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garberdog's review against another edition
5.0
I read this book based on a recommendation from a professor who I deeply respect, and I was not disappointed. To be sure, Chela Sandoval can be a difficult (I hesitate to say "dense" because that makes density sound like a bad thing) writer. Nonetheless, I was enchanted by this book.
In The Methodology of the Oppressed, Sandoval lays out the theory and practice of the "methodology of the oppressed." This is a set of technologies and practices, guided by a "differential consciousness" and embodied in "differential social movement," and which is guided by a commitment to egalitarian social change to become a "hermeneutics of love in the postmodern world." To put it in the simplest terms I can: the methodology of the oppressed is a unique theoretical contribution developed throughout multiple forms of oppositional social movement in the late twentieth century. These movements included the third world decolonization movements of the '50s and '60s, the cultural nationalist movements of the '60s and '70s, and -crucially- U.S. Third World Feminism in the '60s, '70s, and '80s. I say crucially because it is only in and through its encounter with U.S. Third World Feminism that the methodology of the oppressed begins to fully take shape and become developed into the comprehensive theory and practice put forth by Sandoval in this book. The methodology of the oppressed consists of five key technologies: semiotics (sign-reading), deconstruction (the critical interrogation and critique of ideology), meta-ideologizing (using ideology for other purposes, one example given was "strategic essentialism"), democratics (the moral commitment to egalitarian social change), and differential consciousness (the ability to move strategically throughout and outside of ideology). These technologies are deployed in and through the differential form of oppositional social movement. This form of differential social movement is a tactical engagement with the four other modes of social movement that Sandoval identifies: equal-rights, revolutionary, supremacist, and separatist. Rather that trying to assert itself alongside these other modes, differential social movement is described by Sandoval like the gear-shift in a car. This is to say that through differential social movement, all other forms of oppositional social movement become tactics towards egalitarian social change,. No one strategy is always already favored over the others, but neither is their application haphazard. Differential social movement, guided by differential consciousness and the methodology of the oppressed, is able to strategically maneuver and transform itself in order to best challenge dominant power relations and ideologies.
The methodology of the oppressed was developed by multiple groups of subjugated peoples in opposition across time and space, but was most fully developed by US Third World Feminists in the 1960s-1980s. Sandoval believes that because of the cultural conditions brought about by neocolonizing postmodernism, all citizen-subjects can now benefit from learning and deploying the methodology or the oppressed to bring out a more just and egalitarian social order.
I will definitely have to re-read this book to understand it in its entirety. This is a powerful text, and an inspiring call-to-action for social activists of all stripes. I found the Chapter 7 and the conclusion to be extremely clarifying, so if you get bogged down midway, I can reassure you that it is most certainly worth it to keep going.
In The Methodology of the Oppressed, Sandoval lays out the theory and practice of the "methodology of the oppressed." This is a set of technologies and practices, guided by a "differential consciousness" and embodied in "differential social movement," and which is guided by a commitment to egalitarian social change to become a "hermeneutics of love in the postmodern world." To put it in the simplest terms I can: the methodology of the oppressed is a unique theoretical contribution developed throughout multiple forms of oppositional social movement in the late twentieth century. These movements included the third world decolonization movements of the '50s and '60s, the cultural nationalist movements of the '60s and '70s, and -crucially- U.S. Third World Feminism in the '60s, '70s, and '80s. I say crucially because it is only in and through its encounter with U.S. Third World Feminism that the methodology of the oppressed begins to fully take shape and become developed into the comprehensive theory and practice put forth by Sandoval in this book. The methodology of the oppressed consists of five key technologies: semiotics (sign-reading), deconstruction (the critical interrogation and critique of ideology), meta-ideologizing (using ideology for other purposes, one example given was "strategic essentialism"), democratics (the moral commitment to egalitarian social change), and differential consciousness (the ability to move strategically throughout and outside of ideology). These technologies are deployed in and through the differential form of oppositional social movement. This form of differential social movement is a tactical engagement with the four other modes of social movement that Sandoval identifies: equal-rights, revolutionary, supremacist, and separatist. Rather that trying to assert itself alongside these other modes, differential social movement is described by Sandoval like the gear-shift in a car. This is to say that through differential social movement, all other forms of oppositional social movement become tactics towards egalitarian social change,. No one strategy is always already favored over the others, but neither is their application haphazard. Differential social movement, guided by differential consciousness and the methodology of the oppressed, is able to strategically maneuver and transform itself in order to best challenge dominant power relations and ideologies.
The methodology of the oppressed was developed by multiple groups of subjugated peoples in opposition across time and space, but was most fully developed by US Third World Feminists in the 1960s-1980s. Sandoval believes that because of the cultural conditions brought about by neocolonizing postmodernism, all citizen-subjects can now benefit from learning and deploying the methodology or the oppressed to bring out a more just and egalitarian social order.
I will definitely have to re-read this book to understand it in its entirety. This is a powerful text, and an inspiring call-to-action for social activists of all stripes. I found the Chapter 7 and the conclusion to be extremely clarifying, so if you get bogged down midway, I can reassure you that it is most certainly worth it to keep going.
jherane's review
4.0
I haven't read an academic book in a while and this managed to be very dense without being overbearing. I read this over a weekend and really enjoyed it. Once it clicks and you get deep in the theories you never want to put this book down.
I would not recommend this book to someone who doesn't like theories.
I would not recommend this book to someone who doesn't like theories.
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