Existing Power Relations Research Articles

Clocks, Watches and Timepieces: The Ace Bio-Political Tools

“...it’s my hypothesis that the individual is not a pre-given entity which is seized on by the exercise of power. The individual, with his identity and characteristics, is the product of a relation of power exercised over bodies, multiplicities, movements, desires, forces.” Michel Foucault. All relations are power relations. The sources of power vary from divine (supernatural) to mundane. Every age remains obsessed with its own power relations. Scholars believe that the post-enlightenment age is obsessed with two main sources of power. The Marxists are obsessed with economic (material) power articulated through class domination in the form of relations of production and forces of production. The liberals are obsessed with the existence of power centres articulated through certain institutions, which in turn play a significant role in generating legitimacy to the state. Foucault, while disagreeing with these formulations, believed that the enlightenment movement brought in a major paradigm shift in the then existing power relations. Thereafter, the paradigm “Power is knowledge” was replaced by “Knowledge is power”. Foucault believed that, “Knowledge is not for knowing, knowledge is for cutting”. Cutting means constructing not only the narratives and discourses but also the reality itself. But, unlike the Marxists and the Liberals Foucault did not emphasised on the macro attributes like economic structure and state. For him the micro attributes (capillary, subterrain) of power were more important than the macro. Meaning thereby, the centre or focal point of power are less significant as compared to the “power at its’ extremities, in its ultimate destinations, with those points where it becomes capillary, that is, in its more regional and local forms and institutions”. Clocks, watches and time-pieces are some of these capillary powers that have become the ace tools in the age of bio-politics in controlling the life and its processes.

Exploring national diversity and identity regulation: managerial discourses and material practices in a transnational company

The paper sets out to interpret the concept of national and linguistic identity/diversity in the perspective of organisational power and control, by analysing both the managerial discourses and the material practices. We particularly intend to examine how the management of national diversity comprises a means for shaping the perception of collective identities and regulating the organisational behaviours of minority groups. For this purpose, a case study of a large Italian-French company is discussed: the analysis is based on a qualitative investigation conducted in terms of grounded theory. We further show how such managerial language and practices model and form individual and collective identity, reinforcing the establishment of precise criteria of inclusion and exclusion from the organisational life. The dominating group tries to affect the sense of group identity/diversity in order to establish models of action with a view to maintaining the status quo. In this respect the discourse and praxis of diversity management are seen as a mechanism of catalysis acting on national differences serving to reinforce the collective identity building processes and enhance the existing power relations.

On Equity in India's Water Supply Public-Private Partnerships

This article studies the implementation of a public-private partnership (PPP) in the water supply sector in Nagpur (Maharashtra, India). Drawing upon the capability approach and the concept of disadvantage, we define equity as the need to focus on the worse-off. Based on extensive field-research, we explain how the access to water is currently characterized by patronage relations and institutional discriminatory practices that perpetuate categorical inequalities. Addressing equity concerns in a PPP therefore requires questioning the existing power relations to clearly prioritize the worse-off. Our research argues that international law might be used to promote equitable processes in urban infrastructure, beyond today's focus on technical accounts and efficiency debates.

Pussy Riot vs. Civil Obedience: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Two Texts

In February 2012, less than two weeks before that year’s presidential elections in Russia, a two-minute video of young women in brightly colored masks and short dresses was uploaded to YouTube. The video featured four members of the Pussy Riot punk feminist band performing a wild dance in front of the altar of Russia’s main Orthodox temple, the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow. Lip-syncing to a song, which they called a punk prayer, they beseeched the Virgin Mary to “drive” Vladimir Putin, then the prime minister and a presidential candidate, “away.” After generating scads of international publicity, the case ended with the three band members being sentenced to prison for two years on charges of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred. The clearly provocative nature of the performance – with costume changes mid-scene and anti-government, anti-Church protest slogans set to the music of a sacred Orthodox song – made the Pussy Riot case a springboard to discussion of the acceptability of religiously contextualized political speech in contemporary Russia. Through a critical discourse analysis of the original lyrics of the punk prayer and the report from the psychological and linguistic experts that formed the basis of the prosecutor’s case, this article explores the discursive devices and rhetorical strategies employed in these texts to challenge or sustain the existing power relations in Russia. As the analysis makes clear, while the punk prayer criticizes State and the Russian Orthodox Church as oppressive and corrupt by disrupting and denaturalizing the images typically associated with their rituals and spaces, the report normalizes conformity, depoliticizes Pussy Riot critique, and delegitimizes public political protests by pushing them beyond the boundaries of socially acceptable forms of citizens’ civic participation.

