Received: from bach.helios.nd.edu (bach.helios.nd.edu [129.74.216.1]) by csf.Colorado.EDU (8.7.6/8.7.3/CNS-4.0p) with ESMTP id JAA02310 for ; Mon, 7 Jul 1997 09:55:43 -0600 (MDT) Received: from localhost (eschaefe@localhost) by bach.helios.nd.edu (8.8.5/8.8.5) with SMTP id KAA04729 for ; Mon, 7 Jul 1997 10:55:41 -0500 (EST) Date: Mon, 7 Jul 1997 10:55:40 -0500 (EST) From: Beth Schaefer Caniglia To: Sociology Graduate Students -- International Subject: Tracking In-Reply-To: Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Hi everyone, Sorry to clog up the cyberwaves with talk of tracking, but I've been out of town and unable to reply. Since there seemed to be some questions about my argument, I thought I'd try to clear it up. What I was trying to illustrate with the stories I shared is that tracking is a complex process, involving "pushes" and "pulls" from peers and professors. The concept of tracking I was using was nowhere near as specific as Tom and some others wanted, and I think the direction they pushed us helped to bring about more conceptual rigor that I was proposing. My main point was that gendered interaction is one mechanism through which people choose their areas of concentration and/or advisors. I never intended to imply that this process is restricted to the field of sociology. It clearly isn't. Although I think most of you are sick of this topic, there are still a couple of questions that haven't been addressed (IMOHO). If institutions are patterns of behavior, repeated through time, why can't we argue that gendered interactions are institutions? If we accept a more diffuse conceptualization of tracking, isn't it possible that gendered interactions are one mechanism through which institutionalized tracking takes place (within sociology and elsewhere)? It also seems odd to me that many of us were confining our questions about tracking to sociology, specifically. Our community of sociologists exist within the context of a wider society, and it seems likely that our patterns of behavior are influenced by that larger context. We know that gendered tracking exists in this wider context, so the question seems to be whether sociology is an exception to that pattern. Operationalizations aside, I doubt it. Beth P.S. Thanks to everyone - Ivy, Pam, Laura, etc. - who tried to defend my argument without any help from me :) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Beth Schaefer Caniglia Office: (219) 631-6463 Department of Sociology Home: (219) 259-3723 University of Notre Dame Internet: eschaefe@bach.helios.nd.edu ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~