State Of Powerlessness Research Articles

A FROMMIAN READING OF GEORGE ORWELL’S 1984

Although George Orwell’s 1984 has been interpreted from a variety of theoretical perspectives, the narrative still reveals an opportunity to inquire into novel trajectories of arguments. It provides enough room for a reading especially in light of Erich Fromm’s theoretical views. Erich Fromm is well-known for his criticism of modern society in which sadism, masochism and the crisis of freedom are outstanding features. For Fromm, since the Renaissance, modern individuals have found themselves entangled in a psychological state of loneliness, powerlessness and meaninglessness owing to their attempt to obtain freedom. Leaving behind traditional values and religious faith has not afforded them any freedom that they can be satisfied with; rather, lack of pre-modern values has caused them to embark on a quest for suppression of a feeling of impotence. That’s why, sadist dictators like Big Brother desire to make up for a sense of insignificance by oppressing the masses while the masses become masochists by submitting blindly to his dictatorial authority as an indication of impotence. The novel offers the possibility of finding examples regarding how sadism and masochism foster the maintenance of each other in modern society in which acts of dominating and being dominated are commonly observed due to feelings of loss and emptiness.

Role of Technology-Enhanced Service Learning in Empowering Marginalized Communities in Malaysia

Service learning (SL) provides a fitting opportunity for students to engage with and learn from the larger community. Such engagements are fast becoming a crucial facet of student and academic activities within Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs) in Malaysia. (SL) enhances pedagogical learning, fosters more durable relationships which extend beyond campus walls and appropriately prepares students for life outside the campus. The integration of community engagement within the (HEIs)’s curricula fosters an educational setting which facilitates the students’ academic, personal and professional developments. (SL) is a learning pedagogy that helps students identify issues within the community, work together and address some of the diverse challenges that have been identified. Today, without a basic knowledge of Information and communication technology (ICT) or digital literacy, it is very difficult to secure employment. Marginalized communities are faced with various socio-economic and environmental barriers which prevent them from obtaining such knowledge. This, in turn further perpetuates a vicious cycle that leaves them within a constant state of powerlessness. This study sought to explore the potential of (SL) in empowering marginalized communities by providing them with basic (ICT) training. A qualitative approach was utilized involving interviews with twenty respondents from marginalized communities. The respondents currently hold jobs which require a basic knowledge of (ICT). The findings indicate that basic digital literacy is becoming increasingly crucial toward the empowerment of marginalized communities in Malaysia. However, the relevant initiatives toward this are sorely lacking. Thus, service learning has a great potential to address the current gap.

Autonomy, Power and the Special Case of Scarcity: Consumer Adoption of Highly Autonomous Artificial Intelligence

AbstractUnlike previous generations of artificial intelligence (AI), AI assistants today can autonomously perform actions without human input or intervention. Several studies have proposed but not tested the notion that increased levels of AI autonomy may ultimately conflict with consumers’ fundamental need for autonomy themselves. Across five experiments (N = 1981), including representative samples and pre‐registered hypotheses, we investigate consumer responses to high (vs. low) AI autonomy in the context of online shopping. The results show a pronounced negative effect of high AI autonomy on consumers’ adoption intentions – an effect mediated by consumers’ relative state of powerlessness in the presence of high AI autonomy. However, when consumers face situations characterized by scarcity, such as when preferred options are being sold out rapidly (e.g. Black Friday), the aversive aspects of high (vs. low) AI autonomy are attenuated. Together, these findings offer novel insights regarding whether, when and why consumers are willing to adopt high (vs. low)‐autonomy AI assistants in online shopping settings.

The Concept of Strategy in Community Empowerment: A Literature Review

Empowerment is a planned effort designed to change or reform an individual or community/society from a state of powerlessness to become empowered with an emphasis on independence. This study aims to be able to see how strategies can be carried out to empower the community. This research was conducted using a descriptive qualitative approach. The research data used in this study came from various previous studies and research results obtained through the literature study method. The results of this study then found that community empowerment is an approach that aims to change conditions of powerlessness to become empowered through increasing independence and active participation. This concept involves providing access to resources, knowledge, and skills to the community so that they can take a role in managing development and determining their future direction. Although different challenges and contexts need attention, empowerment remains an important key in achieving sustainable development.

