| Blog Post Published on: | 9th November 2022 |
| Title: | Definitions of the Values Expressed on CPC's Website |
| Lead Author: | Fred M. Beshears |
| Type of Blog Post: | cpc_governance |
First, here’s a short list of the areas of interest (i.e. values) identified on the Circle Pines Center website [1].
I. Peace
II. Environmental Stewardship
III. Social Justice
IV. Cooperation
Second, here’s a more detailed list of CPC values along with titles of the college and university studies programs that address these values.
I. Peace
College Program: Peace and Conflict Studies
II. Environmental Stewardship
College Program: Environmental Studies
III. Social Justice
College Programs in Social Justice Studies and Related Philosophies:
A. Postmodernism
B. Critical Theory
C. Postcolonial Theory
D. Queer Theory
E. Critical Race Theory and Intersectionality
F. Feminisms and Gender Studies
G. Disability and Fat Studies
H. Immigration Rights Studies
IV. Cooperation
The term, the movement, and related areas of study:
A. Cooperation (the definition of the word)
B. History of the cooperative movement
C. Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers
D. Co-operative Studies
E. Cooperative (the business enterprise)
Third, here’s a very detailed list of CPC values along with Wikipedia definition of the college and university studies programs that address these values.
I. Peace
Peace and Conflict Studies
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace_and_conflict_studies
Peace and conflict studies is a social science field that identifies and analyzes violent and nonviolent behaviours as well as the structural mechanisms attending conflicts (including social conflicts), with a view towards understanding those processes which lead to a more desirable human condition.[1] A variation on this, peace studies (irenology), is an interdisciplinary effort aiming at the prevention, de-escalation, and solution of conflicts by peaceful means, thereby seeking “victory” for all parties involved in the conflict.
This social science is in contrast to military studies, which has as its aim on the efficient attainment of victory in conflicts, primarily by violent means to the satisfaction of one or more, but not all, parties involved.
II. Environmental Stewardship
Environmental Studies
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_studies
Environmental studies is a multidisciplinary academic field which systematically studies human interaction with the environment. Environmental studies connects principles from the physical sciences, commerce/economics, the humanities,[1] and social sciences to address complex contemporary environmental issues. It is a broad field of study that includes the natural environment, the built environment, and the relationship between them. The field encompasses study in basic principles of ecology and environmental science, as well as associated subjects such as ethics, geography, anthropology, policy, politics, urban planning, law, economics, philosophy, sociology and social justice, planning, pollution control and natural resource management.[2] There are many Environmental Studies degree programs, including a Master’s degree and a Bachelor’s degree. Environmental Studies degree programs provide a wide range of skills and analytical tools needed to face the environmental issues of our world head on. Students in Environmental Studies gain the intellectual and methodological tools to understand and address the crucial environmental issues of our time and the impact of individuals, society, and the planet.
III. Social Justice
Social Justice Studies
A. Postmodernism
B. Critical Theory
C. Postcolonial Theory
D. Queer Theory
E. Critical Race Theory and Intersectionality
F. Feminisms and Gender Studies
G. Disability and Fat Studies
H. Immigration Rights Studies
A. Postmodernism
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postmodernism
Postmodernism is a broad movement that developed in the mid-to-late 20th century across philosophy, the arts, architecture, and criticism, marking a departure from modernism. The term has been more generally applied to describe a historical era said to follow after modernity and the tendencies of this era.
Postmodernism is generally defined by an attitude of skepticism, irony, or rejection toward what it describes as the grand narratives and ideologies associated with modernism, often criticizing Enlightenment rationality and focusing on the role of ideology in maintaining political or economic power. Postmodern thinkers frequently describe knowledge claims and value systems as contingent or socially-conditioned, framing them as products of political, historical, or cultural discourses and hierarchies. Common targets of postmodern criticism include universalist ideas of objective reality, morality, truth, human nature, reason, science, language, and social progress. Accordingly, postmodern thought is broadly characterized by tendencies to self-consciousness, self-referentiality, epistemological and moral relativism, pluralism, and irreverence.
