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living and loving God in the 21st century digital media and work
fratrum minorum capuccinorumrome, italy
28 october 2015prof. mary e. hess, phd
what can be said?
must speak tentatively
• digital tools are deeply contextual
• digital tools are changing all of the time
• while much is being said, there is yet little consensus
my own context: Luther Seminary, upper midwest, Roman Catholic, formed by the Paulists, the Jesuits and the Benedictines
abbey, academy, apostolate
When I came to you, brothers, proclaiming the mystery of God, I did not come with sublimity of words or of wisdom. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified. I came to you in weakness and fear and much trembling, and my message and my proclamation were not with persuasive (words of) wisdom, but with a demonstration of spirit and power, so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God.
1 Corinthians 2:1-5
outline
• the contexts we inhabit, in light of digital media
• the spiritual challenges of this context — in particular, how we know, and who knows us, shapes how we work
• ways forward in work and love of God in the midst of digital media
part one: our contexts
Pope Francis visits the US
authority, authenticity, agency
entertainment media offer us agency through consumption
yet in Christian life we confess the primary Agent is God
cultural inversions
• becoming increasingly individual, while deeply desiring community
• becoming increasingly independent, while longing for relationship
• becoming increasingly commercialized, while longing for authenticity
Wesch
authority, authenticity, agency — Pope Francis has become a focus for our longing and he embodies what he teaches
part two: spirituality
... spirituality is understood as the unique and personal response of individuals to all that calls them to integrity and transcendence.... [it] has something to do with the integration of all aspects of human life and experience.
Sandra Schneiders
…spirituality is that attitude, that frame of mind which breaks the human person out of the isolating self. As it does that, it directs him or her to another relationship in whom one’s growth takes root and sustenance.
Sandra Schneiders
we risk stumbling into self-enclosed spaces
what epistemology?
relationality is a key component of learning
instrumentality is highly problematic in digital spaces
self-enclosed vs. open and curious selves-in-relationship
it’s not just how we know — our understanding of how media function has shifted, too
immunize against bad content or protect with good content? neither is effective
medium as a culture in which to grow meaning
medium = culture in which to grow
from consumer to producer from passivity to participation
formation demands constructivist/connectivist pedagogies in these spaces
attributes of the facebook generation
• all ideas compete on an equal footing
• contribution counts for more than credentials
• hierarchies are natural, not prescribed
• leaders serve rather than preside
• tasks are chosen, not assigned
• groups are self-defining and self-organizing
• resources get attracted, not allocated
• power comes from sharing information, not hoarding it
• opinions compound and decisions are peer-reviewed
• users can veto most policy decisions
• intrinsic rewards matter most
• hackers are heroes
participatory culture
• play: the capacity to experiment with one’s surroundings as a form of problem-solving
• performance: the ability to adopt alternative identities for the purpose of improvisation and discovery
• simulation: the ability to interpret and construct dynamic models of real-world processes
• appropriation: the ability to meaningfully sample and remix media content
• multitasking: the ability to scan one’s environment and shift focus as needed to salient details.
• distributed cognition: the ability to interact meaningfully with tools that expand mental capacities
• collective intelligence: the ability to pool knowledge and compare notes with others toward a common goal
• judgment: the ability to evaluate the reliability and credibility of different information sources
• transmedia navigation: the ability to follow the flow of stories and information across multiple modalities
• networking: the ability to search for, synthesize, and disseminate information
• negotiation: the ability to discern and respect multiple perspectives
what might we retrieve, reclaim, and re-authorize?
ultimately, we know as we are known and we must remember whose we are!
part three: implications for work
authority, authenticity, agency knowing as we are known finding routes to congruence and integrity in work
True poverty creates community because it converts self-sufficiency into creative interdependency where the mystery of life unfolds for us. Only those who can see and feel for another can love another without trying to possess the other. Poverty is that free and open space within the human heart that enables us to listen to the other, to respect the other and to trust the other without feeling that something vital will be taken from us…. Conversion to poverty and humility is the nucleus of Christian evolution because it is the movement to authentic love; a movement from isolated “oneness” towards mutual relatedness, from individualism toward community, where Christ is revealed in the union of opposites in the web of life.
Ilia Delio
True poverty creates community because it converts self-sufficiency into creative interdependency where the mystery of life unfolds for us.
Work does not constitute only a source of support for making a living, but is an active participation in the creative work of God. The human being as “created creator” is called to a profound respect for and protection of creation, respecting in this way his primary vocation as collaborator with God.
