l Licensed for use by the Arab Open University

Supplementary Material

An Introduction to the Social Sciences: Understanding Social Change

DD122

Notes for Audio-cassettes 6, 7, 8(Side A), 9 and 10 (Side A)Prepared for the course team by David Goldblatt, Kath Woodwardand David Held

Contents1 Introduction: DD122 audio-cassettes 2

2 Audio-cassette 6, Side A 2

3 Audio-cassette 6, Side B 3

4 Audio-cassette 7, Side A 4

4.1 What do lectures offer you? 4

4.2 Problems of learning from lectures 5

4.3 Practical advice 5

4.4 Note taking from lectures: the Reith Lecture 7

5 Audio-cassette 7, Side B 8

6 Audio-cassette 8, Side A 9

7 Audio-cassette 9, Side A: Knowledge and Knowing – Discussion withRussell Stannard, Anne Scott and Kath Woodward 10

8 Audio-cassette 9, Side B: Key Questions – A Course Team Discussion 12

9 Audio-cassette 10, Side A 14

This booklet contains the notes for all the DD122 audio-cassettes, except forAudio-cassettes 8 (Side B) and 10 (Side B). Audio-cassette 8, Side B has itsown separate supplement. Notes for Audio-cassette 10 (Side B) can be foundin the Course Review. As DD122 is based on the 60 point course DD100, youwill hear references to DD100 on the cassettes. Don’t worry about this! It’sstill all DD122.

Copyright # 2003 The Open University SUP 73274 31.1

1 Introduction: DD122 audio-cassettesEach of the blocks of DD122 is accompanied by an audio-cassette.

. On Side A you will generally find a short discussion amongst members of thecourse team introducing you to the themes of the block, its central questionsand concerns, its connections with earlier materials in the course and so on.

. On Side B of each of these cassettes there is generally a discussion between amember of the course team and people from outside of the OU who have anactive interest and engagement with social science and the issues raised in theblock. This is an opportunity for consolidation and reflection of block ideas anda chance to hear how social science ideas are debated and used in the widerworld.

There is also an audio-cassette that accompanies the Study Skills Supplement onReading Maps, this helps take you through some of the material and provides anadditional reflection on the material that you will be studying.

Using audio-cassettes is a very idiosyncratic practice amongst Open Universitystudents. Some listen to them in the car, others on a personal stereo on the train,some while washing up, others at their desk. Flexibility of use is certainly one oftheir virtues. However you use them, some of the following may be usefulguidelines.

. Read the notes before you listen. At the very least try and fix in your head ornote down the main purpose of the cassette – listen out for the key questions ofthe block, the use of course themes, etc.

. If you can, have a pen and paper handy for short notes.

. Tapes can be stopped and replayed – when something is complex or interesting.Tapes can also be fast-forwarded.

. After listening to the tape – and this is really the most important thing – spendfive minutes organizing your notes and thoughts. What are the key points, newideas, new connections sparked by the tape? Is there anything you need to lookup, check over in the other course materials? If you can’t do it now, make anote to do it later.

2 Audio-cassette 6, Side AParticipants:

Dr Kath Woodward, DD122 Course Team Chair.

Professor John Allen, DD122 course team member.

Dr Bob Kelly, DD122 course team member.

This is an introductory audio-cassette and you are not expected to do anypreparation before listening to the tape as this is the first audio-cassette on DD122.It is designed to enable you to review some of the work you did on DD121, thefirst part of An Introduction to the Social Sciences, and, in particular, to revisit theDD121 course themes which also provide the framework for DD122. During theaudio-cassette you will hear material from DD121. We have included extracts fromthe first two DD121 television programmes, The Agony and the Ecstasy andDefining Moments, and the fourth programme, Living with Risk, which use materialfrom DD121 to illustrate the course themes of:

Structure and Agency

Uncertainty and Diversity

Knowledge and Knowing.

The final extract on the cassette is taken from DD122 and you will be listening tothis along with your work on globalization in the second block of the course. It isan extract from Professor Anthony Giddens’ 1999 Reith Lecture and it is usedhere to signpost some of the ways in which the DD122 course themes are used toframe our discussion of globalization.

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3 Audio-cassette 6, Side BParticipants:

Dr Kath Woodward, DD122 Course Team Chair.

Professor Stuart Hall, Emeritus Professor of Sociology, The Open University.

Before listening

Before you listen to this audio-cassette you should think about the DD122 coursethemes, which were the focus of Audio-cassette 6, Side A. There will be more workon the course themes in the DD122 Course Introduction, but before you listen toAudio-cassette 6, Side B just make sure that you have acquainted yourself with thethemes, which, you will recall, also provided the framework for DD121.

It would also be useful to reflect on the discussion of race, racism and ethnicity inthe Course Introduction and to think about how issues of race and ethnicity couldbe used to address the following questions.

. Is there more uncertainty about race and ethnicity in the contemporary UK?

. Does uncertainty contribute to racism?

. What are the opportunities for re-creating ethnic identities in the contemporaryUK?

. To what extent can people negotiate their own ethnicity, or are they subject tostructural constraints?

. What kind of collective action can people take to take control of their ownethnic identities?

. How do we know about the different ethnic components of contemporary UKsociety?

. How are they represented?

After listening

Some of the discussion focuses on definitions of race, racism and ethnicity. Thesedefinitions reflect those at the start of the DD122 Course Introduction and showhow social scientists have given different emphasis to different terms at particulartimes. The discussion also shows the connections between uncertainty anddiversity; for example the ways in which, for some people, a diverse society, even amulti-cultural society, might be seen as threatening, whilst for others it is enrichingand a source of new opportunities. It is also the case that structure and agency areconnected.

Minority ethnic groups are not always able to negotiate their own identities, freefrom the constraints of racism, but at other times, especially through collectiveaction, it becomes possible to change some of the more negative social structures.The discussion picks up the DD122 concern with change and highlights some ofthe different ways in which social, political, economic and cultural changes havetaken place over the last 50 years. Social scientists have themselves been involvedin the ways which some of these changes have taken place and have contributed tothe knowledge which we have about change and the different ways in which peopleexperience changes.

After listening to Side B it would be useful to make some brief notes on the waysin which the discussion illustrates the DD122 course themes and to use these noteswhen you work through the rest of the Introductory Block.

It will be useful to revisit this audio-cassette when you come to write TMA 04.

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4 Audio-cassette 7, Side AParticipants: Melvin Bragg (Presenter) and Professor Anthony Giddens (Speaker).

Unlike any of the cassettes you have listened to on DD121 or DD122, Audio-cassette 7, Side A is a single continuous lecture with a single and distinctive voice.The voice is that of Anthony Giddens, giving the first of five Reith Lectureson globalization, commissioned and broadcast by the BBC in 1999. In mostuniversities lecturing is one of the main modes of teaching, though in ourexperience few lectures are quite as polished and engaging as this one. But forobvious reasons it is not the main mode of teaching at the OU. None the less,the skills required to make the best use of lectures are something worth acquiringand this is your opportunity on DD122 to begin developing those skills. Beforeyou listen to the lecture take a moment to read through this guide to learningfrom lectures.

4.1 What do lectures offer you?

Critics have said that lectures simply ‘present’ knowledge instead of encouragingstudents to think; that listening is a passive and generally rather tedious mode oflearning. They also suggest that students are unable to pay close attention formore than about 20 minutes, and at the end of a lecture they are unable to recallmore than a small proportion of what has been said. In spite of this, the lecturecontinues to be the dominant teaching method. But it is misleading to think oflectures simply in terms of ‘information’ transmitted and remembered. The lectureis not a very good method of delivering a lot of detailed information. It is toounreliable. Essential information is better presented in print, where it can be setdown correctly, where you can study it when you are ready to take it in, andwhere you can return to it as needed.

Where the lecture comes into its own is in helping you to understand how the ideasin the subject work. The lecturer can ‘project’ meaning into the words for you. Thesense of the words is signalled through tone of voice and embellished with gesturesand facial expression. By orchestrating all these different means of communicating,the ideas you are grappling with can be presented to you much more explicitly andforcefully. This is not an entirely passive experience. You too have to make theeffort to ‘follow the argument’. However, the lecturer can ‘talk you through’ fromthe beginning to the end of the argument, even if you cannot understand it all andeven if you miss some of what is said (because your attention wanders from timeto time). You can still pick up a sense of how the whole debate is supposed towork.

