Some words ... they come more easily than others

I'm rather caught by these ideas of 'imagination' the sociological imagination - social scientific imagination - literary imagination - professional imagination. It allows a connection between academic writing and creativity. 


I agree with the idea of all writing  - including academic writing - as story telling and that a fluent well written text is seductive; that is, it disarms the reader and part of its truth criterion is based not on the value of the argument but the emotional engagement it seems to draw from the reader. 


And so the 'professional imagination' Power 2008: 144 enables us as workers to create a space between an over-individualised self and an over-determined self. I don't want to be a dupe and am not always, everyday brave enough to be a hero. 


Besides, my experienced is embodied; it happens to and in my body. But sometimes my experience is merely the mechanism through which wider social and political structures are able to articulate themselves. there is determination, obduracy. Yet, I have the capacity to react differently to these system structure's and forces: to accept my fate, to hit my head repeatedly against a brick wall.  Or to adopt a more imagination response. 


Ok  - these blogs need a structures. I suspect the format of a quote and a discussion will do. 


Much of everyday life used to be based on a high degree of trust between people, but now trust is less personalised, and more invested in processes and abstract systems. 


The result of this is a challenge to the taken-for-grantedness of everyday life; a threat to the 'ontological security' of the self. Giddens, 1991


It threatens the ontological-security of the self in other ways. There is a 'game playing' balance between a warts and all presentation of self - one that creates the impression of accurate analysis and sound judgement while at the same time presenting the best possible image of who you are and what you are doing. The anaesthetised self. 


But these are not new ideas for me. Just a new forum for writing. New ways of expressing what I want to say. Or at least a new forum for saying it. 


The mere fact of trust being invested in processes and abstract systems suggest a distinct lack of trust n individuals. It is a reminder that the individual can not or should not be trusted. With immense psychological strength a person may refuse to take this personally. But in the same way we can only experience the world 'as a person' in the world. So the mistrust of the professional is happening to me and not to me at the same time. This requires perhaps a sense of self disassociation.  


Anyway enough blabbing. 


August is coming.