English subtitles for clip: File:Ikusgela - Sally Haslanger.webm

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Why do we reproduce
sexist or racist attitudes?

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Or why do we laugh with
jokes based on oppression?

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Why do we sometimes
act against our own ideas?

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If you've ever wondered that,

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there's a philosopher
you should know.

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Her name is Sally Haslanger.

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Her work highlights the
dynamics and structures

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behind many
oppressions and injustices.

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This allows us to
understand more easily

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how we build our behaviors,

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as well as our character.

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Sally Haslanger was born in 1955

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in Connecticut, United States.

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She is a professor of philosophy

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at the prestigious Institute of
Technology in Massachusetts.

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In her first work, she studied
metaphysics and ancient philosophy,

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mainly Aristotle.

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But she has gradually been
immersed in political philosophy,

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feminism, and
critical theory of race.

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She is a thinker who has
drunk from many currents,

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but her work can be placed
in contemporary structuralism.

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The Haslangerian
structuralism says that

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to understand social
relations and phenomena,

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it must be taken into account
that they are part of larger systems.

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She has published
dozens of papers.

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There is a collection of articles
that contain her main contributions.

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Resisting Reality:

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Social Construction and Social
Critique is that collection’s name.

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This work shows the social
origin of the categories,

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characteristics, or practices
that we tend to consider natural,

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relating them to the dynamics
and material structures of society.

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Her work can be
materialized around

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four main concepts or ideas.

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1- Social systems and structures.

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The human being
is a social animal

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that needs social
interaction and coordination.

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And all of this happens
in a social system.

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But what is a system?

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According to Haslanger,
a system is a set of things

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that generate a whole
thanks to joint functioning.

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A family can be a system,

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as can a sports team.

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Society is also a system,

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but complex and with
many other systems inside it.

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Systems have
functions and objectives.

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Understanding the objectives
or the function a system has

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helps to understand the
behavior of its parts or members.

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If a rower plays
in a certain way,

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it is because it responds to the
objectives of the whole rowing team.

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Each system, to achieve
these objectives, establishes

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concrete relations and
practices between parts.

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These relations are known
to Haslanger as structures.

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Structures are, therefore,
networks of relations and

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practices between different
people or parts within a system.

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If a family is a system,

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one of the possible ways
of configuring that system

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can be the structure
of the traditional family.

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Within a structure, each part or
person has its location or node.

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The particularity is that the settlements
condition the interpersonal relations.

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In a rowing group, it
doesn’t matter if Joxe Mari,

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Mirari, or Aitor occupies
the place of the skipper.

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The very fact of being
the boat’s skipper

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already implies
certain relations and,

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in general, a way
of distributing power.

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It may be that certain structures
unfairly distribute power,

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thus creating
situations of domination.

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According to Haslanger,

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they do not occur because of
the perverse intentions of a person.

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The structure itself drives certain
social relations and practices

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and therefore distributes power within
structures unfairly, beyond intentions.

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2- Social Practices.

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According to Haslanger,

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social practices are the
basic pillars of society

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that form the social structures.

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Social practices are
patterns of behavior

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that are guided by
some cultural schemes

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that we learn: they drive us to
act and reason in certain ways.

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Participating in a practice

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is to relate with others and
other aspects of the world,

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according to a public
pattern of behavior,

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otherwise, they would
not be social practices.

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Practices are not necessarily
transparent or obvious.

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You may not realize
that you are participating

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in a socially
constructed practice,

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and you may not be aware of its
meaning, functioning, and consequences.

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For example, we don’t
act in the same way

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in a meal with our
family or with our friends.

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Geographically and culturally
there are differences too,

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because practices around
meals in the Basque Country

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or in Japan
can be totally different.

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Practices are integrated into a culture:

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culture gives us public schemes
to value things in a certain way,

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positively, negatively,
or not valuing at all;

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and all that guides our attitudes.

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Depending on the
value we give to things,

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that is, depending on the
public social meanings,

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we will relate to others
in one way or another.

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3- Ideology.

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Haslanger says that
in our practical reason,

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that is, the type of
reasoning that tells us

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what we have to do in each
case, we use various tools,

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among which social
meanings stand out.

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As said, through
social meanings,

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we attribute value to
things, and it is in the

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socialization process.

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In other words, our
practical reason is learned,

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is much more public than we usually
think, and we share it with many others.

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But there's a problem:

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we learn practical
reason and social practices

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in general through culture.

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That means that
they are normative.

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This means that it may happen

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that our way of reasoning has
been learned within unjust structures,

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so our social
practices can support

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and reproduce those
same structures.

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As we have learned to fit
into these unjust structures,

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we can carry out social
practices that reproduce

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those structures
without being aware of it,

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because it's the
“normal” way to act to us.

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That is where ideology comes into play.

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When this happens,
Haslanger would say

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that our social
practices are ideological

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because it hides,

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naturalizes, and
reproduces unjust structures.

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Although the concept in the
public square is used differently,

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Haslanger connotes
ideology in a negative way.

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Ideology can lead a person to
act against their own interests.

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4- Naturalization.

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Haslanger calls naturalization

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to take as natural
phenomena that are actually

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socially constructed or
accidental, that is, evitable.

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For example,
femininity or masculinity

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are social constructions.

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This means that
they are qualities

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that arise within
patriarchal society.

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And above all, they are
avoidable and modifiable.

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In short, naturalization occurs when
social structures and social meanings

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are not addressed
as they should,

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that is, as changeable
or eliminable things.

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If we do not analyze
which systems and

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structures hide behind
certain social practices,

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for example, that women
assume more care responsibilities,

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and if we look
only at statistics,

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ideology will find a simple way:

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just look at the
environment to conclude

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that women tend to take
more care.

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The real and objective world
confirms our assumptions

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because we have changed the
world through our social practices.

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This loop or vicious circle
reproduces an unjust society.

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And so Haslanger says

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that we need to pay attention to
the systems and structures of society

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because from there we can
understand why we act unfairly.

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However, not all is bad news:

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according to Haslanger, structures
and social systems are not perfect and

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have more cracks than believed.

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From collective
coordination, there is always

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room for resistance
and transformation.