Download Disciplines Unbound: Notes on Sociology and Ethnic Studies

Disciplines Unbound: Notes on Sociology and Ethnic Studies
Author(s): Yen Le Espiritu
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Source: Contemporary Sociology, Vol. 28, No. 5 (Sep., 1999), pp. 510-514
Published by: American Sociological Association
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510 Symposia
management
is notforeveryone.
It is acomfort- ideas into management.
Since I like moving
able locationonly if you are willingto move betweendisciplinesand betweentheoryand
beyondthe boundaries
of sociologyand,at the practice,I wouldn'ttradeplaceswithanyone.
sametime, are inclinedto bringsociological
Disciplines Unbound: Notes on Sociology and Ethnic Studies
YEN LE ESPIRITU
University of California, San Diego
The new social movementsof the 1960s and
the post-1965 increasesin racializedimmigrant
populations transformedthe academy,ushering in new subjectsof socialknowledgeas well as
new criticalsocial knowledges(Seidman1994).
These new subjectsposed new questions,challengedthe dominantparadigmsof academicdisciplines, and contested the separation of
knowledgeandpolitics.The new criticalknowledge seeped into the traditionaldisciplines,but
took full shapein the emerginginterdisciplinary
fieldsof EthnicStudies,Women'sStudies,Third
World Studies, Cultural Studies, and Queer
Studies. It was amid this changing intellectual
and political milieu that I entered the United
States and eventually the university.Arriving
fromVietnamin 1975 and enteringhighereducation in the early 1980s, I inherited a more
democratizedand diversifieduniversity and a
more critical and politicized body of social
knowledge.By the time I begangraduateschool
in the mid-1980s,I had come to view the university as a potentially important site for
activism a site to generate critical social
knowledgeandpracticesaimedat socialchange.
Focusingmy scholarshipon comparativerace
and ethnic relations, I received my graduate
trainingin sociologybuthave workedsince then
in the interdisciplinary
field of EthnicStudies.It
is the relationshipbetweensociologyandEthnic
Studies both the gapsand the overlaps that I
will attemptto sketch in this briefessay.
At its best, sociologygrapplesseriouslyand
effectivelywith issuesof social inequality,power, and collective action. From its inception,
sociology has asked difficult questions about
importantsocialissuesandbelievedthat it could
inform social action in answeringthem. The
founding sociologists Marx, Weber, Durkheim, Simmel,and others all respondedto the
crises of emerging industrial capitalism and
intendedto shapethe courseof historicalevents
throughtheir social theories.Within American
sociology,the ChicagoSchool sociologistsspoke
powerfullyto the socialissuesof industrialization
and urbanizationthrough their attention to
everyday experience. In the late 1950s, C.
WrightMills'sTheSociological
Imagination
advocateda criticalsocialscience,urgingsociologists
to committhemselvesto an activistcritiqueand
reconstructionof society. But there were also
prominentcountertrends;in particular,during
the postwardecades,the growthof the research
universityand of fundingsourcesfor the social
sciences "scientized"sociology (Long 1997:
9-10). Anchored in positivist epistemologies,
the disciplinarymainstreamof sociologybecame
increasinglymore specializedand correspondingly less engaged with related disciplines;its
claim to universaland objectiveknowledgealso
moved the field awayfroman explicit commitment to social activism(Sprague1998).
Paradoxically,even as sociologistswrestled
with issues of power, conflict, and inequality,
they have largelyneglectedor subordinatedrace
and thus have missedthe mannerin which race
has been "afundamental
axis of social organization in the U. S." (Omi and Winant 1994: 13).
