Andrew Metcalfe | The University of New South Wales (original) (raw)

Papers by Andrew Metcalfe

This article examines the different theories of meeting offered

European Journal of Cultural Studies - EUR J CULT STUD, 2008

This article examines the different theories of meeting offered by Durkheim, Mauss, Sartre, Lévi-... more This article examines the different theories of meeting offered by Durkheim, Mauss, Sartre, Lévi-Strauss, Bohm, Levinas and Buber. Through this examination we question the common assumption that social life, and more particularly the gift, is based on exchange — on the sequence of giving, receiving and reciprocating — which is fundamentally a Hegelian logic of subjects and objects. While many aspects of social life take this form, true meeting is characterized by a quality of grace; it occurs only when the Hegelian world gives way to a presence that has a different temporality, spatiality and ontology. This world is glimpsed, but inadequately conceptualized, in Durkheim s theory of religious congregation, which is characterized by a tension between identity and relational logics.

Important issues are obscured if people assume that describing sociology as a vocation is talking... more Important issues are obscured if people assume that describing sociology as a vocation is talking of it as a career. Drawing on Max Weber and Martin Buber, I argue that a vocation only exists when there is a shift in the space, time and ontology of ordinary purposive life. When manifesting a vocation, the sociolo-gist is not an acting subject but part of an unfolding presence. Understood vocationally, then, sociology should not be taught as an object with which students are to identify; it must be taught through ascetic practices that sus-pend the student sociologist’s subjectivity and allow them to find their poten-tial through their relation with an other that is different but not outside. The emphasis should be not on the student’s comprehension of sociological con-tent but on the ethics of their encounter; the discipline of vocational sociology is not based on the desire of subjectification but on love.

The last twenty years have seen an increasing emphasis on the role of the subject both in sociolo... more The last twenty years have seen an increasing emphasis on the role of the subject both in sociological theory and in methodological guides on the unstructured qualitative research interview. I will argue that this emphasis on subjects is misplaced and cannot lead to a clear understanding of social relations or sociological interviewing. To make this argument I will look at what could be taken as the basic social relation in social research: the qualitative interview between sociologist and research participant. I will argue that major methodological problems arise when interviewees are addressed as identified subjects and when interviews are understood as exchanges between subjects. I will also argue that sociologists who presume subjectivity in this way are not clear about the methodology of interviews because they are not clear about the basic logic of social relation. As well as trying to clarify this logic, I will also try to draw out some of the practical implications of a genu...

Labour History, 1993

... 'practically nomads', and miners following the labour market from Newcastle ... Doc... more ... 'practically nomads', and miners following the labour market from Newcastle ... Docherty is eager to shuffle Aborigines off Newcastle's stage quickly because in his genesis myth the role of the primitive, the nomad, the autochthonous has been reserved for the working class men ...

Http Dx Doi Org 10 1080 19349630903495533, Jan 28, 2010

ABSTRACT This article is based on the ethnography of a drop‐in center for the destitute. Making a... more ABSTRACT This article is based on the ethnography of a drop‐in center for the destitute. Making a distinction between curing and healing, we argue that this center heals through its hospitality; its open acceptance of mutual woundedness. Rather than being the problem to be cured, woundedness heals the fantasies of perfection that alienate us from each other and from our whole being. Hospitality brings people together in the wholeness of community, and thereby allows the wholeness of being.

Aust Feminist Stud, 1987

... of the miners' union have ignored the structural gender divisions which unions intro... more ... of the miners' union have ignored the structural gender divisions which unions introduced to class relations in coal mining communities, and the significance of these divisions has, perhaps, not been sufficiently developed by historians, including Mitchell, Salt and Trickett,32 ...

Http Dx Doi Org 10 1080 10350330802469987, Mar 19, 2009

Emotion, Space and Society, 2011

Bachelard’s concept of lived space makes a significant contribution to an understanding of the co... more Bachelard’s concept of lived space makes a significant contribution to an understanding of the connections between emotion and space. We argue that it provides a relational alternative to the common understanding of space as Euclidean, as an empty, inert distance that gains life only through the projections of human subjects. Bachelard gives primacy to a living space that is simultaneously inside

The Routledge International Handbook of Teacher and School Development, 2006

The American journal of sports medicine, Jan 20, 2016

The anatomy of the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) has become the subject of much debate. There ... more The anatomy of the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) has become the subject of much debate. There has been extensive study into attachment points of the native ligament, especially regarding the femoral attachment. Some of these studies have suggested that fibers in the ACL are of differing functional importance. Fibers with higher functional importance would be expected to exert larger mechanical stress on the bone. According to Wolff's law, cortical thickening would be expected in these areas. To examine cortical thickening in the region of the ACL footprint (ie, the functional footprint of the ACL). Descriptive laboratory study. Using micro-computed tomography with resolutions ranging from 71 to 91 μm, the cortical thickness of the lateral wall of the intercondylar notch in 17 cadaveric knees was examined, along with surface topography. After image processing, the relationship between the cortical thickening and surface topology was visually compared. A pattern of cortical thi...

