week seven_article twelve_blog twenty six

Arjun Appadurai_Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Culture and Economy

Well Thor, you see, it’s like this…I figure, if I throw enough shit against the wall, eventually, some of it is going to stick.
-Choptiany

It is at the conclusion of our series of twelve distinct theoretical essays that I again find myself returning to elemental questions surrounding the purpose of theory and methods of theoretical implementation; the value of theory in general. Appadurai’s argument certainly presents a provocative and thorough rendering of globalism via his described structure of global cultural flows. However, if we are to embrace such a model of globalism, what are we to do with it? Whose job is it to mobilize not only this theory, but theory in general? Whose responsibility is it to make theory operative? Is it the responsibility of each individual reader, of a given group (for example, a discipline), of the author, or some combination of these? In this instance, our author, while able to describe his concept clearly, coherently, and meticulously, offers no indication of how this understanding of the world we live in is to be used, or what it is to be used for. He simply indicates that the possibilities of this celebratory global theory could result in “the expansion of many individual horizons of hope and fantasy.”

In a general sense, one wonders if on a certain level, some theory is not simply bull-shit; theory for its own sake. If a given theory seemingly has no connection to a useful enterprise, if it cannot inform or assist something (for example, cultural production) what is its use? However, immediately upon formation of this statement, I find it to be too reductive, too simplistic, and too juvenile. It is quite easy to dismiss something as intellectually complex as theory, which we may or may not immediately grasp as useless in a practical sense. But perhaps we cannot always know the immediate value, the immediate usefulness of theory. Perhaps it is simply enough to attempt to understand a given position, assimilating as much of it as we can for our own understanding and contemplation. Perhaps there is no telling when a certain theory will be of use; when it will crystallize for a given individual. Perhaps this is the value of theory; its future possibilities rather than its immediate usefulness.