Message-ID: <33B1B956.1813@yale.edu>
Date: Wed, 25 Jun 1997 20:35:34 -0400
From: Dan Ryan <daniel.ryan@yale.edu>
Reply-To: daniel.ryan@yale.edu
MIME-Version: 1.0
To: socgrad@csf.colorado.edu
Subject: Re: tracking
References: <97Jun25.194102edt.1190-7@jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu>
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At the risk of sounding retrograde and counter-revolutionary, two
related comments.

Somebody quoted somebody quoted somebody saying:

>>>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 constraints.

The image is intuitively attractive, but also troubling.  What model of
human agency do we have if we focus on "paths of least resistance"?  Do
we imagine a social landscape in which people find their places the way
water "seeks its own level"?

And Danielle wrote:

>Response ... ago.

and asked an interesting question (only tracking away from ...).  This
comment:

> (i.e. my brother who went to Princeton
> and now feels a great pressure to go to Harvard Business School and
> fulfill the "typical" white male elitist thing).

got me going a little.  Now I'm all for the reality of social structures
and networks of power-knowledge and all that, but this characterization
(and I don't mean to pick on Danielle or her brother here, it's just a
good example) brings out the existentialist in me.  At what point do we
turn the tracking question around and say "you felt pressure?  What
about taking responsibility for your own choices?"  How good a defense
would "tracking" have been at Nuremburg?*  I want to emphasize that my
question is "at what point?"

* nobody needs to fly off the handle and say war crimes aren't
  comparable to choosing gender as a specialty (though every now
  and then the tone of the discussion makes me wonder ;-) )

I know way too many folks who have ended up in law school or business
school because it was time to do something serious in life and these
were directions that didn't require particularly elevated levels of
motivation or dedication and yet pretty much guaranteed some wealth and
power if you stuck it out.  In addition parents were inevitably proud of
you (and it is a great place to meet a socio-economically compatible
mate -- but that's a whole other issue of social reproduction that we
don't need to get into here.)  It's tracking all right, but more in the
sense of getting one's wheel stuck in a rut in the road and not having
the imagination and ummmph to do something else (again, I'm not
presuming to make a judgement about Danielle's brother).


One good teacher saying "hey, why don't you try this?" and being
supportive of the effort can make a whole lot of difference.  So can a
few words from an established figure in, say gender or ethnic studies,
making someone feel like they are selling out or being coopted if they
do something "mainstream."  But is it "tracking" or good/bad pedagogy
and ordinary tribal behavior?  

sans nuages,

Dan