Becoming Other: From Social Interaction to Self-Reflection

155 Pages·2006·8.972 MB·English

by  Alex, Gillespie

Becoming Other
From Social Interaction
to Self-Reflection
a volume in
Advances In Cultural Psychology
Series Editor: .
.. .
-, .
m . 3 . .
Advances In Cultural Psychology
Jaan Valsiner, Series Editor
Transilions: Development Through Symbolic Resources (2005)
by Tania Zittoun
Challenges and Strateg.ies for Studying Human Developmen! in
Cultural Contexts (2005)
edited by Cynthis Lightfoot Becoming Other
Becoming Other: From Social Interaction to Self&Jection (2006)
by Alex Gillespie
From Social Interaction
Otherness in Question: Development of the Self
edited by Livia Simao and Jaan Valsiner (in press) to Self-Reflection
by
Alex Gillespie
University of Stirling
INFORMATION AGE
P U B L I S H I N G
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Yoti ask so ntany qztestions, dolt 7 yoti knotl~t hat ~dlelyto n point yozrr,firtger at me,
tltree ofyozrr onnfingers are poilrtirtg back at yozr?
Gillespie, Alex, Ph. D. -Ladakhi monk at Phyang gotnpa
Becoming other : from social interaction to self-reflection 1 by Alex
GilIespie.
p. cm. -- (Advances in cultural psychology)
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN-13: 978-1-593 11-230-1 (pbk.)
ISBN-13: 978-1- 593 11-23 1-8 (hardcover)
1. Acculturation--India--Ladakh.2 . Ladakhi (South Asian
people)--Psychology. 3. Tourists--India--Ladakh--Pyschology4..
Tourism--India--Ladakh--Psychologicaals pects. I. Title.
HM841 .G55 2006
306.4'81909546--dc22
20060 19758
ISBN 13: 978-1-593 11-230-1 (pbk.)
978-1 -5931 1-23 1-8 (hardcover)
ISBN 10: 1-5931 1-230-0 (pbk.)
1-593 11-231 -9 (hardcover)
Copyright O 2006 IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise, without written permission
from the publisher.
Printed in the United States of America
CONTENTS
Preface
Editor's Introduction: The Social Act of the Social Sciences:
Touring the Minds of Recreational Nomads
Jaan Valsiner
Transcription Conventions
1. The Social Act
2. Elaborations and Questions
3. Tourism in Ladakh
4. The Touring Act
5. Listening to Tourists
6. Listening to Ladakhis
7. First Analysis: Genealogy
8. Tourist Self and Ladakhi Other
9. Ladakhi Self and Tourist Other
10. Second Analysis: Becoming Other
11. Internal Dialogues
12. Self-Reflection
13. Becoming Other to Oneself
References
PREFACE
The research reported in this book is unapologetically Meadian. While
the work of George Herbert Mead has been of widespread significance,
and his name is ol'tcn cited, there are in fact few empirical studies that
have sougllt to rigor-ously instantiate his ideas. This is in part bccausc his
theory is abstruse and in part because there ha\~eb een so nlany divergent
interpretations of his theory. The point of departure for the present
research is a novel interpretation of Mead. Mead's core problematic, I
argue, is how to explain self-reflection, and his answer to this is the tlleoiy
of the social act. The present research is an attempt to instantiate this
reading.
-
The empirical context for the reported research is the iilteraction
between tourists and Ladakhis in the Indian Himalaya. Ladakh is a
remote region and tourists visit in order to cxpcrience the remoteness,
the I-limalaya, and the reputcclly tratlitional Buddhist culture of Laclakh.
Specifically I am interested in how this interaction betweeri two radically
different groups has triggered mutual self-reflection, and the eillcrgence
of new situated identities. The research will follo~v tourist-Ladakhi
encounters from the interpersonal realm into the intrapsychological
realm, from social interaction into internal dialogues and self-reflection.
Self-reflection I take to be one of the most important and uniquely
human mental dynamics. In the moment of self-reflection one can find
agency, identity, and development. My argument, along with Mead, is
that self-reflection is patterned by our institutional interactions. But the
argument is not simply that external interaction or conversation becomes
internal conversation. The theoiy of thc social act is an account of liolv an
individual's social experience is trat1sfo1-n~eidn to internal dialogue.