This makes lectures an excellent counterpart to reading (where you can stop andthink over points which puzzle you and go back to re-read them if necessary, andwhere you have time to make notes thoughtfully). When you are learningunfamiliar material, both approaches are useful. One drives you on into newterritory; the other lets you get your bearings and take time to map out the groundaround you.

Far from depositing a mound of information in your head, the main effect of anexcellent lecture might be to shake up all your thinking on a subject, so that youare not sure what to think. You might simply end up with a whole lot of newquestions in your head. But these questions could be exactly what you need to helpyou make more sense the next time you pick up a textbook. Lectures, when givenwell, help you to ‘get inside’ the discourses of the field you are studying. Theirpurpose is not to make sure that every point in the lecturer’s notes ends up in yournotes. (In the age of the photocopier there are much easier ways of doing that.)What they offer is ‘live’ discourse; words spoken in a social setting which engagedirectly with the thoughts in your mind.

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Summary

The strength of the lecture lies not in presenting information to you, but in:

. engaging your mind with debates going on in the subject

. showing you how the explanations work

. letting you hear how the language of the subject is used.

4.2 Problems of learning from lectures

The most pressing practical problem when you are listening to a lecture is that itsets you three challenging tasks to do simultaneously.

. You have to attend to and make sense of a line of argument.

. You have to think about what is said.

. You have to take notes of some kind.

Of course, you can’t actually do more than one of these at once. So the best youcan aim for is to switch quickly from one task to another. In an odd way theurgency of the struggle to cope with this mental juggling act is helpful. By puttingyou under pressure, lectures force you into taking leaps and short cuts. These forceyou to seize the initiative in ‘making sense’ of the subject. When you are readingyou may tend to hold yourself at a respectful distance from the ideas in the text,painstakingly summarizing them in note form. In a lecture you haven’t time forthat. You just have to pitch in and quickly make sense of what you hear becausethe scraps you get down are all you will take away with you at the end. You haveto learn to think on your feet.

But how do you develop this juggling act? Clearly you cannot afford to leave theprimary task of attending to the lecture for very long, or you will lose the drift ofthe whole argument. On the other hand, you are bound to miss some of what issaid, because listening ‘intelligently’ will make you stop and think from time totime (as you make connections with other ideas already in your mind). You haveto find out how to make a trade-off between listening and thinking which enablesyou to keep in touch. In fact, the most significant thing you can do to keep yourmind on the lecture is to develop a good note-taking strategy.

4.3 Practical advice

There is no single ‘best’ way of taking notes from lectures. Some people scribblebusily throughout the lecture and write several pages, while others take down nomore than a few key points set out diagrammatically. Both of these approachescan be very effective. It depends on the context in which you are attending thelecture, on the kind of lecture it is, and most of all on the way you work andlearn.

How many notes do you need?

If your course uses lectures as the main source of information, then you may haveto write down a lot to be sure of getting hold of what you need. On the otherhand, if the lectures are backed up by handouts and by good textbooks (or betterstill by ‘teaching texts’, structured to help you learn), then you may need very littlein the way of a written record. In the case of Audio-cassette 7, Side A in DD122the Reith Lecture provides material additional to the core textbook, so short notesshould be fine.

Equally, if the lecture itself is delivered in a formal and monotonous way and ispacked with detailed information, you may find that you have to write down a lotjust to keep track. If, on the other hand, the lecturer has a lively style and givesstriking examples and illustrations of the main points, you may find that you learna lot by concentrating on listening and just writing the occasional notes of the keypoints and the topics covered.

The most important factor, though, is you.

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If writing a lot helps you to allay anxiety and if it keeps you actively ‘working’with what is being said, rather than just letting it wash over you, then it may bethe right approach for you. On the other hand, if you try to write everything down,you will probably learn very little during the lecture itself. Most of your work willstill lie ahead of you at the end, in that you will then need to read the notes to findout what is in them.

How do you know which points to write down?

In fact, the beginning and the end of a lecture are particularly important times fornote taking. At the start, you are likely to be able to get down ‘the point’ of thelecture. At the end, you should try to draw out some conclusions. Again, thelecturer may give you direct help with this by summarizing. For the first and last 5minutes of a half-hour lecture or 10 minutes of an hour lecture, then, you mightset yourself the task of taking quite full notes, while allowing yourself to be morerelaxed and your note taking more sporadic in between. All you may need are afew headings and the occasional word or phrase to remind you of the general areacovered and the main themes. Note down any examples and illustrations that thelecturer gives. They will help to remind you of the workings of the arguments andexplanations. Often you won’t need more than a word or two to bring these backto you. On the other hand, when you want to note a key point which is moreabstract, you may need to get the whole thing down in detail, if you are going tobe able to make sense of it afterwards. Note the names of major writers who arementioned and the dates of their work. This will help to give you a sense of whothe main figures are in your field of study and enable you to make connectionswith what you read in the texts. Make a point of writing down any questions orcomments that occur to you as you listen. After the lecture, you may find yourcomments are more useful to you than the words of the lecturer in reconstructingwhat was going through your mind at the time.

If you take listening and thinking seriously, you cannot expect to make very fullnotes in a lecture. And in fact the process of deciding what is important enough towrite down and what is not may actually be more valuable to you than the notesyou end up with. It keeps your mind alert and makes you think about the subject.

Making notes after the lecture

An hour spent at a lecture or even half an hour listening to a lecture on cassetteis a significant investment of your study time, but the return may seemdisappointing if, a day or two later, you cannot recall what the lecture was about,or make much sense of your notes. However, you may be able to increase theyield a great deal by making an additional time investment immediately after thelecture. If you make the time to write a short summary of the main points of thelecture (say ten lines), you may be able to convert scrappy notes into a muchmore intelligible record. It is sometimes said that what you get out of lectures isnot determined by what you do during the lecture so much as by the work youput in before and after.

Summary

. Be clear in your mind as to why you are listening to a lecture and what youwant to take away from it.

. Develop a flexible way of working which you can change depending on the kindof lecture it turns out to be.

. Take account of your own habits (e.g. you may tend to day-dream), and developa note-taking strategy which helps you to concentrate. Don’t attempt to writedown ‘everything’. Listening is your main job. Try to make brief notes whichpick-out the main themes and key points.

. If you write a summary shortly after the lecture it will greatly increase the valueof having listened.

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4.4 Note taking from lectures: the Reith Lecture

Activity 1

You can, of course, use this cassette in any way you feel comfortable. But youmay want to practice your note taking from lectures skills. If so, listen to the tapethrough once and make short notes, then compare them with ours below.

Now listen to Audio-cassette 7, Side A and return here.

Comment

Our notes are as follows:

– Spread of word ‘globalization’ is global.– 2 key positions:

SCEPTICS (old left?) – glob. is myth/ideologyWorld econ. no more interconnected than 19th C.

RADICALS – glob. is unique, power nation-state very limited.

– Giddens says:Radicals right about scale globalization

wrong about consequences

– Key differences:(1) global capital flows(2) instant electronic communication

especially global news(3) global movement of women’s rights

So: globalization ?; national power: local power: new nations: Scot/Quebec

Impact: collapse USSR?globalization is key cause of collapseeconomic weakness of USSR exposedimpact TV

? global– Americanization?– bad for the poor?

but:reverse colonizationBrazilian TV

Trade!– global free trade good

or protectionism

New roles for nation-states, national identities need to shift

Nation-state example of SHELL INSTITUTION –

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outward institution is unchangedbut inside the institution is not working

need reform to bring global forces under control – poss. cosmopolitan.

As you can see, this was a lecture that covered a lot of ground and, though oftenpersuasive, it made us want to ask a lot more searching questions of the speaker.

. Can the collapse of the Soviet Union really be explained in terms ofglobalization alone?

. How can the growth of new communications technologies be explained in termsof globalization alone?

. Just how much ‘reverse colonization’ of global flows from South to North arethere?

In this respect the lecture was a success – stimulating new questions and avenuesof thought.

