These files are maintained strictly for historical reference, research, and recordkeeping purposes,
and the content has not been altered or updated since archiving.
Content on this site may not meet current digital accessibility standards.
If you require an alternative, accessible format of any information found on this site,
please contact Bruce Jones, bjones@ucsd.edu to request an accommodation.
These files are maintained strictly for historical reference, research, and recordkeeping purposes,
and the content has not been altered or updated since archiving.
Content on this site may not meet current digital accessibility standards.
If you require an alternative, accessible format of any information found on this site,
please contact Bruce Jones, bjones@ucsd.edu to request an accommodation.
Greg, I have read the article by Gary Fine and Brooke Harrington which I posted because the meso level of social structure [between the individual and the state] is a form of mediation which I previously explored in my quest many years ago to understand the yearnings and formations of *intentional communities* These communities were historically, referred to as utopian communities. British Columbia, over the past century, was a place where many intentional communities flourished. While reading Fine's article I kept wondering about the way Fine & Harrington were constructing their *object* of *small groups* in such general terms. I found myself wondering about the being of this particular object within the realm of temporality. I'm not sure if I'm uneasy about the entire *tradition* of this line of sociology and its objects or is it merely this article's level of generality and this particular article's objects? The concept *Small groups* as the central object described [as *a social cartography* within a social space, page 349] seems to express merely synchronic descriptions and leaves unsaid the temporality of this sociological object. In my recollection of reading Robert Nesbit's sociological narratives of *intermediate community* I remember a much deeper appreciation of the temporality of the object of *intermediate community*. In particular, the book he wrote titled *Quest For Community* explored the yearning and desire for community as a central theme within the tradition of sociology as a discourse. I'm left feeling ambivalent reading Fine's article, as the topic of *small groups* as a general object of inquiry seems to offer potential to further understanding BUT the synchonic images & metaphors such as the term *social cartography* seems to leave unsaid the dynamic temporality of this particular sociological object. Larry I On Thu, May 10, 2012 at 10:29 AM, Greg Thompson <greg.a.thompson@gmail.com>wrote: > This book has gotten some interest here locally at the lab and I thought it > might be of interest more widely (with a "strong recommend" for Andy). > > > http://www.amazon.com/Tiny-Publics-Sociological-Associations-Sociology/dp/0871544326/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_1 > > It is Gary Alan Fine's new book Tiny Publics and in it he argues for the > importance of paying attention to meso- level organization (and even seems > to argue that this is the most "consequential" level of social life - small > (tiny!) though it may be). > > -greg > > -- > Gregory A. Thompson, Ph.D. > Sanford I. Berman Post-Doctoral Scholar > Laboratory of Comparative Human Cognition > Department of Communication > University of California, San Diego > http://ucsd.academia.edu/GregoryThompson > __________________________________________ > _____ > xmca mailing list > xmca@weber.ucsd.edu > http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca > __________________________________________ _____ xmca mailing list xmca@weber.ucsd.edu http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca