Poaching and Questions

Massumi discusses this idea of poaching concepts from the sciences and applying them to the humanities in a really interesting way.  First, as I've mentioned in another post on the class blog, he advocates for working through examples, surprising yourself, practicing inattention, being okay with stupidity, connecting concepts, being inventive and exploratory (18-19).  I'm on board with all of this.  Sounds fun, actually, which I think is part of his goal.

Then, he gets into the poaching in a more detailed way, explaining that the point isn't just to apply the results of sciences to the humanities (19).  No, the point is to take a concept and the baggage that comes with it (like its connection to other concepts) and create a new system of concepts (20).   Massumi reminds me that I can't just take a single, isolated concept from another field and apply it--it comes with baggage and connections to other concepts.  Then, Massumi writes:

The optimal situation would be to take a scientific concept and use it in such a way that it ceases to be systematically scientific but doesn't end up tamed, a metaphorical exhibit in someone else's menagerie....A concept is by nature connectble to other concepts.  A concept is defined less by its semantic content than by the regularities of connection that have been established between it and other concepts....When you uproot a concept from its network of systemic connections with other concepts, you still have its connectibility. (20)

I think I want to do this for my final project.  The concept will likely come from Institutional Psychology, and I'll bring it, along with its connections, into Rhet/Comp to find ways to improve labor conditions in our field. As Massumi writes, "The point is to borrow from science in order to make a difference in the humanities" (21).  This is really what I want to do--make a difference in the humanities!

So, here's my current draft-y question to work on this semester:

What can institutional psychology offer to help change labor conditions in the field of Rhetoric and Composition?

Yes, still broad, but it's getting somewhere!  I need to do some reading on Institutional Psychology. Does anyone have a suggestion for where to start?