The greatsocialtheoristsof the nineteenthcenturyall predictedthat race and ethnicity conceptualized as remnants of a preindustrial
order woulddecline in significancein modern
society. For example, the classical Marxist
understandingthat capitalseeks"abstractlabor"
overlooksthe waysin which capitalhas profited
precisely from the "flexible"racializationand
genderingof labor.In the United States,before
the 1960s, much of the sociology of race
expressedassimilationistprinciplesand predicted that with each succeedinggeneration,U.S.
ethnic groups would improve their economic
statusand become progressivelymoresimilarto
the "majorityculture" (Park 1950; Gordon
1964). Developedto explain the experiencesof
Europeanimmigrantsand their children, this
assimilationistframeworkdid not differentiate
Syrnposia 511
minorities the complexrolesplayedby raceandethnicity
of racialized
betweenthe experiences
andthoseof whiteethnicgroups,andtherefore in socialrelationsasa wayto producenewepis
andnewdataon socialpower,social
andspecific temologies
couldnot accountforthe enduring
in conquest, institutions,
andsocialidentities.
waysin whichrace asmanifested
The earlyEthnic Studiesscholarshipand
genocide,slavery,and immigrationhas been
Writing
wereintenselynationalistic.
ingrainedin the nation'ssocialstructureand programs
stance,manyscholfroman anti-assimilationist
culture.
past,"to chroniThe social upheavalsand minoritymove- arssoughtto uneartha "buried
of cle traditionsof protestandresistance,and to
thecentrality
mentsof the 1960sunderscored
havebeen
populations
the mythof establishthat racialized
racein Americanlifeandshattered
the inevitabilityandeventhe desirabilityof absolutelycrucialto the makingof history.
Racerelations alongwithpover- Though important,this culturalnationalist
assimilation.
as an urgent paradigmtended to homogenizedifferences,
ty, gender,andsexuality surfaced
social problem.Sociologistsvaried in their assumingheterosexualityand subordinating
Somesoughtto uncoverandfill gaps issuesof genderand socialclass.Forexample,
responses.
purthe earlyAsian-American
culturalnationalism
in sociologicalknowledgeby documenting
agenda"tochalof previous- suedanaggressively
masculinist
andcontributions
accomplishments
and lengethemetonymic
equationofAsianwiththe
individuals
ly unstudiedand uncelebrated
1995:287). Confronted
raceinto feminine"(Yanagisako
groups.Othersbeganto incorporate
these
theirresearch,but as a merevariableor as a with a historyof painful"emasculation,"
ratherthanasa centraltheo- malewriterstookwhitesto taskfortheirracist
sourceof research
race myths,butwereoftenblindto theirownaccepreticalconcept.Still othersconceptualized
andto getbeyond. tanceof the racialized
constructof
to bemanaged
patriarchal
asa "problem"
in termsof difference, genderstereotypes
primarily
(Cheung1990:236-37).The
Conceptualized
of broad- focus on individualgroupsalso obscuredthe
component
raceremainsa subordinate
ethnicityis relational
moreimportantsocialrela- waysin whichracialized
er and supposedly
anddiscrete,andthe ways
tionships,especiallyclass.By treatingraceas a ratherthanatomized
insteadof a principleof in which group identities necessarilyform
of individuals
property
saw"difference"throughinteraction
withothergroups through
sociologists
socialorganization,
of conflictandcooperInotherwords,the complicated
experiences
butfailedto "seedifferently."
contextsof power.
inclusionof race in sociologyhas most often ation andin structural
their
groupsareheterogeneous;
Butracialized
beenadditive,not transformative.
The EthnicStudiesresponsewas different. culturesare variedand unfixed;their group
Emergingfrom the studentand community boundariesare unstableand changeable;and
of the late 1960sandear- their identitiesare markedwith identitiesof
movements
grassroots
as gender,sexualpreference,class,and religion.
