Standpoint theory is a postmodern theory for analyzing inter-subjective discourses. This body of work concerns the ways that authority is rooted in individuals' knowledge (their perspectives), and the power that such authority exerts.
Standpoint theory's most important concept is that an individual's own perspectives are shaped by his or her social and political experiences. Standpoints are multifaceted rather than essentializing: while Hispanic women may generally share some perspectives, particularly with regard to ethnicity or sex, they are not defined solely by their participation in these categories. The amalgamation of a person's many experienced dimensions form a standpoint--a point of view--through which that individual sees and understands the world.
Standpoint theorists emphasize the utility of a naturalistic, or everyday experiential, concept of knowing (i.e., epistemology). One's standpoint (whether reflexively considered or not) shapes which concepts are intelligible, which claims are heard and understood by whom, which features of the world are perceptually salient, which reasons are understood to be relevant and forceful, and which conclusions credible.
Standpoint theory supports what feminist theorist Sandra Harding calls strong objectivity, or the notion that the perspectives of marginalized and/or oppressed individuals can help to create more objective accounts of the world. Through the outsider-within phenomenon, these individuals are placed in a unique position to point to patterns of behavior that those immersed in the dominant group culture are unable to recognize. Standpoint theory gives voice to the marginalized groups by allowing them to challenge the status quo as the outsider within. The status quo representing the dominant white male position of privilege.
The predominant culture in which all groups exist is not experienced in the same way by all persons or groups. The views of those who belong to groups with more social power are validated more than those in marginalized groups. Those in marginalized groups must learn to be bicultural, or to "pass" in the dominant culture to survive, even though that perspective is not their own.
Video Standpoint theory
History
The original inspirations for standpoint theory can be seen in the works of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, a German idealist philosopher, who studied the different standpoints between slaves and masters in 1807. He claimed that the master-slave relationship is about people's belonging positions, and the groups affect how people receive knowledge and power. Karl Marx also discussed how the position of a worker shapes his or her knowledge. From these two scholars' studies, Nancy Hartsock examined standpoint theory by using relations between men and women. She published "The Feminist Standpoint: Developing Ground for a Specifically Feminist Historical Materialism" in 1983. Hartsock used Hegel's ideas of masters and slaves and Marx's ideas of class and capitalism as an inspiration to look into matters of sex and gender.
Contemporary standpoint theory often focuses on the social positions such as gender, race, class, culture, and economic status. Standpoint theory seeks to develop a particular feminist epistemology, that values the experiences of women and minorities as a source for knowledge..
Prominent standpoint theorists include Dorothy Smith, Nancy Hartsock, Donna Haraway, Sandra Harding, Alison Wylie, Lynette Hunter and Patricia Hill Collins.
Maps Standpoint theory
Key concepts
Generally, standpoint theory gives insight into specific circumstances only available to the members of a certain collective standpoint. According to Michael Ryan, "the idea of a collective standpoint does not imply an essential overarching characteristic but rather a sense of belonging to a group bounded by a shared experience.". Kristina Rolin states that "the assumption of essentialism is that all women share the same socially grounded perspective in virtue of being women, the assumption of automatic epistemic privilege is that epistemic advantage accrues to the subordinate automatically, just in virtue of their occupying a particular social position."
According to this approach:
- A standpoint is a place from which human beings view the world.
- A standpoint influences how the people adopting it socially construct the world.
- A standpoint is a mental position from which things are viewed.
- A standpoint is a position from which objects or principles are viewed and according to which they are compared and judged.
- The inequalities of different social groups create differences in their standpoints.
- All standpoints are partial; so (for example) Standpoint feminism coexists with other standpoints.
Applications
Since standpoint theory focuses on marginalized populations, it is often applied within fields that focus on these populations. Standpoint has been referenced as a concept that should be acknowledged and understood in the Social Work field, especially when approaching and assisting clients. Many marginalized populations rely on the welfare system to survive. Unfortunately, those who structure the welfare system typically have never needed to utilize its services before. Standpoint theory has been presented as a method to improving the welfare system by recognizing suggestions made by those within the welfare system. In Africa, standpoint theory has catalyzed a social movement where women are introduced to the radio in order to promote awareness of their experiences and hardships and to help these women heal and find closure. Another example dealing with Africa is slavery and how slavery differed greatly depending on if one was the slave or the master. If there were any power relationships there could never be a single perspective. No viewpoint could ever be complete, and there is no limit to anyone's perspective.
