The West and the Rest

The rest and the west: Discourse and power (Hall Stuart, 1992)

What is the WEST? It is about geography, but a as mater of fact it is about something else. It is about a type of society; society; a level of development. Lecturer: PhD Gloria Gallardo.

West as Development The West as implying Development started in West Europe, but it embraces geographically much longer than Europe’s border. It does not include East Europe, but on the contrary it includes USA and Canada, New Zeeland and Australia. Therefore the WEST is much more than geography, it is about an idea; it is what Hall calls a Historical Construction. Construction. Lecturer: PhD Gloria Gallardo.

West as Development The West as implying Development started in West Europe, but it embraces geographically much longer than Europe’s border. It does not include East Europe, but on the contrary it includes USA and Canada, New Zeeland and Australia. Therefore the WEST is much more than geography, it is about an idea; it is what Hall calls a Historical Construction. Construction. Lecturer: PhD Gloria Gallardo.

With West West we we mean in other words, a type of society that has the following characteristics: 1.

It is developed

2.

Industrialized

3.

Urbanized

4.

Capitalist

5.

Secular, and

6.

Modern

Lecturer: PhD Gloria Gallardo.

The West is, in other words, synonymous with modernity, and logically antonymous of backward, underdeveloped Lecturer: PhD Gloria Gallardo.

The concept has several functions: 1. It allows us to classify and characterize societies according to different categories, West and non-West. It is, in other words, a device with whose help we think Lecturer: PhD Gloria Gallardo.

Picture 2. It is a picture, it condensates diverse characteristics into a single picture. It works as a ” system of representations” Ex: West=urban=developed non-West= rural, underdeveloped


Model

3. It provides us with a standard of comparison. It allows us to compare different societies; it helps to explain differences Lecturer: PhD Gloria Gallardo.

Ideology 4. It provides us with criteria for evaluation according to which other societies are ranked positively or negatively. In other words, it functions as Ideology.


The West: a historical construction When the West concept was established it became an organising factor within a system of global power relations, organising our way of thinking and talking. Lecturer: PhD Gloria Gallardo.

The idea of West existed already in the ideals of the Enlightenment.

The Europeans thought that the European societies were the most developed in the world and they considered West as a result of an INTERNAL development. Lecturer: PhD Gloria Gallardo.

Hall means that the emergence of the West is at the same time a global history The West and the Rest became two sides of the same coin. The West becomes in relation to the Rest. One find the unique in relation to that which is different in other cultures. Lecturer: PhD Gloria Gallardo.

This is to say that the significance or meaning depend on the relationships that exist between different terms within a system of meanings. This is about Saussure’s theory of binary (dichotomy) oppositions Things have no meaning in themselves, but only in relation to other things. Lecturer: PhD Gloria Gallardo.

What kind of role played then the Rest for the formation of Western identity? Both became part of the same discourse; they became parts of a global, social, economic and cultural system; of an inter-dependent world; of a language.


In that discourse one choose to see that the Rest or the West are not homogenous. This simplify our world, and here we find the value of concepts. Observe that I am not putting any value to the binary opposition West/Rest. I am referring to the idea of Binary oppositions of Saussure. Lecturer: PhD Gloria Gallardo.

Historical retrospective How did the process started? In order to get a view we must use some broad chronologies and historical generalizations with Europes’ history, which at the same time is also the history of the Rest. Lecturer: PhD Gloria Gallardo.

Europe’s expansion The European expansion coincides with the end of feudalism and the beginning of the modern era. Two successes play an important role: 1.

The expansion of Portugal to Africa

2.

The expansion of Spain into the so called new world Lecturer: PhD Gloria Gallardo.

We can distinguish 5 phases within the expansion process: 1.

The exploration process when Europe discover the new world; the time of the slavery begins.

2. Conquer and colonization of the new world and of other parts of the world begins. 3. Production process in different parts of the world and export to Europe develops (ex. sugar and cotton plantations). Lecturer: PhD Gloria Gallardo.