Becoming Other xi
The theory is presented in chapters 1 and 2. The first chapter intro- published work. Others I hear echoing through my rvords, no longer sep-
duces Mead's theory of the social act, while the second chapter elaborates arable from my own voice, as I am fortunate to have appropriated them as
upon this and turns the theory into a set of tractable questions. The first part of my own intellectual development.
chapter is theoretically heavy, introducing the central concepts that shape My interest in Mead stems from Rob Farr's inspirational and rigorous
the subsequent analysis, namely, the social act, position exchange, the teaching. The present book is an attempt to advance that theoiy through
vocal gesture, the significant symbol, and the Itme dynamic. The second empirical research. In this project I have been fortunate to have the sup-
chapter leads to two empirical questions. First, how are tourists and Lada- port of Gerard Duveen, who has mediated the research from the outset,
khis taking each others' perspectives? Second, is this perspective-taking and saved me from many weaker formulations. My rcacling of Meacl is
resulting in new instances of self-reflection? inflected with my understanding of the effect of the social context on thc
Chapters 3 and 4 introduce tourism in Ladakh, and use Mead's theory production of knowledge, which I have learnt fiom Sandra Jovcl~elovitch.
of the social act to conceptualize tourist-Ladakhi encounters (the touring Tania Zittotun has continually reminded me of the importance of the psy-
act). The photographing act, the sightseeing act, the serving act, and the chological, and has stimulated my awareness of the role of imagination,
self-narration act are described in detail. Chapters 5 and 6 enter into the play and fiction in everyday life. Evin 0 Riordiin has asked difficult ques-
discursive worlds of tourists and Ladakhis, mapping out how each talks tions leading me to wonder why 011 earth psycl~ologistsg o about things
about themselves and the other. The data presented in these chapters the way they do.
forms the basis for the two subsequent analyses. I thank Mhairi Burden, Gerard Duveen, Evin <I RiordAin, Jaan Vals-
The first analysis is introduced in chapter '7 and carried out in chapters inel; Darin Weinberg, and Tania Zittoun for commenting on earlier drafts
8 and 9. The question addressed is: Are tourists and Ladakhis talking of this work. But the person who knows this book best and has most oftcn
about themselves by taking each others' perspectives? Chapter 8 argues put ~ nreig ht is Flora Cornish, whose rigorous scepticism 11as sharpened
that tourists talk about themselves by taking the perspective of other tour- both thco~ya nd interpretation, Stimulating exchanges with Sona~nA ng-
ists, and they are able to do this relatively easily because they themselves chuk, Ciarlin Benson, David Cann, Abdul Ganishek, Dan1 I-Iuppert, Gab-
are tourists. Chapter 9 contends that Ladakhis' sense of themselves as cul- rielle Ivinson, Hannah Lambert, Tony Manstead, Alan McFdane, Ivana
tural arises largely from their taking the perspective of tourists. The inter- Markovi, Beth Mellol; Tashi Moi-up, Helena Norberg-Hodge, Rebecca
esting point here, however, is that Ladakhis have never been in the social Norman, Harold Orbach, Laurent PordiC, Charis Psaltis, Roger Siilj6,
position of tourists so they have had to imaginatively reconstruct the per- Valerio Simoni, Charles Smith, and Siddiq ?Vahid have helped me to
spective of tourists using their own experiences. develop my ideas. While they have all contributed to the strengths of the
The second analysis concerns the microdynamics of self-reflection and manuscript, the shortcomings are all my own.
is presented in chapters 10, 11 , and 12. Chapter 10 makes the case for The online archive, the Mead Project, maintained at the Department of
analyzing talk as thought, thus enabling us to gather objectively analyz- Sociology at Rrock University (http://sparta~l.ac.brocku.ca/-]ward/
able instances of self-reflection. Chapter 11 analyses Ladakhis and tour- defaulc.html), llas done an enormous service to the study of George Her-
ists having internal dialogues with each other, and identifies how these bert Mead's work. My historical and theoretical work has benefited greatly
internal dialogues can lead to self-reflection. Chapter 12 analyses fi-o~nth e availability of important texts both at the Mead Project and at tlie
instances of self-reflection in terms of perspective-taking, distinguishing a~rhiveC lnssics in the History of Ps~clt,ologym aintai~leda t York University
two types of self reflection, and arguing that both are explicable in terms (i~ttp://psychclassics.yorku.ca).
