DEVC 101 READINGS
and continually revaluates the discipline. This
FIRST READING:
What is theory
I. Theory is Caring to Ask Questions
 Having one’s own presuppositions about the
“how” and “why” of things
 Problematizing- asking questions and
attempting to answer them; act of
interrogating the stories and our experience of
them and not take them for granted.
 Doing theory helps development of self-
awareness about the tentativeness and
contingencies of one’s own ideas.
 It is about caring to ask and attempting to
understand. These are two important
dispositions for doing theory.
II. Theory is a set of hunches
 Theory- set of systematic hunches about the
way things operate (Borgoon). It is a group of
ideas that together seeks to provide an
explanation about a phenomenon. It is
speaking of interrelated questions.
 - It is fundamentally cross-disciplinary and
historical.
 [Jonathan Culler]: not the theory of anything in
particular, nor a comprehensive theory of
things in general
 Hardly anything in this world is completely
understood, and so the need to speculate is
always necessary, if not desirable.
 Interrelated questions- systematically related
that flesh out a pattern, and a big picture.
 Do Theory- show how parts function and make
sense of the whole, how presuppositions and
assumptions and premises make up for an
argument.
 Characteristics of hunches: founded, grounded,
informed.
III. Theory is linked with Criticism &
Scholarship
 The collection and operationalization of
theories about a certain subject matter
constitute a field of study and discipline.
 Research- reading existing literature that have
dealt with the same questions, gathering data
and materials and organizing them, and
analyzing, comparing, and evaluating these
data and materials in conjunction with the
“theoretical” questions.
 A continued engagement with theory develops
means that neither theory nor the field of
study is static.
 TWO FUNDAMENTAL ACTIVITIES:
a. Criticism- evaluation of theories and
research materials; the explication or
deployment of theory by application
b. Scholarship= specialization in a field of study;
the application of specific theory-based
methodologies to research
IV. Theory is a mode of thinking that is
historical, cross-disciplinary, and self-
reflective
 The scholar has to decide what kind of
methodology is to be employed to be able to
answer questions, since fields of studies tend
to overlap.
 Self-reflexive thinking- we begin to rethink
what we have been trying to analyze.
 Critical Theory- seeks to answer questions
about being, knowing, and meaning, which are
interrelated, regardless of discipline.
 The mundane and the everyday are not as
inconsequential as they seem.
 Being (what it means to be human); knowing
(what anybody can possibly know about
anything); structures and strictures of
meaning (how language, culture and various
modes of mediation configure and limit
meaning) & struggle (the politics and contest
for the identity, agency, and liberty of human
beings)
V. Theory is inseparable from “Praxis”
 Since theory cannot be mastered, you must
always leave yourself in a position where there
are always important things you don’t know.
 Doing theory seeks to understand this complex
web, challenging the sets of conventions and
practices that oppress or alienate people, and
engaging systems in the attempt to express
authentic values.
 Praxis- politically conscious action.