Symbolic Worlds Response

 From the article:

As people engage in the activities associated with a figured world and become familiar with it and learn its meanings, they become attuned to actions relevant to the world and to people and types of people that have meaning in it.

 

People invest themselves in particular figured worlds and learn to be, in the eyes of self and others, a particular sort of actor in that world, such as… One’s actions in the world are informed by the desire to perform or validate such claims to identity.

 

These are both true. As continued from the previous discussions on Local Matters, people tend to become more “like others”. More than that, they need to “think like others” in order to survive in this society! Or whatever society there is. This again I think could be traced back to ancient times. Consider a really traditional and conservative environment, like in ancient China, if you don’t conform and you don’t play your “role” in the society as pre-determined, you will be prosecuted. And it would be death penalty. Most of the times. And actually, it's not just one country; it happens in every society in ancient times. I guess that is just the same for most places, especially when certain rules need to be followed in order to maintain society’s current common values. In North America, being outgoing and innovative is good. In Asian countries, being considerate of other’s feelings (which leads to conformity within a group) is valued. Nothing necessarily has to be wrong. All values, and identities, to my opinion, serves a purpose in society. However, the excess of that and the bad side of that sometimes hurt us as individuals. 

Back to the topic of the article, people invest themselves in a particular figured world and learn to be like that. That basically summarizes all the endeavors we have made to construct our own identity and our own path in the world. We behave a certain way in order to get something, be it fame or fortune, or recognition, or even just acceptance from peers.

As in the article, “As we develop maturity in society’s activity systems, we individuals begin to experience our own behavior as signs of who we are. We become objects of our own gaze and experience our own behavior – and by association ourselves – in relation to the meanings of the group and so liable to receive admiration and respect, or disapproval and condemnation, according to the values practiced by the group.”

“Identity formation provides a basis for agency in two senses: self-control and the ability to coordinate effectively with others.”

We learn our identities through our interactions with others and it helps us to coordinate better with others. That is why we need to “fit in” to the group, to conform to their feelings and sentiments, and sensibilities. Sometimes, we don’t even recognize ourselves as what we were five years before.  The environment requires us to change dramatically to fit in the group. This could be painful. I do have personal experience about that, being a teenager when I moved here to Canada. But that is just one thing that shows how this process is so true. The differences between the opinions and sensibilities of people in the two countries create conflicts in anyone's mind. It makes me think of the world "projection" as well as "reinforcement". People think about things and they project this thinking or value to other people. They also make sure that you conform, or you will face punishments from social exclusion to death penalty. I suggest that it is the reason that we learned to have identity formation and a role in this figured world in the first place. To survive within groups that are already living in the figured worlds. 

I think as teachers we just need to make sure that we don't project those negative values or bad "figurative worlds" onto our potential students in the future. (Like what happened in local matters).  I think that is the key.