ly 1970s,EthnicStudiesclaimedthe academy
and These complex realities the products of
overculture,education,
onesiteof struggles
citizenship(Lowe1996:37). Explicitlycritical unevenhistoriesandunequalpowerrelationscondemned challengethe binariesimplicitin the cultural
and oppositional,this scholarship
the productionof"objective"and "universal"nationalistparadigm,and they demandthat
and EthnicStudiesscholarspay attentionto the
misinforms,
knowledgethat misinterprets,
conflicted,and compositenature
andactionsof complicated,
erasesthe histories,experiences,
to the insepamoreinclu- of allsocialidentities,particularly
groups;andit demanded
racialized
knowledge. rabilityand mutuallyconstitutiverealitiesof
sive, situated,and transformative
The EthnicStudiescritiquesof sociallysanc- race,class,gender,andsexuality.Forexample,
echothoseraisedby writingfromand aboutthe realitiesand comtionedformsof knowledge
Gloria
Bothcallattentionto plexitiesof living on the borderlands,
of knowledge:
sociologists
overthe production Anzaldua(1987)insistson the interconnectedthe waysin whichstruggles
of the oftencontradictory
waysof assessing nessandsimultaneity
of knowledge overmeanings,
and controlof discursiveproduction aspectsof hergender,ethnicity,class,sexuality,
"truths,"
connectedto and feministpolitics.Callingattentionto the
andauthorizationareintimately
betweenpatriarchyand the
of powerand interconnections
overthe (re)production
struggles
inequality.However,the primaryintellectual racializedcapitaliststate, ChandraMohanty
is
goalof EthnicStudiesis specific:to investigate (1991)arguesthatthedefinitionofcitizenship
512 Symposia
always a gendered and racial formation. talism.In anotherinstance,RosaLindaFregoso
Similarly,GeorgeLipsitz(1994) contendsthat (1994)showshow culturefunctionsas a social
howgendered
imagesand
the riseof identitymovements
duringthe 1940s forcebydocumenting
reflectedhowclasscameto be increasingly
lived ideasin culturalproductsandpracticesserveas
andexperienced
throughraceandgender.The impetusforthedevelopment
of a Chicanafemiconsciousness."
This
recentscholarship
in EthnicStudiesalso calls nistpoliticsof "differential
is not onlymethodological
or
attentionto the waysin whichnewsocialrela- interdisciplinarity
it is alsoa response
to the inadequationshaveproduced
newcoalitionsandconflicts theoretical;
thattransform
the meaningof racialandethnic cyof self-contained
disciplines particularly
the
identity.Forexample,LisaLowe(1996)shows universalizingmodels of social analysis to
how the currentglobalrestructuringparticu- addressthe new and complex connections
larlythe internationalization
and feminization betweencultureandsocialstructure
engendered
of laborforces-constitutesa shiftin the mode by a new globalcontext,new communications
andnewtransnational
socialrelaof productionthat now necessitatesalliances technologies,
betweenracializedand ThirdWorldwomen tions (Lipsitz1997;Basch,Schiller,and Blanc
within,outside,and acrossthe borderof the 1994).
The criticalsocialknowledgeproducedby
Unitedstates.In sum,mostof the bestworkin
EthnicStudiesviewsethnicityascorljurlCtural, as Ethnic Studies and related interdisciplinary
a "product
of intersubjectivity
andinteraction
in studiesleft the baresttraceson sociologyuntil
of MichaelOmiand
concretehistoricaland social circumstances"the 1980s.Thepublication
(EthnicStudiesDepartment
1994).
HowardWinant'sRacialFormatiorl
irlthe Urlited
in 1994)wasgroundPerhapsmost important,the mostexciting Statesin 1986(republished
the sociallyconstructed
workin EthnicStudiesis relentlessly
interdisci- breaking.Emphasizing
plinaryand multidisciplinary.
Born amid the natureof race,OmiandWinantinsistthatrace
radicalflux and reconfigurations
of knowledge and racial logic are ubiquitous,determining
within the academy,EthnicStudiesowes its one'spoliticalrights,one'slocationin the labor
existenceto the developmentof interdiscipli- market,and one's sense of identity.Perhaps
theauthorslinkcultural
expresrlarytrendswithintraditional
disciplines,
to the mostimportant,
bydefiningraceas "a
establishment
ofnewinterdisciplinary
studies,as sionswithsocialstructure
andculturalrepwell as to the growingdialogueacrossdisci- matterof bothsocialstructure
plines. Drawingfrom the best work in the resentation"
(1994:56). Subsequent
studiesof
humanities
andsocialsciencesandfromthebur- race in sociologyhave both drawnfromand
geoningtheoretical
andmethodological
innova- expandedon Omi and Winant'sinfluential
perspective.