A PASSAGEM DA TOCHA OLÍMPICA: Ativação de Discursos Cidadãos-Consumidores

O artigo começa com uma discussão sobre a evolução da passagem da tocha Olímpica, que culminou com os Jogos Olímpicos de Londres em 2012. A isto segue-se uma análise do poder empresarial e político que envolve os Jogos Olímpicos. Aqui, os valores do movimento Olímpico são contrastados com os movimentos dirigidos ao brandscaping das cidades-anfitriãs e das nações obrigadas pelos acordos contratuais estabelecidos, assim que lhes são garantidos os direitos de serem anfitriãs dos Jogos Olímpicos. Empiricamente, o artigo centra-se na parte escocesa da passagem da tocha Olímpica, um "evento" móvel que viajou pelo Reino Unido no verão de 2012. Através das lentes do projeto de investigação-ação #citizenrelay, a passagem da tocha olímpica é aberta ao escrutínio como um veículo para a ativação de marca, garantida e protegida pelo estado local a um custo significativo para as comunidades pelo país. Antes de tirar conclusões, discute-se o papel dos média cidadãos, que permitem comentários lúdicos, irónicos e, às vezes, provocativos sobre a extravagância dos Jogos Olímpicos. O artigo conclui argumentando que a passagem da tocha Olímpica promove a manifestação do espírito dos Jogos Olímpicos (a paz, a harmonia e a amizade), ao mesmo tempo que usa o seu alcance e popularidade para estender os tentáculos do brandscaping para edifícios, paisagens e espaços anteriormente protegidos contra os caprichos da mercantilização. As experiências concebidas institucionalmente são coreografadas para o benefício dos média nacionais e internacionais, deixando os cidadãos como espectadores passivos, que desempenham os papéis pré-concebidos de abanadores de bandeiras e apoiantes roucos de patrocinadores corporativos. No entanto, também sublinhamos a incompletude do nexo média-corporativo e enfatizamos o potencial dos média cidadãos para subverter as representações estabelecidas, permitindo um espaço participativo onde os média podem ser criados e distribuídos amplamente, em vez de consumidos passivamente. A normalização das relações de poder existentes entre os megaeventos desportivos e o comércio poderá ser ameaçada pelo peso de histórias produzidas localmente, digitalmente conectadas e compartilháveis.

Risk conflicts, critical discourse analysis and media discourses on GM crops and food

As techno-environmental controversies increasingly confront us with tremendous democratic challenges, it is imperative to investigate which discursive strategies and processes in media discourses facilitate or impede democratic debate and citizenship. This paper puts forward an approach combining the risk conflicts perspective with the analytical framework of critical discourse analysis to analyse how two Belgian elite newspapers discursively (re-)define and interpret four controversial events in the debate on genetically modified crops and food. The analysis identifies two distinct ideological cultures. Driven by an unproblematized idea of scientific consensus, one ideological culture is found to repeatedly take up the defence of the status quo and to continuously enact processes of de-politicization to impede democratic debate. The other is found to facilitate democratic debate by repeatedly challenging existing power relations, in terms of revealing competing sets of assumptions, values and interests underlying opposing responses to scientific uncertainty.

Agenda-setting and power in collaborative natural resource management

SUMMARYCollaborative management is a widely accepted means of resolving conflict amongst natural resource stakeholders. Power sharing is central to most conceptualizations of collaboration, but theoretical insights about power are only rarely used to interrogate collaborative processes. Agenda-setting theory was used to analyse cases of collaborative deer management in England, Scotland and Indiana (USA). Collaborative management agendas across scales and social contexts were found to be primarily set by contextual factors, particularly stakeholders drawing on specific cultures and policies, and pre-defining issues. These findings highlight significant gaps between the theory and practice of collaboration. If, in practice, substantial power has been wielded in advance, the capacity of subsequent collaborative processes to share power amongst stakeholders may be severely limited. To provide opportunities for differing cultural perspectives to be expressed and challenged, convenors of collaborative processes therefore need to be aware of and reflexive upon existing power relationships and structures.

Beyond the dichotomies of cultural and political relativism: arguing the case for a social justice based ‘global social work’ definition

The Social Work World Congress in Melbourne in 2014 will discuss a new internationally agreed definition of social work. The present definition, passed by the International Federation of Social Work in 2000 and the International Association of Schools of Social Work in 2001, is being reviewed because of its strong commitment to social justice. In this article I argue that this commitment is vital and that, furthermore, it has enabled practitioners to act in ways that are ethical and supportive of marginalised and oppressed groups in the face of assault from political parties, media and the state. The debate over a new international definition of social work reveals the conflictual and contested nature of social work – as a practice that is necessarily ‘political’ within oppressive and class-divided societies. A failure to acknowledge this has, in the past, led some social work organisations and practitioners to act in ways that are oppressive and supportive of existing power relations at the expense of poor and marginalised people. The debate about the international definition of social work, therefore, is vital for our understanding of the nature and role of social work in the present world.