B. Critical Theory
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_theory
Critical theory (also capitalized as Critical Theory)[1] is a Marxist approach to social philosophy that focuses on reflective assessment and critique of society and culture in order to reveal and challenge power structures. With origins in sociology and literary criticism, it argues that social problems are influenced and created more by societal structures and cultural assumptions than by individual and psychological factors. Maintaining that ideology is the principal obstacle to human liberation,[2] critical theory was established as a school of thought primarily by the Frankfurt School theoreticians Herbert Marcuse, Theodor Adorno, Walter Benjamin, Erich Fromm, and Max Horkheimer. Horkheimer described a theory as critical insofar as it seeks “to liberate human beings from the circumstances that enslave them.”[3]
In sociology and political philosophy, “Critical Theory” means the Western-Marxist philosophy of the Frankfurt School, developed in Germany in the 1930s and drawing on the ideas of Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud. Though a “critical theory” or a “critical social theory” may have similar elements of thought, capitalizing Critical Theory as if it were a proper noun stresses the intellectual lineage specific to the Frankfurt School.
C. Postcolonialism (Postcolonial Theory)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postcolonialism
Postcolonialism is the critical academic study of the cultural legacy of colonialism and imperialism, focusing on the human consequences of the control and exploitation of colonized people and their lands. More specifically, it is a critical theory analysis of the history, culture, literature, and discourse of (usually European) imperial power.
Postcolonialism encompasses a wide variety of approaches, and theoreticians may not always agree on a common set of definitions. On a simple level, through anthropological study, it may seek to build a better understanding of colonial life—based on the assumption that the colonial rulers are unreliable narrators—from the point of view of the colonized people. On a deeper level, postcolonialism examines the social and political power relationships that sustain colonialism and neocolonialism, including the social, political and cultural narratives surrounding the colonizer and the colonized. This approach may overlap with studies of contemporary history, and may also draw examples from anthropology, historiography, political science, philosophy, sociology, and human geography. Sub-disciplines of postcolonial studies examine the effects of colonial rule on the practice of feminism, anarchism, literature, and Christian thought.[1]
D. Queer Theory
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queer_theory
Queer theory is a field of critical theory that emerged in the early 1990s out of queer studies (often, formerly, gay and lesbian studies) and women’s studies.[1] The term can have various meanings depending upon its usage, but has broadly been associated with the study and theorisation of gender and sexual practices that exist outside of heterosexuality, and which challenge the notion that heterosexual desire is ‘normal’.[2] Following social constructivist developments in sociology, queer theorists are often critical of essentialist views of sexuality and gender. Instead, they study those concepts as social and cultural phenomena, often through an analysis of the categories, binaries, and languages in which they are portrayed.
E(1). Critical Race Theory
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_race_theory
Critical race theory (CRT) is an academic movement of civil rights scholars and activists in the United States who seek to critically examine the law as it intersects with issues of race and to challenge mainstream liberal approaches to racial justice.[1] Critical race theory examines social, cultural and legal issues as they relate to race and racism.[2][3]
Critical race theory originated in the mid-1970s in the writings of several American legal scholars, including Derrick Bell, Alan Freeman, Kimberlé Crenshaw, Richard Delgado, Cheryl Harris, Charles R. Lawrence III, Mari Matsuda, and Patricia J. Williams.[1] It emerged as a movement by the 1980s, reworking theories of critical legal studies (CLS) with more focus on race.[4] Both critical race theory and critical legal studies are rooted in critical theory, which argues that social problems are influenced and created more by societal structures and cultural assumptions than by individual and psychological factors.[5]
Critical race theory is loosely unified by two common themes: first, that white supremacy, with its societal or structural racism, exists and maintains power through the law;[6] and second, that transforming the relationship between law and racial power, and also achieving racial emancipation and anti-subordination more broadly, is possible.[7]
Critics of critical race theory argue that it relies on social constructionism, elevates storytelling over evidence and reason, rejects the concepts of truth and merit, and opposes liberalism
E(2). Intersectionality
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intersectionality
Intersectionality is an analytical framework for understanding how aspects of a person’s social and political identities combine to create different modes of discrimination and privilege. The term was conceptualized and coined by Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw. Intersectionality identifies multiple factors of advantage and disadvantage.[1] Examples of these factors include gender, caste, sex, race, class, sexuality, religion, disability, physical appearance,[2][3] and height.[4] These intersecting and overlapping social identities may be both empowering and oppressing.[5][6] For example, a black woman might face discrimination from a business that is not distinctly due to her race (because the business does not discriminate against black men) nor distinctly due to her gender (because the business does not discriminate against white women), but due to a combination of the two factors.
