modernizing families

[Rob_Hugo@PortNW]

Lisa's Sischler's presentation consisted of both information on the continued modernization of China and Japan as well as teaching ideas. Her teaching methods emphasized critical thinking and encouraging (demanding) students to speak in specifics instead of generailties. She incorporated many visual learning devices and ensuing discussion focused on questions she generated. We did a quick writing excercise and ended with a lecture.

"Yes Dean, but what was it all about?" you ask with a hint of cheekiness. My saucey and slightly sarcastic answer would be, "The moderninzing of the Asian families as a political and social device." More specifically, due to economic, social, industrial, urban, and political pressures the family unit moves from being an entity desgined based on it's own utility previously an agrerian producin' machine whose construction was based more on its own survival (thus extended, perhaps less narrowly defined) to being more public when the state tries to turn its country into a machine whose parts all work in unison and at peak production. This shift means the government takes a much more active interest in what makes up the family and how they conduct themselves. In doing this the government creates more laws and institutions to mold the family into Family; a function they attempt to create. The family becomes smaller (nucleor now instead of extended) as the production shifts from farming to moderenization- labor is moving to factories. Public schools are created, popualtion is controled, propoganda promotes a superior race and family that is new because it is a more active part of the "new family", the nation.

China attempts to create nation as family and family as nation expanding loyalty to foster more of a national identity. Both China and Japan are attempting to keep up with the West after invasion from various countries.

Both nations are partially successful in their goals, because families have their own perception of these events.

Whew! That was something. What I found most interesting was how notions defien families through laws, medicine and institutions- very Michel Foucault who wrote on howdefintions for things we take as indisputable are controled by language or lack of it- defining things such as sane and insane, lawful and unlawful because the language availiable to us is already defined and thus our discourse controled. By China sayng, This is family- this is the new family" it is telling those who do not follow they are deviants- they will be unhappy- they are open to ridicule and derision.

DEAN

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