The Indian Workers’ Association Coventry 1938–1990: political and social action

This article focuses on the Indian Workers’ Association (IWA), its political ideology and how it affected the culture and identity of Indian migrants and the wider British society in light of contemporary debates surrounding ‘multiculturalism’. This includes an investigation of wider Punjabi political consciousness pre-1947. The IWA’s contribution to a specific British Indian identity and their constructive social engagement can be linked to struggles and movements that began outside of its diaspora origins. I will illustrate how their campaigns and political convictions indelibly changed the face of modern Britain. The Coventry IWA, alongside its sister branches, was at the forefront of anti-racist campaigns in the late twentieth century and were active creators of their social environments through political action. They challenged existing power relations by seeking public acknowledgement, resources and representation as opposed to mere tolerance of ethnic difference. Moreover, in line with their radical left politics, the IWAs viewed their race and status as immigrants as inextricably linked to their position at the lowest rung of the working class. Hence, their fight for acceptance as an ethnic minority was also a class struggle that concerned all sections of the society. Consequently, I seek to find a history of the IWA that reconnects class to a social history of modern Britain.

A Note on Civil Disobedience and Professional Ethics Codes

In her exemplary book The Ethical Archivist, Elena S. Danielson devotes a chapter to professional ethics codes and points out that [m]any informed observers do not feel that complying with the law has any place in a statement on ethics since laws enforce existing power relationships, which may be (p. 45). I will argue that including civil disobedience principles in ethics codes may be preferable to rejecting legal compliance as a consideration.First, a few words about the purposes of codes of ethics. Do we need them? If not, then we do not need to worry about the legal compliance issue. How many of us ever consult the American Library Association's Code of Ethics, or the code of the Society of American Archivists? Do such professional codes really provide useful guidance in making difficult ethical decisions? While these empirical questions are often raised, they do not address what I regard as the principal value of a professional code of ethics. Even if we grant an argument that it is impossible for a professional code of ethics to be a useful (not to say perfect) guide to selecting the ethical option that is most just and does the least amount of harm in any given situation, I am persuaded that archivists and librarians should promulgate, observe, and honor their professional codes of ethics because the codes are public statements of values that help define us as professionals. The assertion of these values is an important part of proving ourselves worthy of the trust and respect we seek from our peers, patrons, funding agencies, governing and government officials, members of the general public, etc. Adoption of an ethical code is a hallmark of most professions because the very existence of the code is a stipulation of obligations beyond self-interest. The fact that an ethics code is not a simple and infallible means for choosing between different options does not show that the code has no value. A code of ethics is a public assertion that the profession takes its obligations seriously.Thinking of a professional code of ethics as a statement of values and obligations, we return to the question of whether within those statements there should be any consideration of legal compliance. Setting aside the occasional circumstances where old laws remain in force primarily because no one remembers they exist or notices they no longer serve a purpose, it seems undeniable that current laws may enforce existing power relationships. Certainly some or many laws may be in place to protect minorities and mitigate oppression, but for the purposes of our discussion we are concerned with the conditions where those without power, or with little power, are unable to put into place and enforce laws that are not favored by those who do have power. But does it follow that oppressive, dictatorial, unjust governments never pass just laws? Obviously not, and for the sake of the well-being of oneself and one's fellow citizens it would be best, for example, to obey the traffic laws even while engaging in efforts to improve or change an unjust government. Surely, arguing otherwise would make one appear so irresponsible that it would be difficult to recruit more participants in the effort to change the government. If this seems a trivial point, let us recall we are considering the position that considerations of legal compliance have no place in a code of ethics. If we are to take that claim literally, then we are entitled to ask when and why non-compliance with just laws is in the best interests of the society. Arguing that some laws may lead to injustice or reinforcement of unfair power relations simply dodges the issue and ignores the possibility that in some ethical situations, there may be laws in place that provide excellent guidance for taking actions which maximize justice and minimize unfortunate consequences. The most sensible approach is to acknowledge the possibility that current laws can help or hinder when seeking the best ethical alternatives, and as professionals we will put such considerations under careful scrutiny. …

Sustainability through surveillance: ICT discourses in design documents

In this paper, I examine design documents from three different ICT design and development projects. I argue that they present intersecting visions of sustainability entailing the wide-spread use of ICT, describe the properties of users compatible with such ICT, and provide ways of judging the users. In the design documents, the inhabitants are made individually responsible for living sustainably, and surveillance is positioned as integral to this future with the help of ICT. Underlying the visions, I identify a translation process that captures the traces of the inhabitants' lives, classifies them according to different criteria of sustainable living, and returns them to the tapestry of everyday life to convince the users to behave differently. In the discourses of these documents, surveillance translates the traces, and the translations exert new pressures on existing power relations.