Of Life and Death: African Cultural Worldviews and Black American Survival in Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon and Amiri Baraka’s Slave Ship

ABSTRACT This article provides a reading of Amiri Baraka’s play, Slave Ship: A Historical Pageant (1967) and Toni Morrison’s novel, Song of Solomon (1977). It argues that in both texts, written during the racial and political unrest of 1960s and 1970s United States, threats of violence and death toward Black individuals and communities allowed the formation of unique perspectives on life and death. Fundamentally, it was the belief that death is the beginning of life in another form, rather than its end. This belief and its corresponding ideas recall African worldviews and cultural philosophies, transported to the New World by enslaved Africans, which reject death as a state of powerlessness and hold that the dead, from the realms of the afterlife, have power to change the material world. When these ideas are articulated through Black nationalist discourses, death, and particularly suicide, is presented as a form of resistance. Specifically, self-inflicted death becomes a mean through which one contend for survival. The article argues that in their characterizations and various narrative strategies, both Morrison and Baraka interrogate the usefulness of these ideas by considering them as solutions to racialized injuries and injustices of post Emancipation Back American life.

Psihopatija i moć: implikacije za socijalni život

The paper analyzes the relationship between psychopathy and public power. The focus is on the fact that in public space it is possible to observe certain psychopathological characteristics of persons performing public functions. In this sense, the psychopathological characteristics of persons who construct public space are stated, ie their characteristics are radicalized in the context of power. In this sense, we have listed the key features of psychopathy and power structures that are abused by psychopaths in power. The result is a society that cannot make quality changes and is brought into a state of powerlessness known as collective abdication. We found a strong foothold for these reflections in the work of A.M. Lobaczewski, and we also mentioned T. Clark as the author who forms a sociology of evil. The triad of psychopathy-power-evil is an active reality in a society like ours.

Ecology-Based Coastal Community Empowerment Innovation in Batu Beriga Village, Central Bangka Regency

The coastal area is a part that is rich in the potential of marine and coastal resources that can be developed properly. Talking about the coast can not be separated from the existence of people living in coastal areas, since long ago people have also depended on the use of natural resources around the coast and the sea. Over time, the lives of coastal communities have deteriorated and until now coastal communities are identically known as marginalized communities. This condition is accompanied by coastal communities who have not been able to manage marine and coastal resources optimally. This is because the touch of knowledge about the use of resource development in coastal areas is very minimal, As a result, the community does not know how to manage the potential of marine and coastal resources that are more effective and innovative. Therefore, the active role and concern of the government can certainly reduce the powerlessness of coastal communities with the limited capabilities that the community has so far so that coastal communities can get out of the state of powerlessness. which is characterized by the condition of marginalized society. The purpose of this research is to analyze how the form of ecological-based coastal community empowerment is, as well as to find out the implications of ecological-based coastal community empowerment programs, and identify what are the opportunities and challenges in ecological-based coastal community empowerment in Batu Beriga Village, Central Bangka Regency. This study uses the concept of empowerment by Jim Ife as the basic foundation of the research. Regarding the concept of empowerment, according to Jim Ife, with regard to community empowerment, it is providing resources, opportunities, and knowledge to residents to improve their abilities. Empowerment is defined as an effort to provide power (empowerment) and strengthening (strengthening) to the community. This concept has a close relationship with two main concepts, namely (power) which means power and (disadvantaged) which means inequality. The method used in this research is descriptive qualitative with the primary data source coming from unstructured interviews with 15 informants. The informants consisted of 3 village officials, 5 community members, 3 tourism awareness groups in Batu Beriga Village, 2 staff from the Environment and Forestry Service (DLHK) of the Bangka Belitung Islands Province, 2 staff from the Ministry of Environment and Forestry (KLHK) of the Bangka Belitung Islands Province. The results of this study indicate that the empowerment of the Batu Beriga Village community is carried out based on environmental care. The form of community empowerment based on ecology is a manrove planting labor-intensive program. The implication of the program is that it can have a positive impact on social, economic, and environmental aspects, opportunities that occur The results of this study indicate that the empowerment of the Batu Beriga Village community is carried out based on environmental care. The form of community empowerment based on ecology is a manrove planting labor-intensive program. The implication of the program is that it can have a positive impact on social, economic, and environmental aspects, opportunities that occur The results of this study indicate that the empowerment of the Batu Beriga Village community is carried out based on environmental care. The form of community empowerment based on ecology is a manrove planting labor-intensive program. The implication of the program is that it can have a positive impact on social, economic, and environmental aspects, opportunities that occur namely opportunities for mangrove ecosystem rehabilitation and economic recovery opportunities. However, there are challenges such as conflicts of interest, lack of public awareness, and low human resources (HR).

