The essays in this collection use case studies to address four vital issues of modern social advocacy. The first is the new social framework which has legitimized advocacy and recognized the immense importance of human rights legislation. The second issue explored is the adoption of various strategies by advocates in empowering social groups to achieve better self-management. A third issue is the link between the process of advocacy and social movements. In the past the sociological study of collective conflict focused on the confrontation between capital and labour, but in recent years social movements have shifted the focus to quality of life or "programmed society" conflicts. Fourth, the essays examine the role of academic social science in the new process of advocacy. Harries-Jones and the other contributors propose that outdated notions of objectivity in the social sciences be replaced by reflexiveness, social commitment, and interested knowledge. The case studies of advocacy in this collection include those concerning human rights in Chile, race relations, refugees, community and labour advocacy, alternative work training, and advocacy in the women's movement. The contributors to this volume are Howard Adelman, Jinny Arancibia, Marcelo Charlin, John Cleveland, Stewart Crysdale, Harry Diaz, Don Dippo, Jacques Doyer, Peter Harries-Jones, Elspeth Heyworth, Peter Landstreet, Ronnie Leah, Stan Marshall, Gareth Morgan, Tim Rees, Metta Spencer, and Carol Tator.

Making Knowledge Count: Advocacy and Social Science

Reference

Harries-Jones, Peter

Foreign Language Study & Reference

McGill-Queens University Press

Gregory Bateson was one of the most original social scientists of this century. He is widely known as author of key ideas used in family therapy - including the well-known condition called 'double bind' . He was also one of the most influential figures in cultural anthropology. In the decade before his death in 1980 Bateson turned toward a consideration of ecology. Standard ecology concentrates on an ecosystem's biomass and on energy budgets supporting life. Bateson came to the conclusion that understanding ecological organization requires a complete switch in scientific perspective. He reasoned that ecological phenomena must be explained primarily through patterns of information and that only through perceiving these informational patterns will we uncover the elusive unity, or integration, of ecosystems.Bateson believed that relying upon the materialist framework of knowledge dominant in ecological science will deepen errors of interpretation and, in the end, promote eco-crisis. He saw recursive patterns of communication as the basis of order in both natural and human domains. He conducted his investigation first in small-scale social settings; then among octopus, otters, and dolphins. Later he took these investigations to the broader setting of evolutionary analysis and developed a framework of thinking he called 'an ecology of mind.' Finally, his inquiry included an ecology of mind in ecological settings - a recursive epistemology.This is the first study of the whole range of Bateson's ecological thought - a comprehensive presentaion of Bateson's matrix of ideas. Drawing on unpublished letters and papers, Harries-Jones clarifies themes scattered throughout Bateson's own writings, revealing the conceptual consistency inherent in Bateson's position, and elaborating ways in which he pioneered aspects of late twentieth-century thought.

A Recursive Vision: Ecological Understanding and Gregory Bateson

Biographies & Memoirs

University of Toronto Press, Scholarly Publishing Division

Gregory Bateson was one of the most original social scientists of this century. He is widely known as author of key ideas used in family therapy - including the well-known condition called 'double bind' . He was also one of the most influential figures in cultural anthropology. In the decade before his death in 1980 Bateson turned toward a consideration of ecology. Standard ecology concentrates on an ecosystem's biomass and on energy budgets supporting life. Bateson came to the conclusion that understanding ecological organization requires a complete switch in scientific perspective. He reasoned that ecological phenomena must be explained primarily through patterns of information and that only through perceiving these informational patterns will we uncover the elusive unity, or integration, of ecosystems.
Bateson believed that relying upon the materialist framework of knowledge dominant in ecological science will deepen errors of interpretation and, in the end, promote eco-crisis. He saw recursive patterns of communication as the basis of order in both natural and human domains. He conducted his investigation first in small-scale social settings; then among octopus, otters, and dolphins. Later he took these investigations to the broader setting of evolutionary analysis and developed a framework of thinking he called 'an ecology of mind.' Finally, his inquiry included an ecology of mind in ecological settings - a recursive epistemology.
This is the first study of the whole range of Bateson's ecological thought - a comprehensive presentaionof Bateson's matrix of ideas. Drawing on unpublished letters and papers, Harries-Jones clarifies themes scattered throughout Bateson's own writings, revealing the conceptual consistency inherent in Bateson's position, and elaborating ways in which he pioneered aspects of late twentieth-century thought.

University of Toronto Press

Science’s conventional understanding of environment as an inert material resource underlies our unwillingness to acknowledge the military-industrial role in ongoing ecological catastrophes. In a crucial challenge to modern science’s exclusive attachment to materialist premises, Bateson reframed culture, psychology, biology, and evolution in terms of feedback and communication, fundamentally altering perception of our relationship with nature.This intellectual biography covers the whole trajectory of Bateson’s career, from his first anthropological work alongside Margaret Mead through the continuing relevance of his late forays into biosemiotics. Harries-Jones shows how the sum of Bateson’s thinking across numerous fields turns our notions of causality upside down, providing a moral divide between sustainable creativity and our current biocide.

Upside-Down Gods: Gregory Bateson's World of Difference (Meaning Systems)

Politics & Social Sciences

Anthropology

Fordham University Press

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Harries-Jones, Peter. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Harries-Jones, Peter

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Harries-Jones, Peter. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Making Knowledge Count: Advocacy and Social Science

A Recursive Vision: Ecological Understanding and Gregory Bateson

A Recursive Vision: Ecological Understanding and Gregory Bateson

Upside-Down Gods: Gregory Bateson's World of Difference (Meaning Systems)

Upside-Down Gods: Gregory Bateson's World of Difference (Meaning Systems)