of Mead's concept of the significant symbol. My fieldwork in Ladakh was made possible, and enjoyable, by the help
The final chapter broadens out beyond a narrowly, and maybe obses- and fi-iendship of several extraordina~yp eople. Manish Enn, Tundup
sively, Meadian standpoint and entertains alternative explanations of the Wangail, and Tsering Chakdor patiently entertained my absurd questions
data. The issue at stake is to explain how there can be a shift of perspec- and imaginatively found ways to help me construct my data. They also
tive in the stream of thought-how self can "step out" of ongoing action worked exceedingly hard to organize group discussions and translate
and self-reflect. In self-reflection we experience ourselves in the same way them. I also received significant support from Abass and Akbar of the Olcl
that we experience ocher people: we become other to ourselves. Ladakh G~lesthouse,A srnath Trom Leh, Doje from Spituk, Dot-je rr-om
Reading over this book, I find it alive with voices other than mine. The Digger, Dorje and Majid from Gypsy's World, Ghularn from Evergreen
origins of some of these voices are fully identifiable, being quoted from Emporium, Nassir from Fantasy l'ours, Padma from Rural Developnlent
xii A. CILLESPIE
and You, Punchok from Saspol, and Stanzin from Skara. Fieldwork in
Ladakh has been less efforthl and more eventhl than any other site I
have experienced. Both Ladakhi and tourist participants were facilitating
and frank. They generously gave their time, ideas, and photographs. I
hope their voices survive my analyses and sound as good-willed, humor-
ous, and ingenious as they are.
Financial support for this work has been provided by an Economic and
Social Research Council reseal-ch studentship and a Peterhouse research
studentship. I would also like to acknowledge Cambridge University
Press, Ethos, Human Devel@ment, and JournaLfor the Theory of Social Behav-
iour for permission to reprint portions of my prior publications.
EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION
THE SOCIAL ACT OF THE
SOCIAL SCIENCES
Touring the Minds of Recreational Nomads
The reader of this book is about to enter into the multitude of life-worlds
of ordinary human beings who undertake extraordinary journeys. They
need their individual identities to be reconstructed by exposure to unique
human environments of the beauty of closeness to nature-and partake in
the assumed idyllic lives of the people who live "close to nature." So they
read tourist guides, travel hooks, and then undertake the long journey to
the vast beauty of the Tibetan Plateau to accomplish that goal. Yet the
goal of reacllixig the desired state of "being one with tlie nature" evades
them. They end up in a crowd of other tourists, touring the same sites,
buying the satne souvenirs-and through all of that-creating their
unique experiences. They are a new kind of nomads-recreational travel-
lers in the search of procreation of their selves.
Of course the realities of life in places where the local people make
their ends meet by helping the hordes of tourists to coconst~~itchte ir
expected imageries are very different from those of the people who travel
to Ladakh. Tourist experience is a personal, deeply motivated by individ-
ual needs, and culturally guided by the directed focus given to it by the
social institutions who benelit from such persunal journeys of the seekers
of their deeply private selves. Thc touring act is culturally canalized in a11
xiv A. GILLESPIE Becoming Other xv
of its stages-from the emergence of the personal plans, all through the seclusion, and so forth. The social sciences have rarely considered looking
actual journey, and in the aftermath of sharing the memories of the jour- at the people on the move. The usual obsel-vational focus of the social sc;
ney with oneself and with others. Human cultural history is filled with a entists is to study people in a limited range of bodily positions of stabil-
variety of forms of such acts of movement of people across the distances ity-those who are interviewed or fill out questionnaires do so mostly
of the seas and continents of the Earth, and beyond-as human beings while sitting-in contrast to kneeling-a position prescribed in some
are beginning to contemplate acts of tourism into the space. Human forms of prayer. Freudian analysis sets people up reclining on a couch in a
minds create scenarios for adventures (Simmel, 1919j1959) and set up psychoanalyst's ofice-rather than on their own bed at home, or in a
cultural scripts for their accomplishment. The latter-as the present book motel or a park bench. At the same time, in their eveiyday reality, lir~niail
amply demonstrates-guarantee that the adventures are always related to beings are constantly on the move-doing something in some purposcftil
their opposite-those of stable, well-known, and socially accepted ways of manner that requii-es the movement of one's body t111-ough a sequence of
being. In Ernst Boesch's words-the striving for the far and unknown positions-i-unning, walking, taking taxis, airplanes, and so on. All of this
(Fernweh) and its opposite-striving for the feeling of being at home richness of cultural-psychological realities is rarely tapped into by social
(Heimweh) are two opposite sides of the same basic human ways of acting scientists. The author of this book is in this respect an explorer of still
(Boesch, 1997). Moving to somewhere entails the moving away from unknorvn lands of human psychology.