Asante and Davis's (1989) study of interracial encounters in the workplace found that because of different cultural perspectives, approaching organizational interactions with others with different beliefs, assumptions, and meanings often leads to miscommunication. Brenda Allen stated in her research that, "Organizational members' experiences, attitudes, and behaviors in the workplace are often influenced by race-ethnicity"
Paul Adler and John Jermier suggest that management scholars should be aware of their standpoints. They write that those studying management should "consciously choose [their] standpoints and take responsibility for the impact (or lack of impact) of [their] scholarship on the world".
Jermier argued that all parts of a research study- identifying the problem, theorizing research questions, gathering and analyzing data, drawing conclusions, and the knowledge produced are there to some extent because of the researcher's standpoint. This caused him to question what standpoint to adopt in the management of scientists. To avoid falling into limitations of the status quo and certain standpoints, he said that "the view from below has greater potential to generate more complete and more objective knowledge claims." He continues to say that, "if our desire is to heal the world, we will learn more about how the root mechanisms of the world work and about how things can be changed by adopting the standpoints of those people and other parts of nature that most deeply suffer its wounds."
Feminist standpoint theory
Feminist standpoint theorists make three principal claims: (1) Knowledge is socially situated. (2) Marginalized groups are socially situated in ways that make it more possible for them to be aware of things and ask questions than it is for the non-marginalized. (3) Research, particularly that focused on power relations, should begin with the lives of the marginalized.
Feminist standpoint theorists such as Dorothy Smith, Patricia Hill Collins, Nancy Hartsock, and Sandra Harding claimed that certain socio-political positions occupied by women (and by extension other groups who lack social and economic privilege) can become sites of epistemic privilege and thus productive starting points for enquiry into questions about not only those who are socially and politically marginalized, but also those who, by dint of social and political privilege, occupy the positions of oppressors. This claim was specifically generated by Sandra Harding and as such, "Starting off research from women's lives will generate less partial and distorted accounts not only of women's lives but also of men's lives and of the whole social order." This practice is also quite evident when women enter into professions that are considered to be male oriented. Women in science are a perfect example as not only a select few are allowed, but those who get in find it difficult to climb the structural ladder. Londa Schiebinger states, "While women now study at prestigious universities at about the same rate as men, they are rarely invited to join the faculty at top universities...The sociologist Harriet Zuckerman has observed that 'the more prestigious the institution, the longer women wait to be promoted.' Men, generally speaking, face no such trade-off."
Standpoint feminists have been concerned with these dualisms for two related reasons. First, dualisms usually imply a hierarchical relationship between the terms, elevating one and devaluing the other. He also said that when we suggest that decisions should be made rationally, not emotionally, for example, we are showing that reason holds a higher value in our culture than does emotion. Also, related to this issue is the concern that these dualisms often become gendered in our culture. In this process, men are associated with one extreme and women with the other. In the case of reason and emotion, women are identified with emotion. Because our culture values emotion less than reason, women suffer from this association. Feminist critics are usually concerned with the fact that dualisms force false dichotomies (partition of a whole) onto women and men, failing to see that life is less either/or than both/and, as relational dialectics theory holds.
There has been agreement between feminist standpoint theorists that a standpoint is not just a perspective that is occupied simply by the fact of being a woman. Whereas a perspective is occupied as a matter of the fact of one's socio-historical position and may well provide the starting point for the emergence of a standpoint, a standpoint is earned through the experience of collective political struggle, a struggle that requires both science and politics. He then went to say that while both the dominant and the dominated occupy perspectives, the dominated are much more successfully placed to achieve a standpoint. However, this is not saying that those who occupy perspectives that are not-marginalized cannot help in reaching a shared critical conscientious with relation to the effects of power structures and epistemic production. Only through such struggles can we begin to see beneath the appearances created by an unjust social order to the reality of how this social order is in fact constructed and maintained. This need for struggle emphasizes the fact that a feminist standpoint is not something that anyone can have simply by claiming it. It is an achievement. A standpoint differs in this respect from a perspective, which anyone can have simply by 'opening one's eyes.'
