A Thought ~ 14: The Social Self

The social self has always been much more extensive, much more fluid, in time and space, than the physical -- or the personal. Social media are only the latest attempts to underscore this fact. Structures of government and bureaucracy preceded them. Religion and witchcraft preceded all that 'Governmentality'. Storytelling did too. Likewise all that genealogical stuff. Like Roots.

What a dreary life we would have if all we had were our flesh and bones -- and blood and sweat and tears. No extensions whatsoever. But, thankfully, we have affinities. We communicate. We have memories. And imaginations. And aspirations. We take many forms, despite our physiological limitations. 

We know we are not alone -- and not the only one(s). Alone, neither the Self nor the Other endures -- in his or her or the Other's eyes. Nor is the social self necessarily a socialist. 

It is the unfinished selfie in which friends, dear ones and random others and places and things always appear, and with time quietly fade away -- only to be replaced by others, or none at all. 

1. CLICK TO SEE THIS: What Charles Horton Cooley's scholarly self thinks that he thinks is his original thought about the social self

2. And see what George Herbet Mead says:

"The “I” of introspection is the self which enters into social relations with other selves. It is not the “I” that is implied in the fact that one presents himself as a “me. “ And the “me” of introspection is the same “me” that is the object of the social conduct of others. One presents himself as acting toward others – in this presentation he is presented in indirect discourse as the subject of the action and is still an object,– and the subject of this presentation can never appear immediately in conscious experience. It is the same self who is presented as observing himself, and he affects himself just in so far and only in so far as he can address himself by the means of social stimulation which affect others. The “me” whom he addresses is the “me,” therefore, that is similarly affected by the social conduct of those about him." (Read more).

3. REGARD: James Neill ~ "The Social Self" Slideshare 

CSO103 - Introduction to Comparative Sociology, Updated Partial Course Outline and Reading List

UNIVERSITY OF NAIROBI

INTRODUCTION TO COMPARATIVE SOCIOLOGY ~ CSO 103.

[Partial Course Outline and Reading List, Updated in November 2016]

PROF. MAURI YAMBO

INTRODUCTION

CSO 103 is a first year course designed to introduce students to aspects of social structure common to all societies. The idea is to highlight concepts which serve as templates for a comparative or cross-cultural study of selected societies in today’s world.

CLICK HERE To Read More About The COURSE OUTLINE. 

CLICK HERE To Go To The READING LIST

APPENDIX

1. LECTURE NOTES:
1.1. Yambo, Mauri (2012) “Components of Social Control” (Topic 3)
http://mauriyambo.blogspot.co.ke/2012/05/components-of-social-control.html

1.2. Yambo, Mauri (2016) “Topic 4: Social Differentiation, Stratification and Class”
http://mauriyambo.blogspot.co.ke/2016/03/social-differentiation-stratification.html?q=topic+4

2. FINAL EXAMINATION PAPERS IN CSO 103:
2.1. Past Final Examination Papers (Batch 1):  http://mauriyambo.blogspot.co.ke/2013/04/cso103-introduction-to-comparative.html?q=cso+103

The Talking Drum as a Social Medium

The talking drum was more cryptic than today's social media, and yet far easier to understand by all who had gone through the essential socialization. It was all of them, rolled up in one -- in a way that none of them, that we know of today, will ever become. It was less prone to the hedonism -- not to mention the vulgarity of thought and murderous intent -- that one so often encounters these days. 

The thing is: you couldn't quite hide who or where you were, back then, if someone in the (yet-to-be-global) village really wanted to find you -- or your 'talking point'. Perhaps strangers on their way to wherever couldn't decode what simple bits and bytes were flying all around, but not the locals. There were no hackers from strange lands, either. Lest the talking drum flush them out.
  
The really important point here is that though its messages were more ciphered all along the channel, the talking drum was more in the spirit of the social media than today's social media themselves are, more and more. It was more local and more phonetic, to be sure, and less fussed or flustered by globality. It was all analog, but served the purposes. The social sharing was total, as everything was eavesdropped by everyone. And its misuse could, thus, be more readily sanctioned. 

Full-blown glocality, which we fuss over nowadays, was a domain left entirely to the sorcerer -- who could be both here and there, where ever here and there were supposed to be, all at once. But the larger reality was no less subject to magical interpretation, in that faded past, or to the complexity of social exchange. Which is exactly the point the talking drum makes, over and over again.

LISTEN: Kwame Ansah Brew's Talking Drum (The Donno)

SEE: Awesome Images of the Talking Drum

READ: Michael Kernan (2000) "The Talking Drums" SMITHSONIAN MAGAZINE


Updated; September 19, 2016

Social Differentiation, Stratification and Class ~ CSO 103, CSO 501

INTRODUCTION TO COMPARATIVE SOCIOLOGY:

LECTURE NOTES

By Prof. Mauri Yambo

TOPIC 4:  SOCIAL DIFFERENTIATION, STRATIFICATION AND CLASS

-     Introduction: Conceptualizing Social Differentiation

-     Patterns and Sources of Social Differentiation

-     Evolutionary Universals

-     Social Stratification

-     The Nature of Social Class and the African Experience

-     Conclusion.

4.1. Introduction: Conceptualizing Social Differentiation

Differentiation and evolution are conceptual twins in many conversations about growth, structure and change, over time. Since Darwin, the two processes have been acknowledged as conjoined features or happenings, in the course of time, of all biological organisms. In turn, both social structure and societal change have been treated by influential sociologists (as we see in the next paragraph) as analogous to those observed in biology; hence the widely used phrase: organismic analogy. In this analogy, differentiation is an all-encompassing process: it pertains to and features in all forms of structuration. But not everyone is in agreement with this perceived correspondence or analogy of differentiation and evolution in long-term social change, on the one hand, and biological change, on the other.

For example, Steward (1976: 11-15), focusing on cultural evolution, points out that:

Click Here to Read the Whole Paper

CSO 103 ~ Introduction to Comparative Sociology, Partial Course Outline and Reading List

To Get the Latest Version of this Document CLICK HERE

[The old Reading List is no longer available]

 I co-teach this course, and cover two broad topics, namely:

Topic 3: Social Control, Socialization and Deviance:

Here, we interrogate the need for social control and, additionally, cover the following subtopics:

-        Definition and Context of ‘Control’ in Society

-        Levels of control: Self and Social Control

o   Aspects of Self Control

o   Aspects of Social Control

o   Interfaces between Self Control and Social Control

-        Explaining Deviance: Sources, Patterns and Consequences

-        Social Engineering.

Topic 4: Social Differentiation, Social Stratification and Social Class:

The subtopics covered here are:

-        Conceptualizing Social Differentiation

-        Changing Social Differentiation Patterns in Africa

-        Social Stratification and Structuration

-        Social Class and the Rise of the African Middle Class.

NOTE: The old Reading List is no longer available. Click here to get the latest list.

Prof. Mauri Yambo

September-December 2013

Social and Labour Conditions in Small- and Medium-Scale Printing and Allied Firms in Kenya

In 1988, the manufacturing sector as a whole accounted for 13.1 percent of Kenya's GDP at 1982 prices... Within the manufacturing sector, printing and publishing activities would at first glance appear to play a somewhat secondary role. They accounted for only 3 percent of total employment within the sector, and 5.7 percent of the sector's salary and wage bill in 1985...[This unpublished paper was written in 1989, some three years before I had my first laptop. Read the full text here: Social and Labour Conditions ]