Karmic Capital.pptx
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Dr Lami Perera is the founder of Karmic Capitalism. His research interests are information practices and their outcomes. This presentation was held in 2020. This study used an ethnographic approach to explore the information practices of members of a religious organisation, the globalised Mahamevnawa Buddhist Temple. It was informed by an information practices theoretical perspective, complementing theoretical and practical work from Schatzki, Bourdieu, Lloyd and Olsson, and Gherardi, with work from a variety of disciplines, including Castells’ work on networked society, Sassen’s work on globalised organisations and Sack’s work on space and place. The study’s concern is with three aspects of this approach: what are the practices of monks and devotees of the Temple, what are the outcomes of these practices and how do monks and devotees understand the notion of the Temple. In this insider study, data was gathered from participant observation, interviews with both monks and devotees and email follow-ups, and analysis of the online presence of the temple through its website and other social media sites. The findings show that participants’ information practices lead to a range of outcomes, expressed in terms of the Bourdieusian notion of capital, with karmic capital emerging as a very important outcome of these practices. They also show how participants think the Temple exists not just in space but also in time, through temporary place. A key contribution of this study, situated in the context of the non-Western context of the Sri Lankan Buddhist diaspora, is its challenges to Western assumptions about information practices and their outcomes. lamiperera@yahoo.com.au You can site his dessertation https://opus.lib.uts.edu.au/handle/10453/15978
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Karmic Capital.pptx
- 1. Karmic Capitalism Lami Perera (2020 April)
- 2. Practices and the creating of capitals Lami Perera (Doctoral Scholar 11343391), 2020 April What we could understand about the capitals/ what people do? 1. What capital is (Bourdieu) ? 1. Forms of capitals - Bourdieu, Castells, Sassen, Lloyd
- 3. Karmic capital Systematic Approach • Neveu gives a provisional definition of capital “A collection of goods and skills, of knowledge and acknowledgements, belonging to an individual or a group that he or she can mobilize to develop influence, gain power, or bargain other elements of this collection”. • There are four corollaries: capital must have value or power, but how that power or value increases depends on the context. A capital can be converted into other capitals. And, importantly, “A sociology of capitals must question the work needed for their appropriation or embodiment”. In other words, from a sociological perspective, it is important to consider how a capital is “performed”. Lami Perera (Doctoral Scholar 11343391), 2020 April
- 4. Karmic capital – Continue • Indicators of Karmic capital First, set out what are the goods and skills, of knowledge and acknowledgements, belonging to an individual or a group; then cons insider how this capital enables to have influence or gain power • Goods - Scripture books, Alms, CD's, Magazines, Statues, buildings etc • Skills - Translation skill, Chanting, Meditations, ability to use ICTs, ability to live across cultures • Knowledge and acknowledgments - enlightened one – Arahant, Guru, graduate education, professional knowledge, Training as monks, Sri Lankan Buddhist culture • Enables to have influence or gain power • Has Objectified, Institutionalised and symbolised Lami Perera (Doctoral Scholar 11343391), 2020 April
- 5. Effects on Power, Infrastructure and Identity • Overlapping informational and institutional networks causing the devotees and monks experience power relationships through multi-layered social relationships Lami Perera (Doctoral Scholar 11343391), 2020 April
Editor's Notes
- Further work will demonstrate how use of this frame can shed light on the relationships between the spiritual, and informational and economic capital, as well as secular social practices. the interactions of those engaged in this social setting lead not only to spiritual capital as might be expected from a religious setting, but also to economic capital and informational capital. Within this setting, exercises of power can also be determined. Gherardi pointed out the importance of knowledge in sustaining complex social relationships: “To know is to be capable of participating with the requisite knowledge competence in the complex web of relationship among people material artifacts and activities” (Gherardi 2008, p. 517) Few studies have attempted to untangle this complex web of relationships, but using an information practices perspective that is what this study has attempted. To give a focus to the information practices in this setting, which comprises multi-layered social relationships, the conceptual starting point of Castells’ notion of information flows provided a way of bringing together the people, their communications and the means of communication as well as the outcomes of interactions. Fisher’s notion of Information Grounds provided a basis for interpreting face to face interactions in fixed locations. Up to this time, these conceptual frameworks have not been linked in terms of the information practice research. Analysing them in depth can draw their own similarities, differences and overlapping ideas to shed the light on Gherardi’s “complex web of relationships”. Capitals in the temple? social fabric 1.One of the strengths of Bourdieu’s sociology is its power of thinking rationally. For him, uses and effects of capitals must be understood in the peculiar space of fields. Sociological work needs words to specify the nature and peculiarities of the infinite varieties and local combination of capitals and social worlds. bourgeois says every priceless thing has its own value. So, this kind of capital has its own imperialistic aspect. 2. Bourdieu needs more sociology that pays more attention to the variety of dispositions and schemes of mind evaluation. Which is too often locked by the straitjacket of rational actor theory. Bourdieu’s Social, Economic, Symbolic and cultural capital Castells Informational Capitalism Sassen – Human Capital
- The analytical process. Judgements that make to do that. The potential hand in had approach to develop this capital In my study I found that different kind of Karmic capital in terms of the participants of the study Capitals in the temple? social fabric cultural capital (meditation, chanting, collecting good karma) Economic Capital by objectifying cultural capital (scripts, books). Institutionalising cultural capital (celebrations, events) Symbolic capital (Triple gem -Buddha, Scripture – Dharma and Sangha- monks, Arya person) Social capital – Grace, social experiences, respect, reputation Informational capital (Donations) Embodiment - Body and mind are the resources, time consuming learning and practicing process Human capital – local and globalised elites (monks and devotees) What is it makes distinctive karmic capital that you call it and other forms of cultural practices that are not religious.