Part of the feminist version of the standpoint theory is a concept called 'mansplaining.' From a feminist point of view, mansplaining is defined as a male explaining something to a female in an incorrect and simple way. Mansplaining also makes the male who is doing the explaining seems overconfident about the topic and makes him seem condescending. It is even said that the concept that the man is explaining sometimes is something that the woman he is explaining it to already knew and that he may have even interrupted the woman who was first trying to explain it. It is not clear where this idea of mansplaining began but a common idea is that this kind of activity has been around for centuries. However, in more modern times the birth of the idea was in the year 2008 with Rebecca Solnit's essay "Men Explain Things To Me", which appeared in the Los Angeles Times. In this essay Solnit did not use the term mansplaining but talked about the experience she had where a male explained a book to her, which she had actually written. From there, the term slowly increased and gained popularity through feminist blogs. According to this idea, women are seen as inferior to men. Women are also seen as being a lot more interrupted by men because men just have the need to prove their point a lot more than women do. This concept says that men have the tendency to interrupt and that women have the tendency to be interrupted not only by men but by other women as well. Women have also been shown to accept being interrupted in a lot more of a kindly manner than men do. This may be drawn back to the point from this feminist concept that men see themselves as the ones who have the power and are inferior when it comes to explaining things. This goes along with the feminist view of the standpoint theory because feminist feel that women are seen as less powerful than men just because they are female and that if something needs to be explained correctly that men are the ones who take control and they explain it even when they are not really experts in that subject. On the other hand, others view this concept as problematic and stereotypical towards males as it makes all men seem like they are constantly trying to take control and that they seem like they know more than women do. One author explains that the term isn't fair to explain men who highly support gender equality and this concept can also be seen as gender inequality.
Strong objectivity and the relation to feminist standpoint
The notion of strong objectivity was first articulated by feminist philosopher Sandra Harding. Strong objectivity builds on the insights of feminist standpoint theory, which argues for the importance of starting from the experiences of those who have been traditionally left out of the production of knowledge. By starting inquiry from the lived experiences of women and others who have been traditionally outside of the institutions in which knowledge about social life is generated and classified, more objective and more relevant knowledge can be produced. Naples also stated that Harding argued that knowledge produced from the point of view of subordinated groups may offer stronger objectivity due to the increased motivation for them to understand the views or perspectives of those in positions of power. A scholar who approaches the research process from the point of view of strong objectivity is interested in producing knowledge for use as well as for revealing the relations of power that are hidden in traditional knowledge production processes. Strong objectivity acknowledges that the production of power is a political process and that greater attention paid to the context and social location of knowledge producers will contribute to a more ethical and transparent result.
Joseph Rouse says, "The first lesson suggested by standpoint theories has not been sufficiently emphasized in the literature. Standpoint theories remind us why a naturalistic conception of knowing is so important. Knowledge claims and their justification are part of the world we seek to understand. They arise in specific circumstances and have real consequences. They are not merely representations in an idealized logical space, but events within a causal nexus. It matters politically as well as epistemically which concepts are intelligible, which claims are heard and understood by whom, which features of the world are perceptually salient, and which reasons are understood to be relevant and forceful, as well as which conclusions credible."
