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Research Series: “Sometimes it Looks Fake”: Tools for Exploring Radical Aspirations for Social Change
Friday, April 5 , 12:00 pm – 1:15 pm CDT
The Sociology and Anthropology Department will be hosting its second research series talk of this semester. For this event, Dr. Aaron Pitluck, professor of sociology at Illinois State University, will be giving a research talk titled, “Sometimes it Looks Fake”: Tools for Exploring Radical Aspirations for Social Change.”
Consider three dilemmas.
Is recycling plastic containers a partial solution to consumption on a limited planet, or does it enable destructive consumerism? When airlines sell carbon offsets, is this a savvy market-based solution to airlines’ carbon emissions, or is it a ruse to feel good about air travel? Is Islamic banking and finance an alternative financial industry that avoids riba, or is it a façade to market conventional products to Muslims?
What these three cases have in common is a conflict between people’s potentially sincere aspirations for social change and their almost inescapable complicity in everyday consumption.
To address dilemmas such as these, we’ll go on an intellectual voyage that begins in Malaysia with Islamic scholars using the theological concept of hiyal to interpret Islamic finance, and ending with four secular social science concepts that you can use in your life and your research: contrivances, conspiracies, cons and stratagems.
This lecture is open to the public. This lecture will also be accessible via Zoom ID: 995 9654 2466. An ISU account is not necessary.
(309) 438-8668
SociologyAnthropology@IllinoisState.edu