What key points should you take away from the lecture? How can you connectand locate Giddens’ argument in relation to the work you have already done inBlock 4, and indeed on the course as a whole?

Activity 2

Look over your notes on the lecture and consider the following:

. Which of the positions on globalization outlined in Book 4, Chapter 1 isGiddens’ argument closest to?

. What is the impact of globalization on nation-states?

. Are there winners and losers?

Comment

. Giddens’ argument seems closest to a transformationalist position. His scepticsand radicals map pretty closely on to our traditionalists andglobalizers.

. Unique, revolutionary! Distinguished by the global character of financialmarkets, instantaneous communications and key political decisions. It impactson every aspect of personal and political life, all over the world.

. The power of nation-states is neither eradicated nor unchanged. In some areaspower has been lost, but new institutions may allow us to reverse this.

. Yes – the divisions between rich and poor appear to be globally connectedand accelerating. Global relationships are marked by inequality. Butglobalization in the form of the global spread of women’s rights is creatingnew opportunities.

Don’t forget, you should now return to Workbook 4, and start Section 2.

5 Audio-cassette 7, Side BParticipants: Professor David Held and Professor Anthony Giddens.

Before listening

Before you listen to this interview, conducted by David Held, have in mind thelecture on globalization by Anthony Giddens you’ve already heard (Audio-cassette7, Side A). This provides a very useful background. While listening to the currenttape you should consider:

. What kind of theoretical position Giddens is developing.

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. Think about how Giddens’ argument fits in to Book 4 and the threedifferent theoretical positions it uses: globalism, traditionalism andtransformationalism.

. Think about what Giddens has to say about the role of the state and reflecton the political implications of his remarks.

After listening

With regard to the questions we posed above, our notes on the conversationincluded:

. Giddens defines globalization to begin with simply in terms of ‘the increasinginterdependence in world society’. Broadly, the position he subsequentlydevelops can be called, in the language of Book 4, a pessimistic globalistposition but there are elements of his argument that lean towards thetransformationalist position.

. Giddens develops a distinction between ‘globalization from above’ (globalizationgenerated by states and big corporations) and ‘globalization from below’(transnational movements of civil society, monitoring and checking globalizationfrom above). Did you find this distinction helpful?

In the interview David Held tries to press Anthony Giddens to clarify his position.Held raises a number of questions (broadly from a traditional or sceptical position,although Held himself is a transformationalist) in order to attempt to encourageGiddens to spell out his views in more detail.

The discussion focuses on whether we live in a ‘runaway world’. Giddens seems toclarify his position helpfully. In the Reith Lecture he broadly defended a globalistposition arguing that the modern state is being ‘hollowed out’ by globalization.But in the interview he emphasizes that new global problems – such as globalwarming or the regulation of global markets – requires global co-operation amongstates, especially the G7 states (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, UK,USA). In this context, Giddens puts emphasis on the continuing significance androle of the state, now and in the future.

Giddens also emphasizes that there is no escaping globalization, and, especially,the world economy. But he argues that the latter must be tamed by mechanisms ofregional governance, such as the EU, and by new forms of global governance – aview which leads him to call for reforms of existing IGOs (intergovernmentalorganizations) and the creation of new, effective forms of global democraticgovernance.

6 Audio-cassette 8, Side AParticipants: Professor David Held, Dr Bob Kelly and Professor GrahameThompson.

Before listening

This cassette sets out a wide range of the issues which are explored in Book 4 andguides you through them. It’s a lively accompaniment to the book and to thedebate about globalization. The cassette is divided into three parts.

. Part 1 introduces the big questions posed by globalization and explains whyglobalization has become such a hotly debated term. The discussion clarifies thedifference between ‘popular or everyday views’ of globalization and a socialscientific approach, which seeks to examine, rather than assert, the extent ofglobalization. At issue are historical and empirical questions which needinvestigation.

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. Part 2 returns to the structure of Book 4 and explores the question: are wereally living in a new global order? It discusses the way Book 4 is oriented to anumber of leading questions, theories and big themes.

. Part 3 focuses the discussion on the question of who wins and loses as a resultof globalization.