Black feminist
Black feminist thought is a collection of ideas, writings, and art that articulates a standpoint of and for black women of the African Diaspora. Black feminist thought describes black women as a unique group that exists in a "place" in US social relations where intersectional processes of race, ethnicity, gender, class, and sexual orientation shape black women's individual and collective consciousness, self-definitions, and actions. As a standpoint theory, black feminist thought conceptualizes identities as organic, fluid, interdependent, multiple, and dynamic socially constructed "locations" within historical context. Black feminist thought is grounded in black women's historical experience with enslavement, anti-lynching movements, segregation, Civil Rights and Black Power movements, sexual politics, capitalism, and patriarchy. Distinctive tenets of contemporary black feminist thought include: (1) the belief that self-authorship and the legitimatization of partial, subjugated knowledge represents a unique and diverse standpoint of and by black women; (2) black women's experiences with multiple oppressions result in needs, expectations, ideologies, and problems that are different from those of black men and white women; and (3) black feminist consciousness is an ever-evolving concept. Black feminist thought demonstrates Black women's emerging power as agents of knowledge. By portraying African-American women as self-defined, self-reliant individuals confronting race, gender, and class oppression, Afrocentric feminist thought speaks to the importance that knowledge plays in empowering oppressed people. One distinguishing feature of Black feminist thought is its insistence that both the changed consciousness of individuals and the social transformation of political and economic institutions constitute essential ingredients for social change. New knowledge is important for both dimensions to change.
Tina Campt uses standpoint theory to examine the narrative of the Afro-German Hans Hauck in her book Other Germans.
First introduced by Patricia Hill Collins, Black feminist standpoint is known to be a collective wisdom of those who have similar perspectives from subordinate groups of society. Collins offers two main interpretations of the consciousness of oppressed groups.
- The first claims that those who are being oppressed identify with the dominate groups and therefore have no effective self-governing interpretation of their own oppression.
- The second approach assumes that the subordinate are 'less human' than those above them making them less capable of understanding and speaking of their own experiences. While Black women may have common experiences, this does not suggest, however, all Black women have developed the same thought as one another.
Black feminist standpoint theory aims to bring awareness to these marginalized groups and offer ways to improve their position in society.
Though similar in some ways, Black feminist standpoint has many differences compared to the original theories of Dorothy Smith and Nancy Hartsock about standpoint theory. Black feminist standpoint argues that the knowledge gained about an individual or other groups in society is gained from multiple factors related to their historical position in society. Black women offer an alternative position that reveals a representation of others from a different perspective. Feminist standpoint theory aims to acknowledge the diversity of women by welcoming the views of other oppressed groups of women.
Unlike those in the privileged social groups, Black women have access to knowledge about everyone from the most oppressed to the most privileged. This is due to the fact that certain realities of oppression are invisible to those who are in the dominant groups because they do not experience the same as the oppressed or are even aware of how their actions may affect the subordinate group all together. Black women, on the other hand, have a better perspective on different standpoints from direct experience and can offer their suggestions to help the more marginalized groups of our society. This standpoint that Black women have can also be seen as "bifurcated consciousness", which is the ability to see things both from the perspective of the dominant and from the perspective of the oppressed and, therefore, to comparatively evaluate both perspectives.
Not all women, however, have exactly the same experiences. Because of this, there is no singular standpoint of all women. This led to the development of Black feminist epistemology. Patricia Hill Collins first introduced the idea of Black feminist epistemology saying that it derives from the personal experience of Black women dealing with both racism and sexism. She uses this epistemology to empower Black women to hold their own control. She describes them as "outsiders within". By this she means that Black women have experienced enough from the inside to understand where they lie socially while also having enough distance from the dominant groups to offer critique.
Heidi Mirza also offers an analysis of black feminist standpoint saying that from their perspective, new dialogues are formed. She recognizes that Black women are sometimes known as the "other" and offers her term saying they have a status as a 'third space' between the margins of race, gender, and class. She suggests that in this space, there is "no official language and discourse. Because of this, Black women are put in the position of 'active agents' and are responsible to share their perspective and offer new insights."
It was not until the latter part of the 1990s that there was more of a focus on Black women. Numbers of both films and published works of Black women began to emerge. This marked an important transition from years past when the only works to be published or put on screen were those of more dominant groups. The only works of Black women that are recognized previous to this time are those from the early part of the nineteenth century. The works of Mary Prince (1831) and Mary Seacole (1837) are the more commonly known writings today. Aside from those few, the next notable published work was not until Sylvia Wynter (1962) and Maryse Condé (1988), leaving a gap of over 120 years of little to no work of Black women. This gap shows how powerless Black women were in a market position. Although we see more and more work of Black women in our society today, there still remains a lack of control and limited input over their works; it must be confined to certain areas in order for them to have any opportunity and publication.