Politics and Landscape in the Argive Plain after the Battle of Sepeia

AbstractModern studies have emphasized the contradictory nature of the ancient traditions concerning the aftermath of the Battle of Sepeia (494 BC), in which the Argive army was destroyed by the Spartans. This article tackles the most significant point of agreement in these traditions: the theme of Argive ‘oligandry’, the demographic crisis caused by the battle. An analysis conducted on the basis of Ansley J. Coale and Paul Demeny’s Model Life Tables shows that the real impact of the demographic crisis was felt in the age structure of Argos’ population rather than in the sheer size of its citizen body. Consequently, this article argues that the political ramifications of the battle originated not from the demographic crisis alleged by the tradition, but from the state of powerlessness and regional isolation into which Argos was plunged by the defeat of 494. This argument, which supports a reappraisal of Plutarch’s(De mul. vir.4) version of Argos’ response to Sepeia, also helps explain why Argos embraced a markedly aggressive foreign policy towards the towns of the plain in the following decades.

“In fact I am an animal”: Mental Illness, Vulnerability and the Problem of Empathy in Anna Kavan's Asylum Piece

ABSTRACT This article explores Anna Kavan's critique of psychiatry in Asylum Piece (1940), a collection of stories which draws from her struggle with mental illness and her internment in a psychiatric clinic in the late 1930s. In this work, an aestheticization of vulnerability and a perplexing model of empathy are established. Kavan's conception of mental illness as a state of powerlessness leaves society – and by extension humanity – complicit with the psychiatric regime of oppression, and so she turns to non-human and “subhuman” subjectivities for safety and compassion. Unlike Derrida, then, for whom the gaze of the non-human other precipitates the deconstruction of one's identity, for Kavan the gaze of the non-human is restorative. The article examines the ethical implications of this gesture and proposes that Kavan's mentally ill be read as an other whose radical alterity demands to be acknowledged empathetically and unconditionally.

Violence Reframed: Constructing Subjugated Individuals as Agents, Not Images, through Screen Narratives

Violence Reframed: Constructing Subjugated Individuals as Agents, Not Images, through Screen Narratives

STATES OF MALAY POWERLESSNESS IN THE WORKS OF CHE HUSNA AZHARI

Background and Purpose: The development of scholarship on Malaysian Literature in English (MLiE) continuously receives attention, especially on one particular direction, which is the studies of the Malays. Inspired by the Malay proverb “Diluah mati mak, ditelan mati bapa” (Malay for ‘between the devil and the deep sea), this study looked into local literature in relation to powerlessness and its social complexity where we argue that the Malays are often caught in-between entanglements that prohibit individualism, as due to societal prejudice.
 
 Methodology: This study employed thematic analysis where upon familiarizing with Azhari’s short stories, namely Mariah and of Bunga Telur and Bally shoes, the researchers identified themes that help understand the types and causes of powerlessness as illustrated in the short stories before associating the Malays’ state of powerlessness and their emotional suppression.
 
 Findings: Findings revealed that both genders suffer from the Malay prejudice and their own lack of emotional strength, causing both to be powerless captives in different contexts, unlike the Western societies where similar situations might lead to alienation.
 
 Contributions: The study contributed towards the understanding of social phenomenon, namely issues regarding powerlessness among the Malays. Such contribution is significant at developing potentials within building national talent, especially those regarding family and spiritual values. 
 
 Keywords: Che Husna Azhari, emotional suppression, Malays, Malaysian literature in English, powerlessness.
 
 Cite as: Ismail, H. H., & Al-Subaihi, M. N. (2020). States of Malay powerlessness in the works of Che Husna Azhari. Journal of Nusantara Studies, 5(1), 211-233. http://dx.doi.org/10.24200/jonus.vol5iss1pp211-233

Zadie Smith's White Teeth: The Interpellation of the Colonial Subject in Multicultural Britain

ABSTRACTWhite Teeth (2000) fictionalises the realities that immigrants experience and reveals how they find themselves caught in a chaotic, fragmented and alienated world and seek to actualise themselves through similar escape mechanisms. Through a close reading of the novel, this article, suggesting that a literary text subjectively mediates actual, imagined or reimagined histories in a given period and manifests specific historical contexts through an aesthetic individualisation of the socio-historical totality, attempts to theorise the concept of double alienation from a Marxist perspective and to justify its arguments in response to recent intellectual and political histories and theoretical interventions. In order to provide a different interpretation of the process of alienation and to discuss the twofold escape mechanisms of the colonial subject, this article will, in this context, mainly focus on Samad M. Iqbal and his two sons, Millat and Magid, and analyse how they internalise the socio-cultural and political orientations of white supremacy, run through a state of loss, atomisation, meaninglessness and powerlessness and struggle to escape from and nullify the negatives impacts of the process of double alienation in the colonial centre.