Forexample,in a
tions in Feminist Studies, Queer Studies, racialformation
PostcolonialStudies, CulturalStudies, and studyof multicultural
andmultiracial
California
Communication
Studies,EthnicStudiesschol- duringthe lasthalfof the nineteenthcentury,
arsconceptualize
raceandethnicityas an ele- TomasAlmaguer(1994) skillfullytracesthe
ment of both social structureand culture. "racial
formation"
ofAnglos,Mexicans,Indians,
populations
by denoting
Noting the mutuallyconstitutivequalitiesof Chinese,andJapanese
by structural
culturalforms and social structures,Ethnic how raceis mutuallydetermined
Studiesscholarsdelineatethe roleof racein the and ideologicalfactors.In her pivotal study
cognitivemappingof U.S. culture,emphasize Black FemirlistThought( 1991), PatriciaHill
the oppositionalcultural practices among Collinsarguesthatideological
representations
of
aggrieved
groups,andexaminehowthe cultural genderand sexualityare centralin exercising
symbolsgenerated
by the dominantgroupseem and maintainingracial,patriarchal,
and class
to justifythe economicexploitationandsocial domination.Nonsociologistshave also been
oppression
of racialized
populations
overtime. influencedby the racialformationperspective.
studyof AsianIn an innovativestudy of Asian-American Forexample,in an impressive
womenas a problemof knowledge,
LauraHyun Americanculturalpolitics,literarytheoristLisa
YiKang(1997)tracesthe complexconnections Lowe(1996) tracesthe genealogyof a distinct
linkingthe discursiveproductionand circula- "racialformation"
of AsianAmericansthrough
tion of Asian-American
womenas transnation- the historyof the legislationof the Asian as
al laborwiththeactualphysicallaborperformed alien and the administrationof the Asian
by thesewomenin globalized,
militarized
capi- Americanascitizen.
Symposia 513
Frontera.San
As a sociologist
whoworksin EthnicStudies, Anzaldua,Gloria. 1987. Borderlands/La
Francisco:Spinsters/AuntLute.
I drawfrombothdisciplines.
Fromsociology,I
learnto be attentiveto livedsocialexperience, Basch, Linda, Nina Glick Schiller, and Cristina
Szanton Blanc. 1994. Nations Unbound:
to graspthesocialconstructions
of socialreality,
TransnationalProjects,PostcolonialPredicaments,
and to link the studyof individuallives with
andDeterritorialized
NationStates.Langhorne,PA:
broader
issuesof politicaleconomy.
Gordon& Breach.
ButI am excitedandchallengedby Ethnic Cheung, King-Kok. 1990. "The NVomanNVarrior
Studies'aggressivetheoreticaland empirical
Versus the Chinaman Pacific: Must a Chinese
engagement
with the realityandcomplexityof
AmericanCritic Choose Between Feminismand
race,by its insistencethatknowledgeis always
Heroism?"Pp. 234-51 in Conflictsin Feminism,
edited by M. Hirsch and E. F. Keller.New York:
partialandsituatedin relationship
to power,and
Routledge.
by its explicitinterdisciplinarity.
Theseconceptualandmethodological
framesprovidemewith Collins, PatriciaHill. 1991. BlackFeministThought:
Knowledge, Consciousness,and the Politics of
alternative
waysof gainingknowledge
aboutthe
Empowerment.
New York:Routledge.
worldthat betterreflectmy experienceas a
1998. "On Book Exhibits and New
racialized
immigrant
woman.This is not to say
Complexities: Reflections on Sociology as
that sociologists
havenot producedimportant, Science."Contemporary
Sociology27: 7-11.
even indispensable
scholarship
on race.To the Ethnic Studies Department.1994. "A Proposalfor a
contrary,sociologicaltheoryand researchon
Programof GraduateStudiesin EthnicStudiesfor
race have grownexponentially,
producingan
the M.A. and Ph.D. Degrees." University of
California,San Diego.
enormous
bodyof criticalstudieson the issuesof
social difference,social conflict, and social Gordon,Milton. 1964. Assimilationin AmericanLife:
The Role of Race, Religion,and NationalOrigm.
change.Butit is to saythattheinstitutionofsociNew York:OxfordUniversityPress.
ologycontinuesto resistchange.