Fratrum Minorum Capuccinorum
the human being as “created creator”
the power to create is the power to act our lives are only possible because of those around us
there are barriers that stand in the way of achieving creative lives for all
think: authority, authenticity, agency
two forces arrayed against us: economization
self-enclosing spaces
economization (described well in Wendy Brown’s recent book, Undoing the Demos
(1) we are human capital not just for ourselves, for also for the firm, state, or postnational constellation of which we are members
(2) inequality, not equality, is the medium and relation of competing capitals… when we are figured as human capital in all that we do and in every venue, equality ceases to be our presumed natural relation with one another
(3) when everything is capital, labor disappears as a category, as does it collective form, class, taking with it the analytic basis for alienation, exploitation and association among laborers
(4) when there is only homo oeconomicus, and when the domain of the political itself is rendered in economic terms, the foundation vanishes for citizenship concerned with public things and the common good
(5) as the legitimacy and task of the state becomes bound exclusively to economic growth, global competitiveness, and maintenance of a strong credit rating, liberal democratic justice concerns recede
Wendy Brown
economization is colonizing our imagination
where is God’s agency in an economic sphere where human capital becomes something for which even labor disappears as a category?
what about self enclosure?
context collapse can draw us into self enclosing spaces where we become oblivious to God’s overwhelming love
so what contests these forces?
even in the midst of the “future of work” discussion about automation you can find glimpses…
… people need to stay ahead of the curve, not by being “faster or cheaper” but by developing, honing and capitalizing on the capabilities that are uniquely human and cannot be replicated today by automated software. Such activities include collaboration and teamwork with a highly diverse workforce …, creativity, curiosity, constructive problem-solving, inventiveness, empathy and physical touch.…
The Robot and I
this is a space in which your deep understanding of the value and meaning of work is a rich resource far beyond your borders
(1) makes grow the sense of belonging and reinforces responsibility
(2) helps to live poverty in a concrete way
(3) develops the gifts of the individual and prepares him for the service/ministry he will carry out
(4) allows one to live like the common people, getting one’s hands dirty
(5) makes felt the duty to earn one’s daily bread
(6) helps in reflection on one’s own vocation
(7) helps in discovering the value of essential things (your survey)
in what ways is this knowing mutual and reciprocal? in what ways is it shared and creative?
you need to share this witness!
certainly there are voices beyond this community that have resonance with yours…
here are some examples of how other
organizations are using digital media to share and to learn
To connect with a deeper level of our humanity.
To profoundly change the world requires us to connect to our emerging self. And in order to discover who you really are, you need to go out into the world.
The transformation of capitalism depends on our ability to reshape how we connect to each other, to the system, to ourselves.
Build the capacity to sense and actualize a future that we feel, that we know, is possible.
U Lab at MIT
I am because of who we all are
In a culture paradoxically suffering from anonymity and at the same time obsessed with the details of other people’s lives, shamelessly given over to morbid curiosity, the Church must look more closely and sympathetically at others whenever necessary…. The Church will have to initiate everyone – priests, religious, laity – into this “art of accompaniment” which teaches us to remove our sandals before the sacred ground of the other.
Evangelii Gaudium
I would even say that the future of humanity is in great measure in your own hands, through your ability to organize and carry out creative alternatives, through your daily efforts to ensure the three “L’s” (labor, lodging, land) and through your proactive participation in the great processes of change on the national, regional and global levels.
Pope Francis
(1) The first task is to put the economy at the service of peoples. (2) The second task is to unite our peoples on the path of peace and justice. (3) The third task, perhaps the most important facing us today, is to defend Mother Earth.
Pope Francis
here’s another example as people seek to share the conviction that we must understand ourselves in whole communities, not simply as individuals
As systems fail, individual and community creativity explodes.
Our actions and our imagination have to match the magnitude of this problem.
It’s a challenge. We can do it collectively, neighborhood by neighborhood, step by step.
NextSystem
we have resources in Catholic community for doing this work!
here’s another example created by one of my students, Nicholas Romeo
but these pieces only have power, they bring us to action, only to the extent that they have authority for us — and authority is most often based on whether or not they are experienced as authentic
how we understand “work” in this world we are living and loving in demands a recognition of the relational interdependency of our very selves
it demands a recognition of the ways in which our knowing is deeply embedded in our relationships
it demands a recognition of the work of the Holy Spirit already present in, already active throughout, digital media
how do you embody this relational sphere of knowing in your community?
how do you embody it in the ways in which you work?
if you believe these things about work, how is that experienced by each of your community
members?
and how is it shared out into the world?
believe
createshare
in the day to day work of creating community, you are tending something very precious to the wider
world — how will you share it?
how, in sharing, will you learn from those who engage it with you?
the work you are doing here, in seeking to understand your unique approach to work, is precisely what needs to be shared out into the
world…
how will you do that? how will you invite people into your stories?
