Page Lotze
@dinapage
Page Lotze
While there are clear dangers in inappropriate universalistic claims, Sayer notes, we also need to identify some common human capacities for flourishing and suffering if we are to do critical social science. To argue that such capacities are always culturally relative or socially constructed is to forgo the use of ethical categories such as justice... See more
Just a moment...
While it's important to be cautious about making overly broad or universal claims (because not everything applies to everyone in the same way), there's also a need to recognize that some human experiences—like the ability to thrive or suffer—are common across all cultures.
If we say that everything about human experience is entirely dependent on culture or social constructs, then we lose the ability to talk meaningfully about concepts like justice or oppression. To effectively study and critique society (which is what critical social science aims to do), we need to acknowledge that some aspects of human life are shared by everyone, no matter where or how they live. Without this common ground, it becomes difficult to talk about what's right or wrong on a broader, more ethical level.
Hope locates itself in the premises that we don’t know what will happen and that in the spaciousness of uncertainty is room to act. When you recognize uncertainty, you recognize that you may be able to influence the outcomes—you alone or you in concert with a few dozen or several million others. Hope is an embrace of the unknown and the unknowable,
... See moreRebecca Solnit • Hope in the Dark: Untold Histories, Wild Possibilities
Often, hope works best alongside tools for proactively tackling future challenges. If our work becomes a catalysing force for people to imagine things they would not have been able to imagine otherwise and act upon that imagination, then that’s powerful, and for me, this is a slow form of critical activism.
Anab Jain • Calling for a More-Than-Human Politics
hope is the byproduct of action, not a prerequisite for it, says Sarah Ray, who leads the environmental studies program at Humboldt State University in Arcata, California. Action leads to results, which fosters hope, creating a virtuous cycle.
Maddy Lauria • Hope is not passive: How activism keeps optimism alive
Marshall McLuhan:^ 'Environments are not passive wrappings, but are, rather, active processes which are invisible. The groundrules, pervasive structure, and overall patterns of envi¬ ronments elude easy perception