Criticisms
Critics argue that standpoint theory, despite challenging essentialism, relies itself on essentialism, as it focuses on the dualism of subjectivity and objectivity. In regards to feminist standpoint theory: though it does dispel many false generalizations of women, it is argued that focus on social groups and social classes of women is still inherently essentialist. Generalizations across the entire female gender can be broken into smaller more specific groups pertaining to women's different social classes and cultures, but are still generalized as distinct groups, and thus marginalization still occurs. West and Turner stated that an author by the name of Catherine O'Leary (1997) argued that although standpoint theory has been helpful in reclaiming women's experiences as suitable research topics, it contains a problematic emphasis on the universality of this experience, at the expense of differences among women's experiences.
Another main criticism of Harding and Wood's standpoint theory is the credibility of strong objectivity vs. subjectivity. Standpoint theorists argue that standpoints are relative and cannot be evaluated by any absolute criteria, but make the assumption that the oppressed are less biased or more impartial than the privileged. This leaves open the possibility of an overbalance of power, in which the oppressed group intentionally or unintentionally becomes the oppressor. Intentional overbalance of power, or revenge, can manifest as justification for extremism and militarism, which can sometimes be seen in more extreme forms of feminism.
While the beginnings of standpoint theory are based on the critical paradigm from a Marxist view of social class oppression, a feminist philosophy developed in the 1970s and 1980s and the main focus has been on the feministic side. Other groups, as of now, need to be included into the theory and a new emphasis needs to be made toward other marginalized or muted groups. These groups envelop minorities, culturally different and the disabled or those that have a disability. When Harding and Wood conceived Standpoint theory they did not understand, when they defined it as a feministic view, that there are different cultures existing in the same social group. Many researchers are unsure of the idea of it having essentialism, as essentialism refers to the practice of generalizing all groups as though they were, in essence, the same." Early standpoint theorists sought to understand the way in which the gendered identity of knowers affected their epistemic resources and capacities" (Wylie, p. 48). These other muted or marginalized groups have a more realistic approach to standpoint theory as they have different experiences than those that are in power and even within those muted groups differences defined by different cultures of people can have an altered standpoint. This view gives a basis that in part Standpoint Theory has a central principle of the inversion thesis and Joshua St. Pierre defined this as "the inversion thesis gives epistemic authority to those marginalized by systems of oppression insofar as these people are often better knowers than those who benefit from oppression. Put simply: social dispossession produces epistemic privilege."
Part of standpoint theory's return to favor comes from a re-articulation of its methodology, aims, and limitations that directly answer the criticisms mentioned above.
Wylie has perhaps provided the most succinct articulation of second-wave standpoint theory. For her, a standpoint does not mark out a clearly defined territory such as "women" within which members have automatic privilege but is a rather a posture of epistemic engagement. Responding to the claim that the situated knowledge thesis reifies essentialism, Wylie thus argues that it is "an open (empirical) question whether such structures obtain in a given context, what form they take, and how they are internalized or embodied by individuals" (Wylie, p. 62). Identities are complex and cannot be reduced to simple binaries. Likewise, she argues that the criticism of automatic privilege is falters insofar as a standpoint is never given, but is achieved. (St. Pierre)
See also
- Standpoint feminism
- Spiral of silence
- Muted group theory
- Groupthink
- Co-cultural communication theory
- Critical race theory
- Cultural studies
References
Literature
- Ryan, Michael. "Standpoint Theory." Encyclopedia of Social Theory. Ed. George Ritzer. Vol. 2. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Reference, 2005. 789. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 12 November 2012.
- Rouse, Joseph (November 2009). "Standpoint Theories Reconsidered". Hypatia. 24 (4): 200-209. doi:10.1111/j.1527-2001.2009.01068.x.
- Harnois, Catherine E. (March 2010). "Race, Gender, and the Black Women's Standpoint". Sociological Forum. 25 (1): 68-85. doi:10.1111/j.1573-7861.2009.01157.x.
- Rolin, Kristina (November 2009). "Standpoint Theory as a Methodology for the Study of Power Relations". Hypatia. 24 (4): 218-226. doi:10.1111/j.1527-2001.2009.01070.x.
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