After listening

Most of the discussion is self evident and a helpful overview and summary of thekey issues in Book 4. However, it is worth reflecting for a moment on some of theimportant issues raised in the final part of the tape – issues centring on who winsand loses as a result of globalization.

The discussion on this topic is led by Grahame Thompson who focuses on theimpact of globalization on the distribution of power. Thompson provides a clearargument that – whatever precise theoretical view one takes toward globalization –it is not too difficult to discern current winners and losers. Current winners includethe major multinational corporations, political elites who run IGOs, and thesuccessful knowledge workers who have the skills to participate in the newinformation order. The losers risk including the least skilled in advanced societiesand most of the 85 per cent of the world’s population who are marginal to theworld’s economies.

The nature and meaning of this gap between winners and losers is discussed in thetape and will no doubt give you plenty of food for thought.

Please note: Audio-cassette 8, Side B has its own guide, Study SkillsSupplement 3: Reading Maps.

7 Audio-cassette 9, Side A: Knowledge andKnowing – Discussion with Russell Stannard,Anne Scott and Kath Woodward

Participants:

Dr Kath Woodward, Chair, DD122.

Professor Russell Stannard, Emeritus Professor of Physics, The Open University.

Dr Anne Scott, Senior Lecturer in Women’s Studies, University ofBradford.

Introduction

This cassette involves discussion of the DD122 course theme of knowledge andknowing, which sets up some of the key debates which will be explored in Block 5.The discussion on the cassette focuses on the question what is knowledge?, which isthe first question posed in the Introduction to Book 5 as well as being the mainfocus of Chapter 1. It also raises other questions about different sorts ofknowledge and what these systems of knowledge might have in common and whatmight distinguish them. We want to explore the ‘circuit of knowledge’ as developedthrough DD122 and as the more specific focus of Block 5. We concentrate onsome of the key questions and areas of concern of Block 5 and use examplesdrawn from the particular interests of the participants, in science – especiallyphysics, and the social sciences, including gender studies and religion.

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Before listening: key questions

The first question we would like you to bear in mind as you listen to the tape is:

. What is knowledge?

This immediately raises other questions, which are addressed on the tape:

. What is the relationship between different systems of knowledge; for example,between science and religion, or between social science and natural science?

. How is knowledge changing?

. How is knowledge constructed and produced; how do we know?

. How do we find things out? What methods do we employ, as social scientists?Are our methods very different from those of the natural sciences?

. Are some knowledge systems more important than others? Is there a hierarchyof knowledge systems? What counts?

The discussion

We use the example of scientific knowledge, in particular physics, to illustrate thecharacteristics of a specific knowledge system which involves ideas, conventionsand practices, and which entails the employment of particular methodologies andstrategies for investigation. The experimental method and techniques ofobservation are discussed in Chapter 1, and that scientific knowledge isdistinguished from common sense partly by its application of such methodologies(Table 1.1). However, Russell Stannard points out that systems of scientificknowledge and enquiry are far from static and have changed very significantlysince the nineteenth century. He also cites the impact of Popper’s questioningscepticism and Kuhn’s notion of paradigm shifts (Chapter 1, Section 3) in creatingan approach to knowledge production which, using the example of physics, isdynamic and changing, and which creates approximations which may bechallenged rather than fixed truths. There appear to be more similarities betweenthe natural and social sciences here than might have been expected. However, inorder to count as knowledge there has to be some degree of agreement about thequestions which can be asked, the methods to be adopted, the areas of concern.Knowledge production involves a set of conventions and practices through whichevidence is used to support the claims made, which are none the less open tochange and adaptation.

One of the ways in which some knowledge systems might seem to be able to layclaim to greater authority than others might be through their claims to objectivityand reliability. In the twenty-first century the natural sciences might have higherstatus than religion because of the perceived objectivity of science and thesubjectivity of religion, although religious knowledge may be based on access tohigher spiritual authorities than any other knowledge system including those of thenatural sciences. How far are claims to objectivity a feature of particularknowledge systems such as the natural sciences? What is the relationship betweenobjectivity and subjectivity? Anne Scott takes up some issues raised by the debatesin Chapter 1 about the ways in which natural and social scientists are situated inrelation to the production of knowledge. Far from being outside knowledgeproduction, researchers are inside and part of the process. There is aninterrelationship between the objective and the subjective. This raises questionsabout the ways in which claims to objectivity have masked the exclusion of somegroups, for example women, historically from the production of high statusknowledge, the knowledge which counts. This may involve hierarchies, but AnneScott argues for a plurality of knowledges, for a diversity which is producedhorizontally rather than vertically. Not only are the subjective and the objectiveinterconnected in the production of knowledge, but also the theories which informthat production are value laden. Values, which reflect and reproduce socialinequalities, are part of the circuit of knowledge.