somewhere else-hence the ambiguity of being-in-movement (Valsiner, The touring act is of course a complex meaningfi~ml ovement. Its study
2007). calls for new ways of generalizing from the empirical data. The Ladakh
Human beings have been on the move all through their evolution. case used in this book is an excellent example of that new phe~lon~enolog-
Hunting and gathering for food is possible through moving around. Most ical focus. The careful, and at benevolently humorous presentation of the
recently, our contemporary phenomenon of tourism is antedated by the many ordinary life details that both the tourists and their hosts display in
notion of pilgrimage. Phenomena of the "psychology of the tourists" that their encounters at Ladakh is a living tesritnony of the cultural processes
are depicted in this book in admirable richness can be found over a thou- that are constantly in the making. Different slices of reality-tourists' and
sand years back in the ways in which Christian pilgrims travelled to Jerus- their hosts' reflections upon one another, and on themselves, photo-
dem (Savage, 1977). As long as people travel, they travel for some graphs taken of places, people, and of the photographing act itself-are
meaningful purpose-and construct that purpose through meanings they all brought together in a search for a new theoretical focus in cultural psy-
attach to one or another aspect of the journey. The people may go far chology. As it becomes obvious, the notion of culture is a fabulous and
away-yet what they do in the process entails remaining very close to their vague meaning that organizes persons' conduct in their using of symbolic
regular ways of being themselves. The lures of what might be awaiting us devices to cope with ruptures in their social act of being themselves. Being
behind that next street corner, or beyond the horizon toward which our themselves entails coristarlt transce~ldingo f that state of being-moving
caravan is moving are simultaneously thrilling and frightening. toward the unknown, luring, yet indefinitely treacherous-path of new
Despite a11 its rich empirical contents, this book is a theoretical journey. experiences. It entails the seeking of comforting guidance fi-orn otlxel-s,
It is a milestone in transcending the dependence on famous thinkers of utilization of symbolic resources, and constant movement between social
the past in the social sciences. Even if its author pledges allegiance to the positions. It is similar to the focus on symbolic resources in Tania Zittoun's
legacy of George Herbert Mead-the seminal thinker whose mostly orally E.n?~sition(sZ ittoun, 2006) that inaugurated this present series orAdvances
expressed ideas have been turned into guidebooks for social scientists- in. C?~lt?traPls ychology.
the readers need not be led astray by that act of personal modesty. What This book is rich in description of phenomena-yet behind the empir-
we have here is an example of a new wave in cultural-psychological schol- ical exposition is the theoretical synthesis of ideas based on the heritages
arship that is deeply competent in the theoretical heritages of the past- of Mead, Dewey, and Vygotsky-as well as a rnethoclological innovation.