The Potential Impact of Family Life Education and Lay Counselor Training on Poverty in Developing Countries: The Example of India

Approximately one third of the world's 1.2 billion poorest people on earth live in India. It is home to more people living in poverty than any other country in the world. Although overall poverty rates in India have decreased in the past several decades because of India's emphasis on poverty reduction and community development since independence, the number of people at or below the poverty line remains in the hundreds of millions. Poverty in India, as in many developing countries, is not just the absence of income but the presence of an ongoing state of helplessness, hopelessness, powerlessness, inequality, and marginalization of the poor. This article examines how Lay Counselor Training and Family Life Education can have a potentially powerful and long-lasting impact on the socio-economic development of individuals, families, and communities in India. The authors highlight how professionally trained Indian counselors and family life educators, in cooperation with NGO's and professionals from other areas of the world, can help reduce poverty and enhance healthy human development through the training of lay persons in both rural and urban areas, and how these efforts can, in turn, potentially augment the economic conditions of families and communities. These effects become mutually reinforcing since the economic development of families and communities is also likely to enhance the mental and emotional health of family members and the overall resilience of the family. Hence, a multimodal approach to poverty reduction is needed. In this article India serves as an example for other developing countries.

UNA ALTERNATIVA PARA LA INTERVENCION PSICOLOGICA EN UN MUNDO DIFERENTE

Abstract.Psychological intervention nowadays requires creatively implemented changes in response to psychosocial reality, this time thinking of the Mexican reality, able to shed, successful, visible, clear results, targets. This requires creative strategies to consider the cultural and psychosocial characteristics of the environment. It is a method that moves the empowerment of the powers of the person to face a hostile reality, creating resilient scenarios that allow their way successfully in a complex society, overwhelmed by the psychosocial hostility and corruption that allow their way successfully in a complex society, overwhelmed by the psychosocial hostility and corruption, that draws a society steeped in a complex state of violence, powerlessness, crime and insecurity. The applied method is based on the structure of the Clinical Method, the backbone of the research is recognized as qualitative, is a Research Participant where the therapist was part of the university community where this therapeutic style that departed from psychoanalytic bases and humanist conviction, was worked with university students attending Psychological Care for 8 years, achieving fortunate results in the transformation of their scenarios, based on the transformation of their intrapersonal be. The tool used is resilience, arising from the spiritual dimension, mobilizing force of all the skills that make a person who mobilized in deep introspection are the mechanism that implements positive improvement scenarios, scenarios rebuild, decisions to make, in function of a fundamental axis: the overwhelming transformation of order, internal order to put arising externally and spaces extend outwards, where the person can break through and develop. All framed by the process of guidance and support.Keywords: Psychological Intervention, Guidance, Spiritual Dimension, Empowerment, Resilience.Resumen.La intervención psicológica en nuestros días exige cambios implementados creativamente en respuesta a la realidad psicosocial, esta vez pensando en la realidad mexicana, capaces de arrojar resultados claros, objetivos, exitosos, visibles. Ello requiere estrategias creativas que consideren las características culturales y psicosociales del entorno. Se trata de un método que moviliza el adueñamiento de las competencias de la persona, para afrontar una realidad hostil, creando escenarios resilientes que le permitan abrirse paso exitosamente en una sociedad compleja, rebasada por esa hostilidad psicosocial y la corrupción, que dibuja una sociedad inmersa en un complejo estado de violencia, indefensión, delincuencia e inseguridad. El Método aplicado se basa en la estructura del Método Clínico, la columna vertebral de la Investigación se reconoce como cualitativa, se trata de una Investigación Participante donde el terapeuta formó parte de la comunidad universitaria donde este estilo terapéutico, que partió de bases psicoanalíticas y una convicción humanista, fue trabajado con jóvenes universitarios que acudían a Atención Psicológica durante 8 años, logrando resultados afortunados en la transformación de sus escenarios, partiendo de la transformación de su ser intrapersonal. La herramienta utilizada es la resiliencia, surgida desde la dimensión espiritual, fuerza movilizadora de todas las competencias que hacen a la persona, que movilizadas en una introspección profunda constituyen el mecanismo que implementa escenarios positivos de mejora, escenarios por reconstruir, decisiones por tomar, en función de un eje fundamental: la transformación avasalladora del orden, poner orden interior para que surja externamente, y los espacios se extiendan hacia el exterior, donde la persona pueda abrir camino y desarrollarse. Todo, enmarcado en un proceso de orientación y acompañamiento.Palabras Clave: Intervención Psicológica, Orientación, Dimensión espiritual, Adueñamiento, Resiliencia

Exploring the impact of packaging interactions on quality of life among older consumers

ABSTRACTThis paper explores the concept of consumer vulnerability in the context of older consumers’ packaging interactions. Consumer vulnerability is viewed as a situational state of powerlessness where marketplace imbalances or harm may occur from consuming marketing messages and/or products. The paper draws upon evidence from a series of in-depth interviews and observations with a cross section of 11 consumers aged between 59 and 85 years concerning their experiences with fast-moving consumer goods packaging. The findings reveal that changes as a result of the multiple dimensions of ageing can increase older consumers’ risk of experiencing vulnerability during packaging interactions. The paper provides new insights to aid firms in empowering older consumers through packaging development, thus reducing vulnerability.

