Date: Wed, 25 Jun 1997 19:41:01 -0400
From: Thomas F Brown <tombrown@jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu>
Subject: Re: tracking
To: socgrad@csf.colorado.edu
Message-id: <97Jun25.194102edt.1190-7@jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu>
Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT
>The concept of tracking I would define as a path of least resistance which is
>not necessarily mapped by the individual, but rather arises from larger constra
>ints.  I guess the best model for my concept would be habitus--which includes
>both a conscious and non (un?)conscious theory of action and constraint. Furthe
>r, it incorporates both the individual and the structures/discourses around
>them in dynamic relation.

That works for me. Your examples were of women who were marginalized 
because their ideas were perceived as beyond disciplinary boundaries, and 
you hold that this out-of-bounds-ness is tied up in their gendered social
identity. This makes sense to me.

However, this is dangerously close to conflating the track with the
person being tracked. Is it a women's track because women are in it,
or are women in it because it's a women's track?

If it is a women's track because women are in it, then the argument
for tracking is tautological. It is merely definitional. There is no 
external causal element. 

If women are in it because it's the women's track, then where is the causal 
element urging women towards that track? If there is no causal element
external to the woman, then we don't need the concept of tracking.
But you do imply a causal element.

Your definition describes a path that arises from constraints, which is
essentially what I proposed. But your examples are of women who experience
constraints not because they are women, but because they are in
the women's track. They are constrained because they are in the women's
track, but they are tracked because they are constrained. This again
would be a tautological argument. 

If we define tracking in terms of the gendered identity of the track, then 
we have a tautology--we are saying the track causes itself. We need to
identify causal elements external to the track. So I buy your conception,
but according to your own conception, the women you describe were not
tracked. We can say that they were marginalized because they were women, 
or because they were in the women's track, but we can't say they were 
tracked unless we demonstrate an external causal element.