SpringerPlus, 2016

Total knee replacement has reliably been shown to have a beneficial effect in knee osteoarthritis... more Total knee replacement has reliably been shown to have a beneficial effect in knee osteoarthritis; however, around 17 % of patients are dissatisfied with the result. A commonly proposed mechanism driving the dissatisfaction rate is a discrepancy between expected and actual/perceived outcome. Our aim was to conduct a systematic review examining any association between pre-operative expectations and satisfaction. A comprehensive electronic search strategy was used to identify studies from MEDLINE, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Library from inception until May 2015. Data was extracted according to PRISMA guidelines and an online, published protocol. Four studies are included in this review. One study found an association between expectations and satisfaction. Different measures of expectation and satisfaction were used in all studies. To date, there is no consensus on how expectations or satisfaction should be measured, and a large number of studies that have the available information faile...

Canadian Review of Sociology/Revue canadienne de sociologie, 1999

Cultural Studies Review, Aug 27, 2013

Debates about ecological responsibility are interested in different forms of belonging. This arti... more Debates about ecological responsibility are interested in different forms of belonging. This article develops an understanding of a custodial form of belonging based on the logic of relation, as distinct from a proprietorial form of belonging based on the logic of identity. Theorists working on questions of belonging use a language of custodianship when describing a sense of responsibility and care that arises through connection or relation. We argue, however, that the full significance of custodial belonging cannot be appreciated when theorists derive their understanding of connection from within the terms of identity logic. In other words, when belonging is understood in terms of identity and identification, custodianship is inadvertently reduced to a proprietorial form of responsibility and care.

Http Dx Doi Org 10 1080 19349630903307191, Oct 1, 2009

ABSTRACT It is commonly assumed that the motives of caregivers influence the quality of care give... more ABSTRACT It is commonly assumed that the motives of caregivers influence the quality of care given. Many assume that good caring can only take place where the caregiver's motives are altruistic, where the giver has no desire for returns or rewards. Others argue that there are always subjective motives involved, that givers always receive something in return: apparently selfless motives mask the workings of ubiquitous exchange logic. While the focus on the motives of givers has an important place in social analysis, it involves unrecognized ontological assumptions that make it impossible to understand genuine care. Whereas the discussion of motives presumes that there is always an acting subject who gives the care to another subject, we will argue that there are forms of giving that involve no motives and no subjects. From this perspective, altruism is understood as arising from a gift relation which is ontologically distinct from an interaction or exchange. To develop an understanding of the gift of care, we will draw on a research project on the phenomenology of the gift, focusing on a case study of care for the destitute.

Australian Educational Researcher, Dec 1, 2006

Social relations are often seen as transactions between individuals. The dynamic teacher, accordi... more Social relations are often seen as transactions between individuals. The dynamic teacher, accordingly, is one who gives energy and knowledge to students. Because this understanding fails to appreciate the relational forces at work in the lively classroom, it produces unhealthy attitudes toward education. Teachers who try to live up to it will not only burn out, they will distort their students' educational development. The vitality of the classroom comes from an energy that is created between teachers and students; it is an energy in which both teachers and students share, but for which neither is individually responsible. The successful teacher must be able to receive if they are to be able to give. This argument is advanced using interviews with Australian teachers and students, all of whom were asked to describe the teachers who changed their lives.

ABSTRACT In this article we develop a relational understanding of sociality, that is, an account ... more ABSTRACT In this article we develop a relational understanding of sociality, that is, an account of social life that takes relation as primary. This stands in contrast to the common assumption that relations arise when subjects interact, an account that gives logical priority to separation. We will develop this relational understanding through a reading of the work of Martin Buber, a social philosopher primarily interested in dialogue, meeting, relationship, and the irreducibility and incomparability of reality. In particular, the article contrasts Buber’s work with that of poststructuralist theorists who take as their starting point the deconstruction of the Hegelian logic of binary oppositions. Deconstruction understands difference as the excess that undoes the binary, but Buber, we argue, shows how difference derives from the primacy and ontological undefinability of relation. Relational logic does not exclude the logic of separations and oppositions: relation is the primal ground that makes separations possible.

Studies in Philosophy and Education, Jan 31, 2008

... This fullness isn'ta oneness or satiation, but is an emptiness; it is a sense of acc... more ... This fullness isn'ta oneness or satiation, but is an emptiness; it is a sense of acceptance and connection, of gift and grace, that suspends the restless time of desire. ... As Murdoch implies, it involves the sacrifice or surrender of our narrow self-concerns: The Teacher's Vocation 469 ...