Financialization and Marx

The recent theoretical works of the authors mentioned in the title of the paper provide thorough insights into the workings of contemporary capitalism. Derivatives are the key issue involved here. They comprehend financialization as a development within, rather than a distortion of, capitalist production. They nevertheless underestimate the ability of Marx’s analytical categories to capture the essence of contemporary organization of capitalism. A return to Marx is not only helpful but is also indispensable for clarification of some unformed aspects in their analysis. What is actually involved in financialization is not just the emergence of a structure enabling more effective valuation of financial assets; it is also the development of a technology of power that is superimposed on existing power relations for the purpose of organizing their functioning.

International peacebuilding goes local: analysing Lederach's conflict transformation theory and its ambivalent encounter with 20 years of practice

This article examines how peacebuilding theory has influenced the shift from the international to the ‘local’ in the practice of international peacebuilding and analyses the consequences for local communities, international peacebuilding practice and critical peacebuilding research. The results demonstrate that transformative peacebuilding theories, in particular John Paul Lederach's work, have enormously influenced the policy discourse and practice of supporting the ‘local’. Revisiting 20 years of this theory–practice encounter, this article concludes that peacebuilding practitioners have overwhelmingly recognised the importance of Lederach's shift towards local actors. However, this has failed to result in the desired peacebuilding outcomes. This article identifies three main reasons: (1) particular understandings of the ‘local’ by the ‘international’; (2) narrow international support strategies, ignoring the broader international, regional and local peacebuilding arena, and existing power relations; and (3) the mantra status of Lederach's middle–out approach as an almost unquestioned theory of change in civil society peacebuilding that invites reflections on theory–practice encounters and responsible peacebuilding scholarship.

Selling Nature In a Resource-based Economy: Romantic/Extractive Gazes and Alberta's Bituminous Sands

Recent literature has explored the interplay between the Romantic gaze and the extractive gaze to conclude that in separating people from nature, both gazes function similarly to subordinate the land to human purposes. Such representations may be seen as part of a wider trend in which media visualizations of nature are based on an implicit ideology, tending to perpetuate and justify existing power relations; those visualizations use images which are increasingly abstract or iconic, and which by force of repetition, replace alternative representations and obscure connections to societal processes such as globalism and consumerism. This article takes up and extends that argument to a critical visual discourse analysis of an official place-branding slideshow produced by the Province of Alberta (Canada), which boasts an economy based significantly on producing non-renewable fossil fuels. In examining that slideshow in terms of Romantic/extractive gazes, this study situates Alberta's rebranding on Corbett's continuum of anthropocentric–ecocentric values; interrogates connections among Alberta's rebranding and invisible flows of power at work in broader, underlying societal processes like globalization, Neoliberalism and consumerism; and tests the commonality of the relationship between extractive and Romantic gazes in light of those processes.

What global citizens and whose global moral order? Defining the global at BBC World News

This article provides a critical assessment of the popular notion that we are moving towards an increasingly global understanding of political community and citizenship. At the centre of this debate is a specific, although often implicit, account of media developments. Drawing on original research done on the global news network, BBC World News, this article makes the case that news practices are developing in a far more complex and contradictory way than is often implied in discourses on the global ‘turn’ in politics. Globality as understood and represented at BBC World News is a question of not only certain culturally and institutionally informed assumptions about what constitutes public interest, but also, increasingly, a question of resources and dominant political rhetoric from a few institutions of power. What is more, developments in news practices do not necessarily lead to new and challenging communicative contexts in our understanding of the world, but rather may entrench and reinforce existing power relations. These empirically informed assessments of media developments need to form a much bigger part of discussions on the ‘global shift’.

Need fulfillment in the nursing home: resident and observer perspectives in relation to resident well-being.