- This capital helps victims of the suffering join back into the society they belong. (social capital). it helps them to think that the faith of the capitalist society will be the same as them one day. Because everything is impermanent This capital is an important asset for groups who have less access to the economic, social, human capital. This is the capital where they could take refuge upon and personal empowerment. subjected to suffering and non-self. Bourdieu needs more sociology that pays more attention to the variety of dispositions and schemes of mind evaluation. Which is too often locked by the straitjacket of rational actor theory. Bourdieu’s theory is important to understand the immaterialism but it his cultural capital needs unpacking. Lamont and Lareau (1988) stated that Bourdieu’s cultural capital is multi-national. “The forms of cultural capital enumerated by Bourdieu. Which range from power, attitude to preferences, behaviours and goods can not all perform the five” What is the volume and structure of the cultural capital of an individual, group or institution? how does it work as an indicator of class position.? And which position does it signify? Which outcome can cultural capital produce or not? Enables to have influence or gain power The cultural capital of the temple gives it more power within the community, as it attracts more devotees from the diaspora; the economic capital of the temple makes it powerful in several ways: a wealthy Temple demonstrates community support through donation; it functions well as an organisation with a good business sense; it attracts devotees because people want to be connected to something that is successful and this helps to turn economic capital into social capital as attendance at the temple becomes a way to create a sense of community among devotees; the economic capital of the temple, with its monetary value involved with all the products, means that they can offer services free of charge: that is, the Temple acts as an equalising force in the community; The social capital of the temple, evident through the large number of people who take part in events and help each other out, gives the Temple prominence in the Sri Lankan community. Karmic capital is important for devotees concerned about the merit for the next life. Through cultural capital, economic capital and social capital, the Temple creates a reputation (symbolic capital) for providing opportunities for devotees to create good karma through accruing merit. Objectified cultural capital - In the form of CD’, Books, Scriptures, statues and decorations, buildings and grounds Institutionalized – celebrations, Events, Programs Symbolized – Buddha, Damma, Sangha Asapuwa
- Olsson's (2007) study of information researchers' relationship with the work of Brenda Dervin: information practices help to (re-)produce power/knowledge relations. – monks are highly educated in a secular professional sense -overlapping informational and institutional networks causing the devotees and monks experience power relationships through multi-layered social relationships The identity of the devotees becomes local as they are connected to the local pop-up places and they become global at the same time as they are also connected to the various informational networks globally within the global organisation The MA Temple is a globalised organisation, with the monks as employees. Sassen argues that globalised organisations give rise to a kind of “new geographies" with importance given to "centrality" and to "marginality” (Sassen 2006, p. 45). culture and aesthetics to create the atmosphere that successfully reflects their wishes (Henneberry 2017, p.6-8). .. power arises from communication and the use of language. For the monks, language may exert power in a different way: they are exposed to the global identity of the Temple and their own place in it through various mediums of communication, including their travel, but at the same time, they must maintain the local language of the Temple, Sinhalese, as well as the local language of the community in which they live, whether that be English, German or something overlapping informational and institutional networks causing the devotees and monks experience power relationships through multi-layered social relationships has necessarily become involved in the creation and dissemination of both printed and online information products. learning to be gained through engagement with this material. This clearly involves the creation of informational capital. At the same time, devotees in particular are aware of the ways in which the sale of books in particular contributes to the economic capital of the temple, h