Rosa Linda. 1994. The Bronze ScreerL
.
Evenasracewasincorporated
intoindividual Fregoso,
Minneapolis:Universityof MinnesotaPress.
research
projects,no corresponding
changehas Kang, Laura Hyun Yi. 1997. "Si(gh)ting
beenmadein the discipline's
concepts,theories,
Asian/AmericanTomen as TransnationalLabor."
methods,andepistemologies.
Consequently,
the
Positions5: 403-37.
racialparadigm,
whichpositionsraceasa promi- Lipsitz,George. 1994. Rainbowat Midnight:Laborand
nent socialcategorycreatinghierarchies
of difCulturein the1940s. Urbana:Universityof Illinois
Press.
ferencein society,remainsa minorityposition
. 1997. "FacingUp to NVhat'sKilling Us:
withinmainstream
sociological
paradigms.
Like
Artistic Practiceand GrassrootsSocial Theory."
PatriciaHill Collins(1998),I suspectthatthis
resistance
hassomethingto dowithsociologists' Pp. 234-261 in FromSociologyto CulturalStudies,
editedby ElizabethLong.Oxford:Blackwell.
effortsto guarddisciplinary
bordersandin turn Long,
Elizabeth. 1997. "EngagingSociology and
to protecttheirassignedplacesin the naturalCultural Studies: Disciplinarity and Social
izedsociological
hierarchy.
Butin aneraofglobChange."Pp. 1-32 in FromSociologyto Cultural
alization,
newtechnologies,
andparadigm
shifts,
Studies, edited by Elizabeth Long. Oxford:
theboundaries
of sociologycontinueto be "ever
Blackwell.
Acts:On AsianAmerican
moreslippery"
(Long1997:12)associologists- Lowe,Lisa.1996. Immigrant
CulturalPolitics.Durham, NC: Duke University
especially
graduate
studentsandyoungfacultyPress.
stretchbeyondsociologyfor otherconceptual
framesmorefullyto gainknowledge
abouttheir Mills, C. NVright.1959. The SociologicalImagination.
New York:OxfordUniversityPress.
world.If the goalof ourscholarship
is to better
Mohanty,Chandra.1991. "Cartographies
of Struggle:
understand
andthusbetterbuilda morejustand
Third NVorld NVomen and the Politics of
humanesocialorder,then it seemsimperative Feminism."Pp. 1-47 in ThirdWorldWomenand
that we learnfromas manyareasof academic
the Politics of Feminism, edited by Chandra
expertiseaspossible.A goodplaceto startis to
Mohanty, Ann Russo, and Lourdes Torres.
establishdialogueacrossdisciplines,beginning
Bloomington:Universityof IndianaPress.
Omi, Michael and Howard Winant. 1986. Racial
withsociologyandEthnicStudies.
References
Almaguer,Tomas. 1994. Racial Fault Lines: The
HistoricalOriginsof WhiteSupremacy
in California.
Berkeley:
University
of California
Press.
Formationin the United States. New York &
London:Routledge.
. 1994. RacialFormationin the UnitedStates
Fromthe 1960s to the 1990s. 2d Ed. NewYork&
London:Routledge.
514 Symposia
Orientalism:
Park,RobertE. 1950.RaceandCulture.Glencoe,IL: Yanagisako,Sylvia. 1987. "Transforming
Gender,Nationality,andClassin AsianAmerican
FreePress.
Power:Essays
Studies."Pp. 275-98 in Naturalizing
Seidman,Steven.1994.ContestedKnowledge:Social
in FeministCulturalAnalysis, edited by Sylvia
Blackwell.