Self-reports in nursing homes generally show highly satisfied residents, whereas observational studies provide more nuanced results. In this study, which is based on self-determination theory, the perspective of nursing home residents (self-reports) is compared to the perspective of trained "neutral" observers (video-observations). The experiences of physically frail older residents are measured with regard to the fulfillment of their needs for relatedness, autonomy, and competence. Self-reports of need fulfillment in general, in the caring relationship, and during a caregiving episode recorded on videotape of 36 residents (64% female, mean age 80years) were compared with observer ratings of resident need fulfillment during the latter caregiving episode. Furthermore, it was investigated which measure relates best to residents' self-reported well-being. The results show that residents rate their need fulfillment higher than observers. There is weak to moderate agreement between resident and observer ratings. Furthermore, only residents' self-reported need fulfillment in general is related with self-reported well-being. Different explanations are provided, including the "barrier of happiness," the use of cognitive strategies, a change in identity and existing power relations. There seems to be a paradox in caregiving: Residents and their needs should be central, but because residents might adapt their needs and wishes it is hard to assess these. Suggestions for practical applications are given.

Política para a ciência e política da ciência: entre o fomento e as demandas governamentais

O artigo analisa o debate sobre a relação universidade-governo nos países avançados no que diz respeito à produção de conhecimento científico (pesquisa científica). Para isso, ele se apoia, principalmente, nos estudos de autores franceses e estadunidenses. Essa relação é analisada segundo duas dimensões: a da política da ciência, em que a universidade tem suas autonomias de gestão e de pesquisa reduzidas, ou mesmo suprimidas, pelo governo; e a da política para a ciência, em que a universidade tem suas autonomias de gestão e de pesquisa preservadas. Essas dimensões permitem a identificação de quatro categorias de relacionamento entre universidade e governo: universidade associada ou subordinada ao governo, na primeira dimensão; e universidade independente ou tributária do governo, na segunda. Essas categorias ajudam a mostrar que a universidade, longe de responder a uma concepção única sobre a organização de sua pesquisa e de sua gestão, é formada desde relações de poder existentes em cada momento histórico.

Restoring society to post-structuralist politics

Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe’s post-Marxist analysis pushed Gramsci’s anti-determinism to its limits, embracing a post-structuralist, discourse-centred politics. Mouffe’s subsequent programme for radical democracy has sought a renewed democratic left project. While radical democracy’s post-structuralism enables important insights into political subjectivity and antagonism in contemporary democracies, it also weakens its own critical and strategic capacity. By recuperating its Gramscian heritage, radical democracy could be more theoretically and politically effective. In contrast to discourses operating in an entirely open and contingent political field, Gramscian theory offers a more realist – but non-determinist – account of the structural, enabling and constraining properties of ideologies. It also allows for a distinctive institutional space for society. Society is the site upon which political identities are articulated, and from which existing power relations are challenged. But a conception of society also points to the institutional limits to politics, notable by their absence in post-structuralism and radical democracy.

Educadores de criança: condições de trabalho e vida

A alienação, o fatalismo e a conscientização no espaço escolar são abordados neste estudo, que teve o objetivo de investigar como trabalhadoras da educação de uma escola pública de educação infantil percebiam as dimensões de seu trabalho nesse contexto. A pesquisa utilizou a abordagem qualitativa, e os dados foram obtidos por meio da análise de 35 questionários preenchidos por professores, monitores e pela equipe gestora de uma escola municipal de educação infantil. Os resultados revelaram que as trabalhadoras, em sua maioria, vivenciam situações de opressão nas relações de poder existentes na escola, o que as tem impedido de, nesse contexto, desenvolver-se como indivíduos construtores de sua própria história e, portanto, como transformadores de sua realidade. Diante disso, entendemos ser fundamental uma ação consciente do psicólogo escolar, intervindo nas relações de poder existentes na escola com o objetivo de assegurar o desenvolvimento pleno e saudável das crianças e dos trabalhadores da educação.

A battle of languages: Spirit possession and changing linguistic ideologies in a Sepik society, Papua New Guinea

In October 2009, a dramatic event shook the existing sociolinguistic setting in Kanjimei village in East Sepik Province of Papua New Guinea. Possessed by a Christian spirit, a woman harshly reproached the most important village leaders. The ensuing verbal fight between ‘the spirit’ and the village prayer leader became a battle of languages: the Christian spirit spoke the community's native language, Awiakay, overpowering those in authority, who are the most frequent users of the national lingua franca Tok Pisin. As it was believed that it was the spirit of the Virgin Mary who channelled herself through the possessed woman, it was legitimate for people to discuss her words. The spirit possession thus enabled the otherwise condemned social practices: gossip and public criticism, which have the power of changing existing power relations in the village. The analysis of this event shows the complexity behind the ever‐changing linguistic ideologies.