Browsing Department of Management, Politics and Philosophy (MPP/LPF) by Author "Ratner, Helene"
Now showing items 1-3 of 3
-
A response to Marianne de Laet’s “Anthropology as social epistemology”Ratner, Helene (, 2013)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: As her title indicates, Marianne de Laet suggests that social epistemology could be thought of as anthropology, in terms of how this mode of knowing has helped flesh out the social dimensions of scientific knowledge. She does so firstly, by accounting for how anthropological methods and concepts have contributed to science and technology studies (STS) by providing an alternative to “believing the natives” i.e., scientists, hence challenging positivist and objectivist accounts of science. She then specifies selected analytical insights of anthropology. The concepts ‘culture’ and ‘practice’, she argues, enable us to learn how “knowledge is social in an epistemic sense” (2012, 421). She concludes her argument by questioning the distinction between epistemology and ontology, maintaining that anthropology is social epistemology. De Laet touches several key debates in the history of STS and much of her commentary on the sociality of knowledge is difficult to disagree with. There are however, also some elements in her argument with which I wish to engage critically. These include the relationship between anthropology and STS and the relationship between the concepts of culture and ontology. I will do so by drawing my inspiration from a contemporary a debate across STS and anthropology that — like de Laet — regards entanglements of epistemology and ontology, practice, and materiality. This project is also known as post- ANT and empirical philosophy in STS (Mol 2002; Gad and Bruun Jensen 2010, 55-80; Law and Hassard 1999) and lateral, multi-natural and ontological engagements in anthropology (Maurer 2005; Riles 2000; Strathern 2004 [1991]; Carrithers et al. 2010, 152-200; Viveiros de Castro 2004, 463-484). De Laet mentions some of the same sources. I will focus my commentary on these debates’ implications for the concept of culture and “our terminological tinkering” (2012, 420). My aim is to provide a different account of what anthropology has to offer STS and, as a consequence, to keep some interesting tensions open between the conceptual and the empirical, between “us” and “them”, which I believe de Laet resolves too quickly. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8691 Files in this item: 1
ratner.pdf (157.6Kb) -
Managing and Researching Inclusive SchoolsRatner, Helene (Frederiksberg, 2012)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: This thesis examines “reflexivity” as the key theme for understanding how Danish school managers work with the currently influential political vision of including students with special needs in the common school (educating children aged 5-16). Despite repeated attempts to realize the vision of inclusion, the number of students referred to special pedagogical services, and thus segregated from the common school, has continued to grow, especially since 1995. There is a widespread consent that this development is due to the schools’ practices and socially constructed categories of “special needs” and “normalcy.” Pedagogical scholars and recent policy initiatives posit that schools can achieve the much-wanted cultural change towards inclusion if teachers reflect (more) on their mindsets and practices. When advocating inclusion, scholars often refer to school managers as “leaders of meaning construction,” thus emphasizing their importance in facilitating cultural change. Existing knowledge practices are depicted as too “durable” with the unintended side-effects of segregation and budget overruns, and school managers are, following, encouraged making teachers change their practices through (self-) reflexivity. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8459 Files in this item: 1
Helene_Ratner.pdf (2.848Mb) -
Hvidbog om international forskning inden for skoleledelseRatner, Helene (Frederiksberg, 2009)[More information][Less information]
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7953 Files in this item: 1
Now showing items 1-3 of 3