Haecceity

Abstract: At a recent symposium of the American Sociological Association celebrating the 50th anniversary of the publication of The Structure of Social Action (Parsons, 1937), Jeffrey Alexander called attention to the book's continuing influence upon professional sociology. In the generosity of the celebration, he situated ethnomethodology's programme in the agenda of analytic sociology and offered ethnomethodology good advice. From his place within the agenda, he identified for all ethnomethodologists the studies they do, advised them of studies they should do, and offered friendly advice about emphases they cannot avoid. In thoughtful reflections, he praised ethnomethodological studies for carrying on with the problem of social order that Parsons specified, and with which he instituted formal analytic sociology. In a spirit of generosity Alexander offered ethnomethodology an olive branch. Rather than pursuing their programme of current studies – which in another context he has criticised as ‘individualistic’ – ethnomethodologists should celebrate The Structure of Social Action by returning to the analytic fold. I disagree. There are good reasons for ethnomethodological studies to specify the production and accountability of immortal, ordinary society – that miracle of familiar organisational things – as the local production and natural, reflexive accountability of the phenomena of order * . Among those reasons is making discoverable one of those phenomena of order * , but only one, namely what analysis incarnate in and as ordinary society, as practical action's locally and interactionally produced and witnessed embodied details, could adequately be.

Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to explore what thinking with a philosophy of ‘becoming’ might produce in terms of conceptualising Learning for Sustainability (LfS), a recent development in Scottish educational policy. The paper posits that animism and the immanent materiality of a philosophy of becoming have important ramifications for contemporary approaches to sustainability education. ‘Becoming’ is described and its relationship to prevailing ‘systemic’ approaches to sustainability education explained. LfS is then described and conceptualised with a philosophy of becoming by examining its implications for Education for Global Citizenship and Outdoor Learning. The concepts of communication as expression; the subject undone (as haecceity); the distinction of ‘nature’ as ‘other’; and the centrality of a storied world are discussed as important elements of LfS becoming. Lastly, teaching materials and interviews with two initial teacher educators help create a rhizomatic assemblage of teacher education practice and LfS as becoming. This assemblage creates lines of flight for considering practice, including making explicit the expressivity of communication in course descriptor/teaching/learning relationships; highlighting the place/becoming assemblages of ‘indoor’ and ‘outdoor’ learning environments; and storying the world with learners through haecceity description/experimentation.

Abstract: Preface. 1. Introductory Preliminaries. 2. The Problem of Individuation. 3. Haecceities and Nonexistent Possible Individuals. 4. Singular Reference and Unexemplified Haecceities. 5. Acquaintance. Index. of Names. Index of Subjects.

Abstract: This article involves four writers exploring together the insights into collaborative writing that Deleuze can offer. Jonathan and Ken in the United Kingdom and Bronwyn and Sue in Australia have separate histories of collaborative writing, and in this collaborative project, they extend their thinking about Deleuze and work reflexively with his concepts to examine their own four-way collaboration. The thoughts of Deleuze provide a means of looking at collaborative writing as performance, as a means of becoming, each for the unknown other; selves as writers and academics but also sexed subjects living complex lives, in this case in worlds many miles apart. The article offers the collective and multiple senses of how the thoughts of Deleuze can be brought to life in collaborative writing.