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Key points

. Knowledge includes ideas, practices, ways of doing things and understanding.

. There is a diversity of different knowledge systems which change over time.

. There are inequalities and imbalances; some knowledge may carry higher statusand some groups may be marginalized or excluded from this high statusknowledge production.

. Different systems have their own characteristics but there are also similarities;religion and science may not be so very different

. The circuit of knowledge includes questions, claims, evidence, theories andvalues.

. There is an interrelationship between objectivity and subjectivity; knowledge issituated.

After listening

Use the questions which have been posed here to guide your study through Block5. The specific discussion of religious knowledge on the tape will be especiallyuseful in informing your work on Chapter 2. Think about the status of knowledgeand how it is changing. You already have some ideas about how social scienceknowledge has changed (this is a particular theme of Side B of Audio-cassette 9).What are the stages involved in the production of different kinds of knowledgeand what is the status of these different kinds of knowledge? What kinds of valuesare implicit or even explicit in the claims which are made within the social sciencesand how do these values impact upon the status of particular kinds of knowledge?The circuit of knowledge starts with questions and this tape is designed to promptsome of the questions which you need to think about as a sceptical enquirer in thesocial sciences.

8 Audio-cassette 9, Side B: Key Questions –A Course Team Discussion

Participants:

Dr Kath Woodward, Chair, DD122.

Dr David Goldblatt, Co-Chair, DD100.

Dr Margaret Kiloh, Workbook 5 author and DD122 course team member.

Introduction

This side of Audio-cassette 9 explores DD122’s knowledge and knowing theme bytaking up debates about knowledge in the contemporary world and engaging withanother course theme, namely that of uncertainty and diversity. Do the plethora ofnew knowledge systems and the advent of the ‘knowledge society’ mean that thereis greater uncertainty about sources of authority? Or, on the other hand, arethere new opportunities to challenge traditions and create new forms of knowledge,which might, as Tony Blair suggests in the opening extract, provide wider accessand more democratic participation? The tape uses extracts from a speech by PrimeMinister Tony Blair, from Charles Leadbeater (who features in Chapter 4 ofBook 5) speaking on Radio 4’s In Our Time (February 2000), and from FrancisFukuyama’s 1992 book The End of History and The Last Man, Harmondsworth,Penguin.

Before listening

This side of Audio-cassette 9 offers a review of Block 5 and its treatment of theknowledge and knowing course theme. It addresses the development of the circuitof knowledge (see Workbook 5) with a particular focus on social change and the

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role of knowledge within the changes that are taking place, both in terms of howknowledge is produced and how it is disseminated. You should listen to this sideof Audio-cassette 9 at the end of your study of Block 5, before you embark onwriting TMA 03. It would be useful to look back to the questions posed in theBook 5 Introduction as well as to the overview in the Afterword to Book 5 beforeyou listen to the tape.

Key questions

. What sort of changes are taking place in the production of knowledge incontemporary society?

. What do we mean by ‘expert knowledge’?

. Has there been a decline in the status of expert knowledge, for example in theWest?

. Does this produce greater uncertainty?

. How is knowledge socially constructed?

. How are the social sciences constructed and what is the role of the socialsciences in the production of knowledge?

The discussion

Knowledge production has been transformed through the volume of knowledgewhich is produced and through the extent to which knowledge has becomeaccessible. The distribution of knowledge and its transmission have undergoneradical changes in recent years. However, there have been challenges to existingsystems of knowledge as well as the development of new systems. Traditionalsources of knowledge have been challenged from within and contested by theemergence of new expertise as well as by a growing distrust of experts, for examplein the area of medical science.