F(1) Feminisms
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feminism
Feminism is a range of social movements, political movements, and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes.[a][2][3][4][5] Feminism incorporates the position that societies prioritize the male point of view, and that women are treated unjustly within those societies.[6] Efforts to change that include fighting against gender stereotypes and establishing educational, professional, and interpersonal opportunities and outcomes for women that are equal to those for men.
Feminist movements have campaigned and continue to campaign for women’s rights, including the right to: vote, hold public office, work, earn equal pay, own property, receive education, enter contracts, have equal rights within marriage, and maternity leave. Feminists have also worked to ensure access to legal abortions and social integration, and to protect women and girls from rape, sexual harassment, and domestic violence.[7] Changes in female dress standards and acceptable physical activities for females have often been part of feminist movements.
F(2) Gender Studies
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_studies
Gender studies is an interdisciplinary academic field devoted to analysing gender identity and gendered representation. It includes women’s studies (concerning women, feminism, gender, and politics), men’s studies and queer studies.[1] Its rise to prominence, especially in Western universities after 1990, has been noted as a success of deconstructionism.[2] Sometimes, gender studies is offered together with study of sexuality. These disciplines study gender and sexuality in the fields of literature, linguistics, human geography, history, political science, archaeology, economics, sociology, psychology, anthropology, cinema, musicology, media studies,[3] human development, law, public health and medicine.[4] It also analyzes how race, ethnicity, location, class, nationality, and disability intersect with the categories of gender and sexuality.
G(1). Disability Studies
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disability_studies
Disability studies is an academic discipline that examines the meaning, nature, and consequences of disability. Initially, the field focused on the division between “impairment” and “disability”, where impairment was an impairment of an individual’s mind or body, while disability was considered a social construct.[1] This premise gave rise to two distinct models of disability: the social and medical models of disability. In 1999 the social model was universally accepted as the model preferred by the field.[2] However, in recent years, the division between the social and medical models has been challenged.[1][3] Additionally, there has been an increased focus on interdisciplinary research.[4] For example, recent investigations suggest using “cross-sectional markers of stratification”[5] may help provide new insights on the non-random distribution of risk factors capable of acerbating disablement processes.
G(2) Fat Studies
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fat_acceptance_movement#Fat_studies
There has also been an emerging body of academic studies with a fat activist agenda, called Fat Studies. Marilyn Wann argues that fat studies moved beyond being an individual endeavor to being a field of study with the 2004 conference Fat Attitudes: An Examination of an American Subculture and the Representation of the Female Body[7] The American Popular Culture Association regularly includes panels on the subject. In many colleges, student groups with a fat activist agenda have emerged, including Hampshire, Smith, and Antioch. Fat studies are now available as an interdisciplinary course of study at some colleges, taking a similar approach to other identity studies such as women’s studies, queer studies, and African American studies.[62] As of 2011, there were 2 Australian courses and 10 American courses that were primarily focussed on fat studies or health at every size, and numerous other courses that had some fat acceptance content.[63] Taylor & Francis publish an online Fat Studies journal.[64] The first national Fat Studies seminar was held at York in May 2008, leading to the 2009 publication Fat Studies in the UK, edited by Corinna Tomrley and Ann Kalosky Naylor.[65]
H. Immigration Rights Studies
Immigrant Rights Project (IRP)
https://law.utulsa.edu/legal-clinics/immigrant-rights-project/
The Immigrant Rights Project (IRP) is a one-semester, six-credit clinical education program in which law students represent non-citizens in immigration matters. Clients include persons seeking asylum in the United States as a result of persecution or fear of persecution in their home countries, as well as non-citizen victims of domestic violence and other crimes, unaccompanied non-citizen minors or other non-citizens subject to removal and immigration detention.