Era.Oxford:
Theoryin thePostmodern
YanagasikoandC. Delaney.New York:Routledge.
Sprague, Joey. 1998. "(Re)MakingSociology:
Breaking the Bonds of Our Discipline."
Sociology27:24-28.
Contemporary
A Gray Zone? Meetings between Sociology and Gerontology
0. HAGESTAD
GUNHILD
Northwestern University and Agder College, Norway
It is nearlyimpossibleto discussthe border
withoutconbetweensociologyandgerontology
Whilesomepeople
sideringseveraldisciplines.
withme,I donotconsidergeronwoulddisagree
tologya discipline.Rather,I see it as a fieldof
address
inquiryin whicha numberof disciplines
questionsrelatedto agingand old age. Thus,
whohaveparticiwhenweconsidersociologists
patedin this field,we askhow theyhavecontributedto and have been affectedby its
roots
withetymological
Gerontology,
discourse.
in theGreekger-(to growold)andgeron(anold
and Levin 1989),brings
person)(Achenbaum
and
perspectives,
theoretical
togetherquestions,
fromvariousdiscipreferences
methodological
plines,rangingfrombiologyand medicineto
psychologyand sociology. Very often, as
AchenbaumandLevinpoint out, attemptsto
haveusedthe wordproblem.
definegerontology
tenfairlycontinuous
Thefieldhasexperienced
sion between two goals: buildingscientific
understandingversus seeking to ameliorate
andpopulawithindividual
associated
problems
in therelationaging.Thistensionis important
tionshipsbetweensociologyandgerontology.
Long before gerontologywas a field of
inquiry,classicsin the socialsciencesincluded
For
of age and socialstructure.
considerations
andhow it
example,Comteponderedprogress
successionand
mightbe linkedto generational
the averagelengthof life.MarxandEngelsconwouldaffectthe
sideredhow industrialization
significanceof age and gender. Durkheim
exploredconnectionsbetweenage and social
integration.Earlyin the twentiethcentury,
gaveus his influentialessayon how
Mannheim
in the flowof history,and
ageplacesindividuals
unitsconstitutea sociallocation,
generational
of such location.It
with subjectiveawareness
intelthatlong-standing
wouldseemreasonable
in
lectualconcernsin sociologycouldbepursued
questions
gerontology,throughwell-anchored
abouthow age is relatedto socialintegration,
andthe creationof meansocialdifferentiation,
wouldalsoseemto allowfor
ing. Gerontology
of
explorations
theoreticalandmethodological
micro-macroconnections. In her ASA
Address,MatildaRiley(1987)gave
Presidential
thatageis andshouldbe
reminder
usa powerful
significantin sociology.Yet, aboutthe same
arguedthat:
time,a groupof Britishcolleagues
Any sociologistworkingon old age (in
how
at least)knowsself-evidently
England
as
hasbeentosociology
thesubject
marginal
has
a whole and how under-represented
withinthe
perspective
beenthesociological
under
working
ofdisciplines
conglomeration
(Fennel,
of socialgerontology.
theumbrella
andEvers1988:170)
Phillipson,
To beginthinkingaboutthe meetingground
I contacted
betweensociologyandgerontology,
a numberof colleaguesin NorthAmericaand
Europewho have been active in the field of
aging.I askedthemwhenthe borderstartedto
exist,whothe earlykeyactorswere,howsociolinflumighthavemutually
ogyandgerontology
encedeach other,and what mightconstitute
potentialsforcross-fertilization.
unrealized
wasin useearAlthoughthewordgerorltology
ly in this century,a seriesof new institutions,
usingthename,
andjournals
suchasassociations
aroseshortlyafterWorldWarII. It is therefore
how
thatwhenI askedcolleagues
not surprising
the
farbacktheywouldtraceinterconnections,
1940swasthe earliestpoint.Nearlyall of them
oftenalsoanthropolTalcottParsons,
mentioned
ogist RalphLinton.Both Parsonsand Linton
essayson ageandsexasbasesof social
published
Sociological
rolesin the 1942volumeof Americarl