The offence of theory

By M. MacLure. The Education Assemblage, 2010

177 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Theory frequently offends. The paper argues that this is its strength: the value of theory lies in its power to get in the way. Theory is needed to block the reproduction of banality, and thereby, hopefully, open new possibilities for thinking and doing. However, I also note that theory has become somewhat disengaged from its objects, diminishing its power of productive interference. I argue for ‘exemplary’ practices, in which theory proliferates from examples. Caught in the minutiae of the example, yet also open to unexpected connections, theory might develop more productive ways of offending. Or to put it differently, of producing wonder.

Subfields: Law, Political Science and International Relations, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/560bfe248fecfc93e151d6bb1bb48df107cf22ff

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In Sociology and Political Science

1. Vaughan Prain
2. Russell Tytler

Citations in the corpus

• Drawing to reason and learn in science (2020, background): “Rather, we followed Massumi (2002) and MacLure (2010) in considering these examples as yielding rich insights into contexts where drawing appeared to support or be superfluous to learning.”