Representation may occur in adversarial administrative hearings before immigration judges; in non-adversarial agency interviews; in appeals to the Board of Immigration Appeals; or, as necessary, in appeals to the federal courts. This clinic is offered in both the fall and spring semesters.
The IRP provides a combination of practical legal experience, theory, intensive training and supervision not available in most traditional law school courses or legal jobs. The clinic also provides opportunities to engage in action, collaboration, reflection and service that are immensely rewarding and frequently inspiring. It is also a cross-cultural experience. Students learn a great deal about their client’s country and face the challenges and rewards of overcoming the barriers to understanding posed by differences of language and culture.
IV. Cooperation
A. Cooperation (the definition of the word)
B. History of the cooperative movement
C. Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers
D. Co-operative Studies
E. Cooperative (the business enterprise)
A. Cooperation
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooperation
Cooperation is the process of groups of organisms working or acting together for common, mutual, or some underlying benefit, as opposed to working in competition for selfish benefit.[1] Many animal and plant species cooperate both with other members of their own species and with members of other species (symbiosis or mutualism).
Humans cooperate for the same reasons as other animals: immediate benefit, genetic relatedness, and reciprocity, but also for particularly human reasons, such as honesty signaling (indirect reciprocity), cultural group selection, and for reasons having to do with cultural evolution.[1]
B. History of the cooperative movement
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_cooperative_movement
The history of the cooperative movement concerns the origins and history of cooperatives across the world. Although cooperative arrangements, such as mutual insurance, and principles of cooperation existed long before, the cooperative movement began with the application of cooperative principles to business organization.
C. Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rochdale_Society_of_Equitable_Pioneers
The Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers, founded in 1844, was an early consumer co-operative, and one of the first to pay a patronage dividend, forming the basis for the modern co-operative movement.[1] Although other co-operatives preceded them,[2] the Rochdale Pioneers’ co-operative became the prototype for societies in Great Britain. The Rochdale Pioneers are most famous for designing the Rochdale Principles, a set of principles of co-operation that provide the foundation for the principles on which co-ops around the world operate to this day. The model the Rochdale Pioneers used is a focus of study within co-operative economics.
D(1). Co-operative Studies
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Co-operative_studies
The purpose of co-operative education and co-operative studies, according to the ICA’s Statement on the Co-operative Identity, is that Co-operative societies “provide education and training for their members, elected representatives, managers, and employees so they can contribute effectively to the development of their co-operatives. They inform the general public – particularly young people and opinion leaders – about the nature and benefits of co-operation.”
In December 2011 a special edition of the Journal of Co-operative Studies was given over to the subject of co-operative learning. Edited by Maureen Breeze, the edition contains 14 articles written by theorists and practitioners of co-operative learning. Contributors include Alan Wilkins (Co-operative Learning: a contextual framework), Nigel Rayment (Co-operative Learning: values into practice), Wendy Jolliffe (Co-operative learning: making it work in the classroom) and Nick Matthews (Teaching About Co-operatives in a UK University Business School).[2]
D(2) Co-operative Economics
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Co-operative_economics
Co-operative economics is a field of economics that incorporates co-operative studies and political economy toward the study and management of co-operatives.
E. Cooperative
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooperative
A cooperative (also known as co-operative, co-op, or coop) is “an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social, and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly-owned enterprise”.[1] Cooperatives are democratically owned by their members, with each member having one vote in electing the board of directors. Cooperatives may include:
The CPC website makes mention of these four areas of interest, but as far as I know there is no a reference (or link) to an official “CPC Mission Statement” on the website.
Frankly, I don’t even know for sure if there actually is an official CPC mission statement that elaborates on these four areas of interest.
In any event, here’s the link to CPC’s website: https://www.circlepinescenter.org/