuelan patriarchy, an empowering message for women, and a sharp rejection of feminism.

80 citations


Cites background from "The archaeology of knowledge"

  • ...For instance, Padrón’s and some of the participants’ understanding of feminists as man haters is an example of labeling (Foucault, 1990) that disqualifies feminism and turns it into a threat....

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  • ...For instance, Padrón’s and some of the participants’ understanding of feminists as man haters is an example of labeling (Foucault, 1990) that disqualifies feminism and turns it into a threat....

    [...]

References
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Book
18 Jul 2003
TL;DR: Part 1: Social Analysis, Discourse Analysis, Text Analysis 1. Introduction 2. Texts, Social Events, and Social Practices 3. Intertextuality and Assumptions Part 2: Genres and Action 4. Genres 5. Meaning Relations between Sentences and Clauses 6. Discourses 8. Representations of Social Events Part 4: Styles and Identities 9. Modality and Evaluation 11. Conclusion
Abstract: Part 1: Social Analysis, Discourse Analysis, Text Analysis 1. Introduction 2. Texts, Social Events, and Social Practices 3. Intertextuality and Assumptions Part 2: Genres and Action 4. Genres 5. Meaning Relations between Sentences and Clauses 6. Types of Exchange, Speech Functions, and Grammatical Mood Part 3: Discourses and Representations 7. Discourses 8. Representations of Social Events Part 4: Styles and Identities 9. Styles 10. Modality and Evaluation 11. Conclusion

6,407 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A set of principles for the conduct and evaluation of interpretive field research in information systems is proposed, along with their philosophical rationale, and the usefulness of the principles is illustrated by evaluating three publishedinterpretive field studies drawn from the IS research literature.
Abstract: This article discusses the conduct and evaluatoin of interpretive research in information systems. While the conventions for evaluating information systems case studies conducted according to the natural science model of social science are now widely accepted, this is not the case for interpretive field studies. A set of principles for the conduct and evaluation of interpretive field research in information systems is proposed, along with their philosophical rationale. The usefulness of the principles is illustrated by evaluating three published interpretive field studies drawn from the IS research literature. The intention of the paper is to further reflect and debate on the important subject of grounding interpretive research methodology.

5,588 citations

Book
01 Jan 1999
TL;DR: In Sorting Things Out, Bowker and Star as mentioned in this paper explore the role of categories and standards in shaping the modern world and examine how categories are made and kept invisible, and how people can change this invisibility when necessary.
Abstract: What do a seventeenth-century mortality table (whose causes of death include "fainted in a bath," "frighted," and "itch"); the identification of South Africans during apartheid as European, Asian, colored, or black; and the separation of machine- from hand-washables have in common? All are examples of classification -- the scaffolding of information infrastructures. In Sorting Things Out, Geoffrey C. Bowker and Susan Leigh Star explore the role of categories and standards in shaping the modern world. In a clear and lively style, they investigate a variety of classification systems, including the International Classification of Diseases, the Nursing Interventions Classification, race classification under apartheid in South Africa, and the classification of viruses and of tuberculosis. The authors emphasize the role of invisibility in the process by which classification orders human interaction. They examine how categories are made and kept invisible, and how people can change this invisibility when necessary. They also explore systems of classification as part of the built information environment. Much as an urban historian would review highway permits and zoning decisions to tell a city's story, the authors review archives of classification design to understand how decisions have been made. Sorting Things Out has a moral agenda, for each standard and category valorizes some point of view and silences another. Standards and classifications produce advantage or suffering. Jobs are made and lost; some regions benefit at the expense of others. How these choices are made and how we think about that process are at the moral and political core of this work. The book is an important empirical source for understanding the building of information infrastructures.

4,480 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
Anna Sfard1
TL;DR: In this article, two such metaphors are identified: the acquisition metaphor and the participation metaphor, and their entailments are discussed and evaluated, and the question of theoretical unification of research on learning is addressed, wherein the purpose is to show how too great a devotion to one particular metaphor can lead to theoretical distortions and to undesirable practices.
Abstract: This article is a sequel to the conversation on learning initiated by the editors of Educational Researcher in volume 25, number 4. The author’s first aim is to elicit the metaphors for learning that guide our work as learners, teachers, and researchers. Two such metaphors are identified: the acquisition metaphor and the participation metaphor. Subsequently, their entailments are discussed and evaluated. Although some of the implications are deemed desirable and others are regarded as harmful, the article neither speaks against a particular metaphor nor tries to make a case for the other. Rather, these interpretations and applications of the metaphors undergo critical evaluation. In the end, the question of theoretical unification of the research on learning is addressed, wherein the purpose is to show how too great a devotion to one particular metaphor can lead to theoretical distortions and to undesirable practices.

3,660 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Problematization is proposed as a methodology for identifying and challenging assumptions underlying existing literature and, based on that, formulating research questions that are likely to lead to more influential theories.
Abstract: It is increasingly recognized that what makes a theory interesting and influential is that it challenges our assumptions in some significant way. However, established ways for arriving at research questions mean spotting or constructing gaps in existing theories rather than challenging their assumptions. We propose problematization as a methodology for identifying and challenging assumptions underlying existing literature and, based on that, formulating research questions that are likely to lead to more influential theories.

1,126 citations