Text Citations
Michael Wesch (http://mediatedcultures.net/youtube/an-anthropological-introduction-to-youtube-presented-at-the-library-of-congress/)
Sandra Schneiders (Sandra Schneiders, “Theology and Spirituality: Strangers, Rivals or Partners?” Horizons 13/2 (1986) 264-265)
Parker Palmer (To Know as We Are Known, and The Courage to Teach)
“Attributes of the Facebook generation” (Gary Hamel, Wall Street Journal blog Management 2.0 (retrieved from http://blogs.wsj.com/management/2009/03/24/the-facebook-generation-vs-the-fortune-500/ )
Henry Jenkins on participatory culture (https://www.macfound.org/media/article_pdfs/JENKINS_WHITE_PAPER.PDF)
Ilia Delio (As cited by Daniel P. Horan, O.F.M., The Franciscan Heart of Thomas Merton, Notre Dame, IN: Ave Maria Press, 2014)
Wendy Brown (Undoing the Demos: Neoliberalism’s Stealth Revolution, Brooklyn, NY: Zone Books, 2015, pp. 37-40)
Video citations
Social media revolution https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJepzjUhDfg
Information revolution https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4CV05HyAbM
Power to Create https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZgjpuFGb_8
U Lab at MIT https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gF8wV9OlUHc
Next system project http://thenextsystem.org
7 themes of catholic social teaching https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VpQPEoE2O4&feature=youtu.be
Images
Pope Francis https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3APope_Francis_Korea_Haemi_Castle_19_(cropped).jpg
Pope Francis and selfie http://www.nj.com/south/index.ssf/2015/04/wanted_10000_volunteers_for_pope_francis_visit_to.html
Pope Francis with young boy http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/09/27/pope-francis-trip-highlights-unscripted-moments/72934240/
God’s work our hands http://splcwaukegan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/godswork.jpg
Pope francis paying bill https://timenewsfeed.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/2013-03-15t125301z_1033579735_lr2e93f0.jpg?w=720&h=480&crop=1
Pope Francis kissing feet http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02510/francis-slum-feet_2510124b.jpg
Images, continued
Pope francis eating http://www.catholicsun.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/cafeteria-pope.jpg
Pope Francis with children http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/images/size680/Pope_Francis_met_with_street_children_during_his_visit_to_the_Philippines_onJan_16_2015_Credit_ANSA_OSSERVATORE_ROMANO_CNA_1_16_15.jpg
Barna group data https://barna-barnagroup.netdna-ssl.com/images/bu-030415-2b.jpg
censorship https://pikeknight.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/cartoon-of-head-with-many-hands-over-mouth-censorship-1s8do9x.jpg
a girl with a book http://wp.production.patheos.com/blogs/exploringourmatrix/files/2012/10/wpid-Photo-Oct-13-2012-547-PM.jpg
alone together https://qim.is.quoracdn.net/main-i-2387f17ef02a0a0bec1c1d1e7156aed53a220b2d
Images, continued
alone together kids http://gitsufba.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/turkle-alone-together-pb-88f9e3ced21cdc4f60ba4f2483fecd72420b1823.jpg
self alone http://static1.squarespace.com/static/50f35ea9e4b09d40370f0f40/t/525c1f30e4b01dd0533e0efd/1381769009624/Trapped+pic..jpg
pope political cartoon https://scontent-lga3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xft1/t31.0-8/s960x960/11953368_10207732909859316_4304161829951477823_o.jpg
st. francis sculpture 'God's Fool' by Frank C. Gaylord / Photo by Jim Frazier
https://www.facebook.com/PrayerOfTheHeart/photos/a.231884600179998.50177.231844600183998/910413482327103/?type=3&theater
people becoming barcodes https://greenstarnews.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/barcodeevol.jpg
humans as currency http://jeremiahwilliams.info/solo/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Humans_Cash.jpg
Images, continued
please don’t commodify my culture http://cdn.thebolditalic.com/e=resrcit_cdn_origin/s=h1000,pd1/o=85/http://cdn.thebolditalic.com/paperclip/articles/3393/hero_images/original/HERO3.png?1374710904
isolation snap judgement http://snapjudgment.org/sites/default/files/isolation-700x320.jpg
unable to connect http://psykmagasinet.no/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/themwifies.jpg
lego guy on ledge http://m.c.lnkd.licdn.com/mpr/mpr/AAEAAQAAAAAAAANtAAAAJDIxZDM0ZGQ1LTI2MDctNDM1NC05M2Q0LTMwMzQ0NTQ5MjJlYw.png
iPhone http://www.imore.com/sites/imore.com/files/styles/w1600h900crop/public/field/image/2014/10/iphone_6_review_hero.jpg?itok=Jnir8f95
