From: S.Pines-Martin-AT-iaea.org
Subject: RE: plurilinguism (yawn)
Date: Wed, 31 Mar 1999 14:23:47 +0200


I will agree with Grethe:
>"I think everybody have made themselves clear
>on the use of various languages on this list now.
>Let's move on."
but ...still, and sorry, I said some pretty crappy things, so I would like
to make my own last comment (funny how this topic really touches something
deep inside us...), by answering Emilio who distinguishes:

	a) The degree and the quality of knowlegde that many of us, spanish
	speakers sociologists, we have about contemporary sociological
theory, (not
	only about Bourdieu but about Giddens, Elias, Pizzorno, Touraine,
Boudon,
	Coleman, and so on.....). In other terms....our interests like
sociologists
	are are far away of  only say this stupid sentence: "how exciting it
would
	be to talk about Bourdieu in Spanish" ..... I find this sentence a
bit
	offensive....

Not only Spanish speakers. In anthropology (which I merely study) I find the
problem is all the more acute because of its subject matter: there are
excellent anthropologists in the so-called Third World who are hardly ever
heard, and not merely because of the language, but because of the the
economic and political structures that determine what is and what is not
actual, of interest, what is published, heard, which institutions have
weight and prestige and which do not. I have no intention of denigrating
Spanish speaking social scientists (I am from Spain myself and I am apalled
by the difficulties we have in the social sciences there with funding,
support, and I admire the tenacity of its practitioners); but I *am* touchy
about national/linguistic prides, perhaps because I am one of those
"sociological bastard beings" (as Bourdieu says somewhere) who don't exactly
fit any clear category, as my social history has deprived me of a univocal
sense of national identity (no loss but also no gain). Hence I totally
disagree with any attempt to censor anyone's participation in other
languages, but I am also very cynical about exalting one's own. The remark
"how exciting it would be to talk about Bourdieu in Spanish" is extremely
stupid and it was *meant* to be offensive, but as a revulsive. *My* reaction
(not towards anyone in particular, but towards an attitude I "intuited",
wrongly perhaps) to a first series of emails that *did* only express
excitement about discussing these things in Spanish was: "speak whatever you
like [and Spanish truly is a very widespread language] but just stop beating
around the bush". Despite all posterior clarifications, it still seems
obvious to me that problems of power and hegemony were being addressed in a
very indirect way (and "directly" speaking of English as a language of
domination, which it also is, can be a way of giving free reign to some
unreflected impulses and of expressing them very indirectly); I had the
impression that despite individuals' good will in their "drive to
expression" within the "censure of the field" (this predominantly
English-spoken field of Bourdieu postings), they were "acting out", so to
say, some semi-conscious impulses. But I am no scholar: I was assuming
things on the basis of highly personal, subjective experiences, without the
slightest "scientific sublimation". But what *is* this "censure"? Is there
one, really, i.e., inherent to this forum? Or isn't it rather internalized
here and there by certain individuals in certain social fields, through
education, social position, national identities and their relations to wider
international relations, etc., all of which is then projected and
introjected...? All these projections spill out like fireworks and we have a
spectacle of sociological interest --and a very touchy one indeed! This is
what I felt was worthy of discussion.

	      b) The capacity to interact  in english in this very usefull
list.
	...We (the spanish, french or italian...speakers sociologists) can
learn a
	lot reading some very intelligents contributions and participating
even in a
	marginal and ocasional way, even in spanish, french or in my very
"italian
	or spanish" english. ....

And you see, here it is again: why should anyone feel, in any way
whatsoever, conditioned to contribute in a *marginal* way? I would still
love to hear more from Spanish speaking sociologists, that is the truth. The
spectre of marginalisation haunts me too --not because of language, but
because I do not have the privilege of the sociologist --time and
resources--, and so my "contributions" (if they are not rather a pain in the
ass) are drenched in a self-conscious marginality that I try to overcome
(due, among other reasons, to Bourdieu himself, who so vehemently protests
that unlike in other scientific fields, say chemistry or physics, where
nobody would think of spontaneously offering his or her opinions, in social
science any and everyone believes him/herself a prodigy of insight,
lucidity, imagination and wisdom).

But I will agree with Grethe: "Let's move on." I have some comments down my
sleeve which I would love to send, but the thought of doing so just robs me
of my sleep. It's just a thought I had concerning the "psycho-social
dynamics of hate", as I call it, and in which I ask whether it would make
any sense to treat hate as a social good (sorry for the evil sounding pun)
with which we traffic, something on which certain individuals can
capitalize, indeed as an extremely weird, irrational, though very
commonplace form of "capital" (the idea, which came to me last night, stems
from my recollections of personal experiences in certain social fields where
individuals (patriarchs, bosses at work, supervisors, generals, lieutenants
and sargents, etc.) wield their dominant positions to produce hate in others
and thereby "possess" them and enhance their capacity for mobilising social
energies, wills, affects). Would anyone be interested in hearing about it?
It's anything but scientific, but... Oh well, I try hard.

Y bueno, a lo mejor me da por ahí y lo envío en castellano para ver qué tal
suena y si hay respuesta de alguien que tenga esos conocimientos que yo no
tengo ... Sin problemas.

Grüsse an euch alle,
Sergio

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