Chapter29 standpoint theory (1)

Dr. Marquita Byrd

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2013 copyright Dr. Marquita Byrd 1

Definition of Standpoint: An achieved position based on social location that lends an interpretative aspect to a person’s life.

Standpoint Theory:

Provides framework for understanding systems of power

Everyday people, not the elite, provide the framework for Standpoint Theory


Born is 1943

Feminist Philosopher

Currently a professor of Political Science at the University of Washington.

Known for her work in: Feminist epistemology Stanpoint Theory Feminist Standpoint

Theory

Her Standpoint Theory derives from Marxism


History Began in 1807, When German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel discussed how master-slave relationships engendered different standpoints.

Harstock published “The Feminist Standpoint: Developing the ground for a Specifically Feminist Historical Materialism.”

Harstock’s main objective was to “make women present.”

Harstock expansion on Karl Marx’s Marxist Theory

Nancy Harstock lableled Standpoint Theory as Feminist Standpiont Theory.


All Knowledge is a product of social activity, and thus knowledge can be truly objective. (objectivity of knowledge is questionable)

Cultural Conditions “typically surrounding women’s lives produce experiences and understandings that routinely differ from those produced by conditions framing men’s lives.”

It is a worthwhile endeavor to understand the distinctive features of women’s experience.

We can only know women’s experience by attending to women’s interpretations of this experience.


First Assumption: Individuals location in the class structure shapes and limits their understandings of social relations.

Second Assumption: Feminist Standpoint Theory assumes that all standpoints are partial, but those of the ruling class can actually harm those of the subordinate group.

Third Assumption: The ruling group structures life in such a way as remove some choices from the subordinate group.

Fourth Assumption: The subordinate group has to struggle for their vision of social life.

The final Assumption: The struggle results in a clearer, more accurate vision for the subordinate group than that possessed by the ruling class.


Standpoint: a location, shared by a group experiencing outsider status, within the social structure, that lends a particular kind of sense making to a person’s lived experience.

Hartsock’s perspective: a standpoint is not simply an interested position but is interested in being engaged.

Outsider within: a person in a normally marginalized social position who has gained access to a more privileged location

Outsider within the dominant

class

racegender


Partial: a recognition that no one has a complete view of the social hierarchy.

Accuracy: the ability to see more than what’s available to one’s own specific social location.

Situated Knowledge's: What anyone knows is grounded in context and circumstance.

Sexual division of labor- allocation of work on the basis of sex


According to this approach:

A standpoint is a place from which human beings view the world.

A standpoint influences how the people adopting it social construct the world.

A standpoint is a mental position from which life is viewed

A standpoint is a position from which objects or principles are viewed and according to which they are compared and judged

The inequalities of different social groups create differences in their standpoints.

All standpoints are partial; so (for example) Feminist standpoint coexists with other standpoints.



FemaleSenior CitizenAfrican American

Educated College Professor

MidwesternerMinister

Middle Class [according to the federal government] (But this is what my house looks like!!!)

Understanding the relationship between the dominant (status quo) standpoint and communication is important. It makes us aware of how the dominant tell us which concepts are understandable, which claims are heard and understood by whom, which features of the world are perceptually important, and which reasons are understood to be relevant and forceful, as well as which conclusions are credible.[1]

Understanding allows us to resist those interpretations

Oppressive interpretations

Resistance


Too narrow: In recent years theorists have expanded the Standpoint theory to include all oppressed people, marginalized people, people who live in the borderlands.

I don’t think oppressed people necessarily have a more accurate picture of what is going on than the dominant. The oppressed know more about the negatives in the system because they see from the bottom up.

Dominant and oppressed live in different realties and both have partial views of the system.


Gender___________

Race_______

Age___________

Class__________

Ability__________

Religion__________

Occupation___________

Nationality_____________

Which three are your most important standpoints?

Being Your _____ means………


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Chapter29 standpoint theory (1)