those of George Herbert Mead, John Dewey, Lev Vygotsky, and many oth- The latter could be called gen.eologica1c ~lltzi.rapl 1~.eno?ltenologyI.t enta 1'1 s re-
ers. Yet there is the building new general theoretical perspectives in con- birth of appreciation of the phenomena-rather than mere reliance on
junction with careful selection of crucial phenomena. standardized data "collection" routines-is the hallmark of conterriporaiy
Phenomena of travel-tourism, pilgrimage, trading, exploring, com- cultural psychology. Cultural psychology is a synthetic discipline-it selec-
muting-are all parts of human life arrangements. They are equally tiveIy borrows from philosophy, cultural and social anthi-opology, sociol-
important to the phenomena of staying-at home, at school, at work, in ogy, biology, and psychology-with the aim of integration of ideas and
xvi A. GILLESPIE Becoming Other xvii
knowledge into schemes of generalized knowledge of how culture "oper- Vygotsky (Van der Veer & Valsinel; 1991)-is another term to focus on
ates" within the human psyche. Of course this can happen in a manner of such dynamic hierarchy within the human mind. Significant symbols
speaking only-whatever we consider under the term "culture" has no evoke two (or more) perspectives, creating the systemic unity out of other-
agency (Wikan, 2002, p. 83). Agency is within their carriers-human wise isolated elements. Yet these symbols emerge from the meaning
beings in their living through acting. They are persons--or collective maker oneself-the self creates itself through multiplying itself into mutu-
institutions-who act through the use of complex semiotic mediators ally related parts only in order to create new abstracted unity as it grtms
(Gertz, Breaux, & Valsiner, 2007), social rcpl-esentations, dialogical pro- out of such differentiating process as an abstracted and getieralized sym-
cesses within the self (Sim5o & Valsiner, 2007), and cultural models. bolic organizer of the process itself. As Gillespie states it succinctly-
Through their actions qualitatively new forms of human psychological "Evoking a significant symbol is thus evobz??g! he lohole social aclfi.o?n all of
phenomena emerge, together with ever-new ways of acting in relation to tliefiel-sl~ectiveesm bedded within it" (in this volumc, p. 268).
the turbulent worlds. In sum-this book puts to rest any glorification of postmodernist belief
What is that new theoretical perspective like? Alex Gillespie develops a in the local nature of knowledge and context specificity of human cultural
framework for cultural psychology by taking the notion of the social act acts as a part of the image of fragmented human lives. Human beings are
and situating it in the middle of the encounters in Ladakh. George Her- differentiated and hierarchically integrated wholes rvho regulate their
bert Mead's notion of the act-as well as that of significant symbol-are own organization by cultural means. This conceptual deathblow to post-
developed further into a structurally elegant dynamic scheme in this modernist ideologies is done here without denying the reality of context
book, bringing it close to our contemporary theorizing about dialogical specificity. In fact, all the evidence in this book shows that each and evety
self (Hermans, 2001, 2002). Both directions strive toward conceptualiza- moment in the touring act is context bound, and hence unique. Yet there
tion of the dynamic and dialectical theoretical models (Ferreira, Salgado, is gcllcrality operating upon-and creating-that uniqucncss. The
& Cunha, 2006). Gillespie's solution is in the elaboration of the duality of author's careful development oC theoretical insights George Herbert
the self. Duality-mutual relation of two (or more) parts of the functional Mead reached in his self-dialogues almost a century ago is a new step in
system-is a concept that helps the thinkers to bypass the dangers of the development oTcultura1 psychology as a W'lssens~hc~ajiim ing at making
adoption of a stance of dualism. The Meadian significant symbol evokes sense of the human conditions in its generic ways. This itself is an explor-
an I-position of self who is in the process of acting, together with an I- ing act-one that the social sciences need vely much at our present time
position of "the othern-real or imaginary. Both of these components of of abundance of fragmented bits and pieces of information about "the
the self keep feeding into each other-and generating novelty through others" that lead us to search for our own unified selves through inven-
that relationship. tion of new ways for touring.
The duality of SELF < > OTHER thus operates as a feed-forward loop
of both parts acting (re-acting to what the other part did, andpro-acting to
what the other might do next) upon the othel: The unity of the relation to
the immediate past (re-acting) and the anticipation of the immediate
hture (pro-acting) sets the stage for the emergence of self-reflection. Such
seIf-reflection would not be possible if only one of the two components-
re-action or pro-action-were present. The self needs to be two-in order
to become one-of two mutually ever-related parts. The unity is guaran-
teed by diversity.
The new theoretical solution that the coverage in this book guides its
readers is in the synthesis of the higher-order whole through meaningful
contrasts at lower levels. The social sciences are about to return to the
question of generalization-emergence of higher-order objects
(Meinong, 1907) or Gestalts of higher order (Ehrenfels, 1988) as a result
of abstraction created by the significant symbols. The notion of "higher
psychological functionsm--central to the theoretical legacy of Lev