4. A climax in the economic expansion is reached and the struggle for the colonies and markets among different European powers start, which finally leads to I World War. 5. From the 1960s forward most colonies get their independence. Lecturer: PhD Gloria Gallardo.

EUROPEANS It seems that the first time the denomination European was used was in the 8th century in connection with a victory over Islam. At the same time that Europe distinguishes itself against the Rest, Europe become more integrated. An important factor in that integration was Christianity. Under many centuries Europe was synonymous of Christianity Lecturer: PhD Gloria Gallardo.

What is a discourse? A discourse is a coherent or rational body of speech or texts. In a sociological sense, a discourse is a way of representing something . It is a way of constructing a subject in such a way that precludes other ways of constructing it. Lecturer: PhD Gloria Gallardo.

Discourse formations Affirmations or opinions consists of what Foucault calls

Discourse formations, i.e., it is about many affirmations and these affirmations are congruent with each other. Lecturer: PhD Gloria Gallardo.

Production of knowledge Discourse formation has to do with the production of knowledge via language, i.e, mediated by language, but it is produced through practice.

A discoursive practice is the practice of creating or producing meanings. Lecturer: PhD Gloria Gallardo.

The West and the Rest The discourse about the West and the Rest was made through practice, i.e, through how the West behaved against the Rest.

Even though we don’t accept the discourse about the West and the Rest, we are trapped in that position that says that West is SUPERIOR to the Rest. Lecturer: PhD Gloria Gallardo.

Discourses are not closed systems, but they can borrow elements from other discourses and they link different discourses. For example: The discourse about the West is built upon the discourse about Christianity.


Discourse and ideology Foucault introduces a fundamental difference between ideology and discourse. Ideology stands in sociological terms for a set of statements or beliefs, which produces biased knowledge that serves the interest of particular groups


Foucault discards this conception of ideology, preferring to use the concept of discourse instead of that of ideology as this rests on a distinction between: true statements, for which science stands, and ► false statements, represented by ideology ►


Within this view of ideology, facts would be those that make the difference, helping us to decide between what is true and what is not. Foucault undermines the distinction between true and false statements, rejecting this separation, ►

first, because statements are seldom white or black, true or false.

►

Second, facts are socially constructed and mediated by language.

As such facts are value ladden, bearing ideological dimensions that in practice decide what is true or false Lecturer: PhD Gloria Gallardo.

How do we solve the dilemma about which discourse is true (science) or false (ideology)?

Sociologists know that our values comes in when we describe the social world and that all affirmations about facts have an ideological dimension.


Knowledge What Foucault says is that “knowledge” is the result of the struggle between 2 different discourses. It is the results that decides what is the false true. The side that wins owns the “truth”. It is in other words, a question of power. Lecturer: PhD Gloria Gallardo.

Power produces knowledge That is why Foucault says that we must accept that it is power that produces knowledge. A question: Can discourse be innocent? No Why? Because we construct the discourse with language as a device, and therefore language become the norm against which we measure the Rest. Lecturer: PhD Gloria Gallardo.

Europeans encounter the new world with own categories and classify the environment according to own norms.

Obviously different Europeans powers had different interest goal and strategies and these might contradict each other


For example, different groups/institutions in Spain had different goals and discourses for the Americas: ►

appropriate gold and silver (commercial groups)

put the continent under the Spanish Crown (the Crown), and. ►

convert the so called Indians to Christianity (The Church).

►


Discourse are not either innocent because the meeting between Europeans and the Rest was not between equals, but the Europeans were in a position of POWER against the natives. According to Foucault the discourse implies always power and discourses are one of the system through which power circulates. The knowledge produced by discourses consist of a type of power that is exercised upon those that are the object of knowledge. Lecturer: PhD Gloria Gallardo.

The West and the Rest

Recommend Documents