Standpoint Theory

I. Introduction

A) Dating back to 1800's Standpoint theory claims that social groups within which we are located powerfully shape what we experience and know as well as how we understand and communicate with ourselves, others and the world.

II. Locations in Cultural Life

A) Recall that symbolic interaction claims that we are socialized into cultural meanings and values that pre-exist any individual.

B) Mead noted that there is a common social world, and his theory emphasized the ways in which individuals come to understand and participate in that common world.

C) He did not fully develop the theoretical implantation of diverse social groups for personnel identity and cultural life.

D) Standpoint theory fills that gap by highlighting the diversity and inequalities within an overall society.

E) (Collins 1986; Haraway 1991; Harstock 1983) agree that culture is not experienced identically by its members. Instead, cultures are arranged so those different groups have different power, and different experiences.

F) German philosopher George William Fredrick Hegel stated those different positions in a society result in different perspectives. Hegel concluded because societies have unequal power relationships, there could be no absolute perspective on social life.

G) Hegel concluded societies involve unequal power relationships, there is no singular and no correct perspectives on social life.

H) All perspectives are partial in what is noticed and emphasized, as well as in the meanings they assign to social activities and identities.

III. Situated Knowledge

A) Donna Haraway (1988) came up with the term "Situated Knowledge" that emphasized that any person's knowledge is situated in his or her social circumstances and, there are multiple knowledge's.

B) To other standpoint theorists including Haraway, knowledge in plural and not singular.

C) Sara Ruddick argues that mothers develop values, priorities, understandings of others, and skills at nurturing that are specially required to fulfill the role of mother.

D) Riddick's distinction between maternal instinct and maternal thinking is as follows: Maternal instinct is an innate capacity to mother that our culture assumes is intrinsic; while maternal thinking is a learned capacity and that more women than men learn it because the two genders occupy different locations in society.

E) The set of attitudes and behaviors that are forested by women's more frequent locations in domestic spheres and caregiving roles is the concluded idea of "maternal instinct" by Ruddick.

F) In (1989) Barbara Risman found that men who are primary caregivers are more nurturing, attentive to others' needs, patient, and emotionally responsive investigation.

IV. Critical Assessment

A) Unjustifiably Privileged Theory

1. Claims that some perspectives are better than others are.

2. The theory claims that all standpoints are necessarily partial.

B) Obscured Human Diversity Theory

1. In focusing on social groups, standpoint theory runs the risk of obscuring diversity within groups.

2. The criticism is that emphasizing various social groups within a single culture promotes is not incompatible with recognition of diversity within groups.