James C. Scott, "Behind the Official Story," and:

• Lila Abu-Lughod, "Honor and Shame"
• Benjamin Barber, "Time, Work, and Leisure in a Civil Society," and Peter Drucker, "The Age of Social Transformation"
• Susan Faludi, "The Naked Citadel"
• Hazel Henderson, "Perfecting Democracy's Tools"
• Mary Kaldor, "Beyond Militarism, Arms Races, and Arms Control" and Susan Faludi, "The Naked Citadel"
• Malcolm Gladwell, "The Power of Context" and Susan Faludi, "The Naked Citadel"

Scott and Abu-Lughod

In this assignment, I want you to use James Scott's terms and ideas to help us better understand the workings of power in the Bedouin society described in Lila Abu-Lughod's "Honor and Shame." And I want you to consider how ideas we have encountered in other readings could help to improve the lives of subordinate groups in that society.

Question:

What do the hidden transcripts and public transcripts reveal about the arts of resistance practiced in Bedouin society? What ideas, institutions or social practices discussed by either Benjamin Barber or Peter Drucker could improve the lives of subordinate groups in Bedouin society if they were introduced there?

Discussion:

This assignment's greatest challenge is that it asks you to apply Scott's ideas to passages from Abu-Lughod's essay, and to use Scott's terms to explain the sometimes hidden or even confusing elements in these passages. In order to do this well, you will have to practice the arts of close reading that Scott himself illustrates ­ quoting passages and discussing them very carefully to reveal details that might be easily overlooked. You need to show how quotations or incidents in Abu-Lughod's essay become clearer when framed with terms or ideas from Scott's essay. Try always to be aware of the complexity of the situations her essay describes, and remember that Scott tells us "Power relations are not, alas, so straightforward that we can call what is said in power-laden contexts false and what is said offstage true."

In applying the ideas of Barber or Drucker to Bedouin society, you may feel like you are judging a different culture on Western terms, and that may trouble you. You are welcome to examine the fairness of such cross-cultural criticism if you like and to find an different approach to the assignment if you think applying Western standards to Bedouin culture is not right. For example, you might instead consider whether the Bedouin society that Abu-Lughod describes will eventually develop the institutions and practices described by Barber or Drucker as it becomes more Westernized ­ or, alternately, whether the people in that society might become even more set in their ways in Jihad-like reaction to these Western ideas.

Assignment Goals:

To use ideas from one text to frame examples in another text. To practice the skill of close-reading, discussing passages with great care and attention to detail. To develop a well unified paper that uses three authors in its argument

Michael Goeller, Fall 2000

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Scott, Barber, and Drucker

The situations discussed by James Scott in Domination and the Arts of Resistance involve highly asymmetrical power relations where, he claims, issues of power are "ubiquitous" and "No real social site can be thought of as a realm of entirely true and free discourse" (note 11). Yet in the contemporary western societies discussed by Benjamin Barber and Peter Drucker, there is an assumption that people can communicate openly and that a balance of power will mitigate social inequality.

How do we keep our society from becoming like those that Scott describes? What are the most important threats to equality, according to these writers ­ and how can they be resisted? What are the "arts of resistance" by which our society can maintain a balance of power?

This is an especially hard question because it is really asking you to come up with an original theory about power in society based on a reading of three essays that do not directly discuss this topic. You must argue that there are important social institutions or ways of approaching threats to equality that can help us avoid the drastic asymmetries described in Scott's essay. Important: Try to use Scott's views of power to frame a discussion of at least two examples of threats to equality and ways of resisting it from Drucker and / or Barber. And be sure to use all three readings in the course of your essay.

Assignment Goals:

To develop an original argument (or theory) that can help explain and connect three seemingly unrelated essays around a central insight into the issue of power.

To discuss quotations from two or more authors together within paragraphs, developing connections and explaining quotations and connections carefully.

To present a coherent essay that sets forth a clear argument in an early paragraph, forecasting the main issues that the paper will then explore and develop.

Michael Goeller, Fall 2000

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Domination and the Arts of Gender Performance

James C. Scott argues that social actions are actually signs of power that are translated into performances. For this writing assignment, I would like you to consider the performance of gender roles as they appear in Susan Faludi's, "The Naked Citadel." In other words, does masculinity become a public or hidden transcript at the Citadel? Does masculinity affect femininity or vice versa? Finally, how does Shannon Faulkner's disengagement of gender politics create, or play into, a public or a hidden transcript?

Nicole Smith, Fall 2000

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Hidden and Public Transcripts in an Improved Democracy

One could say that both Hazel Henderson and James Scott are interested in the quality of life. Would the improvements to the democratic process that Henderson proposes alter the relationship between the public and private transcript that Scott describes? That is, in a well functioning democracy, would there be a need for a public and private transcript?

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Scott, Faludi, and Kaldor: The Transcript Test

In your last paper, I asked you to take a position on the inclusiveness or exclusiveness of traditions and to determine if traditions have an inherent right to exist. In class discussion, we discovered that there could be a contradiction between the publicly stated claims of a tradition and the behaviors or actions that the tradition actually produces. We also realized that certain groups might have the power to enforce traditions and that others might participate in traditions with varying degrees of willingness and compulsion. James C. Scott's "Behind the Official Story" offers an approach for understanding and explaining the interactions between dominant and subordinate groups. He suggests that "public transcripts," the open interaction between those involved in unequal power relations often conceal the real distribution of power and the "hidden transcripts" that take place "offstage," outside of the "power-laden context," and between members of the same group (555).

For this paper, you must apply Scott's explanatory model to the unequal power relations that Kaldor and/or Faludi discuss.

You must first determine where structures of dominance appear in their essays and then decide how to distinguish between the dominant and subordinate groups. Who holds the power, and how do you know (or why is it impossible to come to a decision)? Do the authors (Kaldor or Faludi) give you the public transcripts or the hidden transcripts in their essays? Scott insists that "by assessing the discrepancy between the hidden transcript and the public transcript we may begin to judge the impact of domination on public discourse" (555). Can you, using Scott's framework, evaluate how power relations influence discourse in the examples you have chosen? That is, does Scott's approach work?

Carrie Preston, Spring 2003

For the rest of this assignment sequence, see the Re-Vision, Tradition & Public Life sequence

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Gladwell, Scott & Faludi: Behavioral Determinants

In "The Power of Context," Gladwell suggests that "behavior is a function of social context." He explains crime as a product of environmental factors, especially "little things" like broken windows, graffiti, and trash (294). Unlike psychological models, which insist that fundamental character traits and genetics work together to produce behavior, Gladwell emphasizes the significance of "situation" (296). Scott and Faludi also examine several influences on human behavior. Scott discusses the impact of unequal power relations on the behavior of both dominant and subordinate groups, and Faludi suggests that the hazing practiced by upperclassmen on cadets is a product of the tradition of a fourth-class system.

Do these writers have similar or irreconcilable understandings of human behavior? For this paper, you must use Gladwell, Scott, and Faludi to come to a conclusion about the most significant determinants of behavior. What are the practical implications of your understanding of behavior in terms of crime, violence, war, or any other focus of your choosing?

Carrie Preston, Spring 2003

For the rest of this assignment sequence, see the Re-Vision, Tradition & Public Life sequence

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