Surprise: a micro-sociological analysis

This article explores the social and relational aspects of surprise: a reaction to the sudden discovery of unexpected knowledge. Drawing on the micro-sociological perspectives of phenomenology, dramaturgy and symbolic interactionism, I present a five-stage trajectory of this social emotion, charting its emergence, feeling, meaning, responses and function. Surprise emerges from situated encounters when an unexpected incident causes a break in the script. This evokes a subjective experience of flustering and dual consciousness, which separates the actor from their role. The signified meanings of surprise include shifts of biographical identity, changes in power and status, and concerns about the exposure of epistemological naivety. Actors perform expressive gestures of surprise in line with cultural feeling and display rules, using dramaturgical techniques of impression management; these include dramatic realisation and verbal response cries. Team-mates cooperatively enact reparative interaction rituals, such as apologies, token exchange and feigned non-reaction, which restore the normal appearance of a scene. Surprise therefore has the paradoxical quality of being disruptively cohesive. While its immediate expression marks a momentary disturbance, it ultimately functions to maintain interaction order.

“We're Rags to Riches”: Dual Consciousness of the American Dream in Two Critical History Classrooms

Background/Context Within the United States, wealth disparities are growing and upward social mobility is becoming increasingly difficult to attain. These trends call into question the American Dream ideology that anyone can succeed through hard work. This meritocratic ideal has traditionally been one of the unifying ideologies promoted through the public school curriculum. The topic of economic inequality, on the other hand, is largely absent from most social studies curricula. When teachers do address this issue, they tend to omit discussions of causes or potential policy solutions. Students are thus left with few resources with which to develop positions on policies related to inequality that would help them become more informed voters and contributors to public discourse on this issue. Purposes Critical pedagogy is an educational approach that aims to develop students’ sociopolitical consciousness of the world and understanding of the underlying causes of contemporary injustices such as rising economic and social inequality. We investigated whether students in classrooms using critical pedagogy might develop understandings of the roots of contemporary inequality. Setting and Participants The study took place in two U.S. History classrooms in culturally diverse public high schools in a midsized city in the Southeast. The classrooms were selected because both teachers demonstrated critical pedagogy by helping students question norms and analyze underlying causes of contemporary social and economic inequalities. Research Design We used a critical case study design with ethnographic methods to examine students’ understandings of structural causes of inequality in classrooms where they are most likely to encounter this knowledge, namely critical history classrooms. Data included 10 weeks of observations in both classrooms, classroom artifacts, in-depth interviews with 14 students, and two in-depth interviews with each teacher along with daily informal interviews. Findings/Results Students critiqued the notion of the American Dream and described ways in which certain social structures such as the judicial and educational systems reproduce social inequalities. Some pointed out how the “rags to riches” ideology precludes tax structures that might reduce economic inequality. However, many also made comments reflecting a belief that the United States is indeed a meritocracy. Conclusions/Recommendations We recommend that teachers explicitly teach the structural causes of economic inequality so that students have the language needed to understand their dual consciousness that both meritocratic elements (e.g., hard work) and non-meritocratic elements (e.g., race, family wealth) play a role in social mobility within the United States.

Dual consciousness and unconsciousness: The structure and spirituality of polymetric tabla compositions

This chapter considers the question of the extent to which composers can manipulate the conscious and unconscious experience of performers and listeners. It addresses a subset of solo tabla compositions by Suresh Talwalkar called mūrchana racanā, meaning ‘compositions that make one bewildered, insensible, or unconscious’. These compositions are so named due to Talwalkar’s belief that their musical structure, based on a complex polymetre, can facilitate altered states of consciousness (ASC). The chapter analyses these rhythmic structures and their possible effects on consciousness, distinguishing between the experiences of listeners and performers. It also discusses how narratives and experiences of ‘mūrchana consciousness’ draw upon pre-existing cultural and philosophical beliefs underlying the North Indian classical music performance context. It concludes that musical structure, performance setting, and metaphysical beliefs all play essential roles in shaping unique experiences of musically altered consciousness.

Self-Knowledge as Non-Dual Awareness: A Comparative Study of Plotinus and Indian Advaita Philosophy

The paper examines the problem of self-knowledge from the perspectives of Plotinus and the Indian Advaita (non-dual) school. Analyzing the subject-object relation, I show that according to both Plotinus and Advaita thinkers, full self-knowledge demands complete absence of otherness. Plotinus argues that if self-consciousness is divided into subject-object relation then one will know oneself as contemplated but not as contemplating (v.3.5) and no real self-knowledge obtains in this case. Śaṅkara, who constitutes an important representative of Advaita thought, points out that the self cannot know itself as an object because what is called an object to be known becomes established when it is separated from the self, the subject. I argue that at the level of the One, similar to the state of ātman consciousness in Advaita framework, the soul experiences itself in expansive non-dual consciousness. Lastly, I examine the role of non-duality as the foundation of knowledge.

From Judge Lynch to Jim Crow

This chapter analyzes the changing face of race relations in Texas. It asks: How was it possible for Texans—and indeed for much of the country—to imagine that race relations had become so accommodating for all concerned in 1936? Was it the result of a kind of dual consciousness in which people knew deep down that the situation left much to be desired but on the surface wanted to put on a good appearance for anyone who might be watching—and they hoped the world was watching and thinking well of Texas? Or was it that the Texas Centennial Exposition celebrated significant changes that had taken place over the past century and even over the past half century—changes that nearly everyone regarded as about the best anyone could hope for, but which also reflected the fact that race relations still had a long way to go?

Toward a Grounded Theory of Student-Athlete Suffering and Dealing with Academic Corruption

The purpose of this grounded theory study was to explain how student-athletes are affected by an instance of academic corruption. Using a grounded theory approach (Glaser & Strauss, 1967; Strauss & Corbin, 1998), multiple sources of data were collected and analyzed using the constant comparison method leading to theory generation. Findings revealed that student-athletes suffer three main consequences (negative treatment, sanctions, and a sense of loss) that lead to various harmful outcomes (e.g., distrust, embarrassment, dysfunctional relationships, stakeholder separation, anger, stress, and conflict). However, the consequences also created a positive outcome displayed through a dual consciousness of corruption (resiliency and empowerment). The results are compared with existing theoretical concepts and previous research associated with the outcomes of corruption. This theory adds to our knowledge of the nature of suffering experienced by student-athletes as a result of corruption and provides direction for future research and practice.

Translating Human Rights into Muslim Vernaculars

Using Islam as an example, I show how interpreters can develop human rights within their own culture even as they draw on extra-local ideas and practices. They can do so despite points of significant conflict between the local culture and that of human rights, in ways that need to resonate with the local culture yet also challenge it. Translators can do the work they do because they have the “dual consciousness” of outside intermediaries and local participants.