Expert knowledge is defined as based on socially sanctioned, legitimated,institutionally grounded knowledge which illustrates the operation of power in thecreation and distribution of knowledge. Expert knowledge can be seen as havinghigher status than other forms of knowledge, although as we have seen in Book 5,traditional expertise, whether of medical authority, the religious establishment orof mainstream political ideologies, has been subject to debate and questioning.Power operates through different systems including the economic structures ofsociety which play an important part in constructing the foundations of dominantknowledge systems. Economics is one dimension and one field through whichpower is exercised. Power also operates discursively – for example, through thelanguage through which meanings are represented. Knowledge is both producedand transmitted through language.

The social sciences are no different from other forms of knowledge production inthat they too are socially constructed and are created within particular discursiveregimes. For example, the attempts of the social sciences in the nineteenth centuryto mimic the natural sciences by establishing generalized rules about socialbehaviour from which future trends could be predicted in a reliable way, and toemploy the positivist methodologies of the natural sciences, can be seen asillustrative of the social construction of social science. More recent trends in thedeployment of interpretativist approaches and the breakdown of the grandnarratives of nineteenth-century social science could be seen as leading tofragmentation and even the collapse of ideology (as illustrated in the Fukuyamaquotation). If you think about the discussion on Side A about the links betweenobjectivity and subjectivity and the values which are also implicated in the circuitof knowledge, you will be able to ask some questions about how value freeFukuyama’s claim might be, as Margaret Kiloh argues on the tape. There remainsconsiderable contestation within the social sciences, and although some of the greattheories of the nineteenth century might have been challenged they are also beingredefined and developed and new critiques are emerging.

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Key points

. In the contemporary world there has been an explosion of knowledge, and ofnew knowledge systems.

. The distribution and transmission of knowledge has also been transformed.

. Some traditional sources of expertise have been challenged, and there isuncertainty and diversity.

. Power operates through economic systems and social and political institutionsand discursively through the ways in which knowledge is represented, to resistas well as to accommodate the challenges to tradition.

. The social sciences are themselves socially constructed and also impact uponother systems of knowledge.

. There are arguments that we have reached a point of ideological consensus butthis is strongly contested within social science.

After listening

You can use the discussion here to inform your work for TMA 03 as well as toreview this section of the course. You could think back to examples of the socialconstruction of knowledge and of areas of significant change which youencountered earlier in your study of DD122. The discussion on this tape shouldhelp you to grasp the different ways in which knowledge production andtransmission are being transformed and should suggest some questions which youcan ask about the claims of social science theories. The example we use here toexplore some of the values implicit in the claim that there has been an end ofideology should help you to explore the more complex circuit of knowledge whichis developed in Workbook 5 and to pose similar questions yourself as a criticalsocial scientist. Who says so? How do they know? Who is excluded from thisknowledge? These are all important questions.

9 Audio-cassette 10, Side AParticipants:

Dr Kath Woodward, DD122 Course Team Chair.

Professor John Allen, DD122 course team member.

Dr Bob Kelly, DD122 course team member.

The purpose of this audio-cassette is to help you to prepare for the final TMA onDD122. This assignment, TMA 04, asks you to write a 1,500 word essay, broadlybased on one of the course themes, using material from at least two blocks ofDD122. There is a choice on this assignment, unlike others on DD122, so, in thiscase, you pick the theme which most interests you and structure your work on thisblock around that theme.

On Audio-cassette 10, Side A we work through the three course themes:

Structure and Agency

Uncertainty and Diversity

Knowledge and Knowing.

In each case we offer suggestions for thinking about examples of how a range ofmaterial from across DD122 can be used to illustrate and support the framingdevices of the course themes.

This audio-cassette offers examples of how you could select, synthesize and linkmaterial from across the course in order to answer the kind of questions whichyou are likely to encounter in TMA 04.

Please note: Audio-cassette 10 (Side B) is associated with the Course Reviewwhere instructions on listening to this cassette can be found.

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AcknowledgementThe information on lectures in the notes for Audio-cassette 7, Side A is adaptedfrom Northedge, A. (1990) The Good Study Guide, Milton Keynes, The OpenUniversity.

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