RESOURCES: Community-Building - Visual Sociology - Message-Building
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FACULTY ASSISTANCE: Susan - jeanne - Pat
UWP Criminal Justice Dept. - CSUDH Dept. of Sociology

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California State University, Dominguez Hills
University of Wisconsin, Parkside
Created: January 28, 2007
Latest Update: January 29, 2007
jeannecurran@habermas.org
takata@uwp.edu

Topic of the Week: February, A Month of Love

We celebrate Valentine's Day and Black History Month in February. Lots of love is needed to remind us humans that loving humans and other creatures is a beautiful sight. World Wildlife Fund is selling Christmas Cards for those who plan ahead. They sent me the card I put up for this week's image. Their Christmas Card has a tiny sprig of holly berries in the first crane's mouth. I couldn't resist putting a heart into the middle crane's mouth. Wouldn't he make a lovely image for a valentine's day box/card? And in the process he'll remind us of the terrible effects that environmental warming is having on the animals of the world. He's endangered!

One of Lucy Wang's cranes. Lucy Wang is a San Diego, California, artist.

* * * * *

Now, if we're going to bring out that love and caring in our local communities, why don't we try to share some box/cards? One student at CSUDH took a card into her office where her superintendent put up on the reception desk so that everyone asked about it. Great idea. Share it also with teachers who may be able to share it with their classes.

Be sure to read We are the future. Tell someone.. Talk to your parents, your friends, your neighbors about what it means to be the future. We can't depend on the government at this point in our history to do all the work of keeping everyone honest, of keeping focused on what really matters. That's our civic duty. We need to talk to each other about what's really important, and hold each other to the standard of behaving responsibly in our community. That's what makes community work. Unless we practice it in our own local community, we won't have the skills to do a good job of it when we ARE the future.

Check out Decorating Suggestions for Explosion Box/Card or WaterFall Card . Oh, and don't forget to check out the WaterFall Card. These cards allow interaction, and multiple inserts for the same card. That means they're really useful for issues that can't be covered in one conversation. Like "bullying." Coercion and intimidation are complex and sometimes subtle forms of bullying. Don't tackle them all at once. Focus on a piece at a time. One conversation can be about intimidation. Another can be about how being good at something gives you power over another, even though you may not be conscious of that power.

love and peace,

jeanne

References:

• Jones and Gerard, Foundations of Social Psychology, 1967. Classic text on experimental social psychology.
• Arguments and Persuasion Techniques in Writing This might help with message-building.

Announcements:

Sign up for Spring with Jeanne and Pat:
Independent Study Form for work with jeanne and Pat in Spring 2007

We have begun our work with with Challengers Boys and Girls Club on Vermont, just south of USC. Our work will be divided into two phases: Arguments and Persuasion Techniques in Writing. This might help with message-building.

1. Accompanying jeanne and Pat at Challengers, learning how to build team work with a local agency, without interfering with their agenda. Good administrative training.

2. Work with jeanne and Pat on preparing and engaging others in art projects that are designed to stimulate and share discussions on local issues that matter to the residents and their children. This will include developing messages, including visual messages, that will register with kids of different ages. Those of you who want to work with your own or neighborhood children will want to focus on this section. I'll post specific tasks, and workshops when we can work at them here on the site. And I'll make a note that I've done that on transform_dom.

Instructions, readings, message-building, etc. will be given on line. For grades, we ask that you keep a journal of your learning and experiences for me to share with Dr. Hosokawa, who will turn in the grades for us.

Please check also the issues of Dear habermas I put up over Winter Break. And join our Yahoo discussion group, Write Free, for this project. Share what you are including in your journal as you put it together. I'll join you. Look forward to working with our children and families of all ages, as we learn to bring this learning to whole local communities, in cooperation with Challengers, and others who may wish to join us on Write Free. By the way, the title of our group means that writing will set us free, so it's important we learn to use it to that end.

Independent Study Form for work with jeanne and Pat in Spring 2007
Dr. Fumiko Hosokawa will sign for jeanne if jeanne isn't on campus.

love and peace, jeanne and Pat

• Los Angeles Gallery Exhibit

  Antonia Guzman, the Argentiniam artist whose works are in this issue, is having an exhibition in Los Angeles:

  El Otro - The other One
  

  

  Exhibition by Antonia Guzman
  Couturier Gallery
  166 N. La Brea Avenue, Los Angeles
  Reception: Friday, January 19, 7-9 p.m.
  exhibition from January 19 to February 24, 2007

• Say Thank You to our troops: See Site Index under "thanks" or "troops."

• Grades at CSUDH from Fall 2006: Check Issue No. 14, Week of December 3, 2006, for any information you need on winding up this semester at CSUDH.

Issues

• How would we like the presidential candidates for 2008 to handle the campaigns?

  Consider whether we want to hear "middle of the road" sound bites and rhetoric of reaction or whether we want to hear reasoned rhetoric and argumentation. One way to influence this is through community-building messages on the issues that matter. I plan to upload some material on rhetoric later this week.

  Meanwhile look at Classical Christian Homeschooling: the Subject of Rhetoric, Comprehensive Reading List for Ph.D. qualifying exams at USC for composition and rhetoric and A Defense of Rhetoric by Thomas M. Rivers. I'll work on summaries. jeanne

  See also: Saving Persuasion: A Defense of Rhetoric and Judgment By Bryan Garsten. Harvard University Press. 2005 Thomas J. Wilson Prize of Harvard University Press.

• Our Need for Certainty
  

  

  

Summaries and Sources

• Index of Summaries and Sources for Spring 2007 Updated and expanded index on sources for current social, economic, and political issues in our communities. I'll work on this index throughout the semester. It takes time. But you're welcome to nag me if there's a topic that concerns you. jeanne

Visual Sociology

Box/Card Decorations:



The grosgrain ribbon forms the line between the gray and orange sections here.
Easy enough to tie the ribbon into a bow if you want extra decoration.

  

Blocking might be more interesting if we added texture or a small drawing.

A Range of Sources on Global Events

Left/Right Perspectives - Cursor - New York Times - The National Review
Arts and Letters Daily - The Economist - The Sierra Club - The Guardian
Wall Street Journal - The Weekly Standard - The Nation
The Cato Institute (Libertarian) - The Open Society
BBC NEWS | Americas - truthout - Museum of Tolerance, Los Angeles
Los Angeles Times - Chicago Tribune - La Opinion - The Washington Post
Cursor's Al Jazeera Archive - Ha'aretz - Palestine Monitor - Palestine Report

Wikipedia - Web Sources Linked from Dear Habermas
Concept Index

 

 

 

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