Power and legitimacy influence conformity

Although prior research indicates that power and hierarchy illegitimacy independently decrease conformity to social norms, we demonstrate that the two interact. In five studies, we find that legitimate power decreases conformity, whereas illegitimate power increases conformity. We conducted Study 1 in a business organization and found that power was negatively related to employees' conformity with organizational values when the power hierarchy was seen as legitimate, but positively related to conformity when the hierarchy was seen as illegitimate. In Study 2, we manipulated power and legitimacy via a recall task and found the same pattern of effects. Study 3 replicates this finding by manipulating role-based power and legitimacy and examining conformity to norms ostensibly established by others in the context of the study. In Study 4, we find that these effects are driven by increases in conformity among those who are in a state of legitimate powerlessness or illegitimate power. Finally, Study 5 demonstrates that legitimacy moderates the experience of power in part because of its effect on hierarchy stability. Our studies suggest that attributes of a power hierarchy, such as its legitimacy, can be as important in determining behavior as one's hierarchical position.

Confronting Diminished Epistemic Privilege and Epistemic Injustice in Pregnancy by Challenging a “Panoptics of the Womb”

This paper demonstrates how the problematic kinds of epistemic power that physicians have can diminish the epistemic privilege that pregnant women have over their bodies and can put them in a state of epistemic powerlessness. This result, I argue, constitutes an epistemic injustice for many pregnant women. A reconsideration of how we understand and care for pregnant women and of the physician-patient relationship can provide us with a valuable context and starting point for helping to alleviate the knowledge/power problems that are symptomatic of the current system and structure of medicine. I suggest that we can begin to confront this kind of injustice if medicine adopts a more phenomenological understanding of bodies and if physicians and patients--in this case, pregnant women--become what I call "epistemic peers."

The Vashti Paradigm Resistance as a Strategy for Combating HIV

The Vashti Paradigm Resistance as a Strategy for Combating <scp>HIV</scp>

Generous Paupers and Stingy Princes: Power Drives Consumer Spending on Self versus Others

This research examines how consumers' spending on themselves versus others can be affected by temporary shifts in their states of power. Five experiments found that individuals experiencing a state of power spent more money on themselves than on others, whereas those experiencing a state of powerlessness spent more money on others than on themselves. This effect was observed using a variety of power manipulations (hierarchical roles, print advertisements, episodic recall, and mental role-playing), across spending intentions and actual dollars spent, and among college and national samples. We propose that this effect occurs because power and powerlessness affect the psychological utility of self versus others, and this in turn affects the monetary worth allocated to spending on self versus others. The research makes novel contributions to appreciating how the spending on the self versus others varies as a function of psychological states and increases our understanding of the role of power in consumer behavior.

Gender and Poverty Reduction: A Kenyan Context.

Poverty is a dehumanising condition for every one. It erodes human rights of the affected whether women or men. Poverty subjects an individual to a state of powerlessness, hopelessness, and lack of self-esteem, confidence, and integrity, leading to a situation of multidimensional vulnerability. Poverty has a gender dimension since women and men experience and react differently to its impact. It cuts across age, ethnicity and gender. Unless there are realistic and workable interventions to redress the situation, there develops a vicious circle of poverty where it is inherited from one generation to the other in households, communities and the nation. As many people in Kenya are poor with the women bearing the blunt of it, reducing its impact as well as breaking its vicious circle requires a concerted effort and a gender perspective in all the interventive strategies. Commitment of Kenya Government to eradicate poverty is manifest in its current development strategies, as demonstrated with the efforts towards the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, especially No. 1, on the eradication of poverty to less than 30% of the Kenyans by 2015 and the Kenya Vision 2030. However, the reality on the ground indicates that despite these intentions, the increase on the number of the poor both in rural and urban Kenya has been worrying. This creates a need to intensify poverty reduction efforts in planning and programming, especially as regards to human resource development, health, employment, physical infrastructures, agriculture, rural development, trade, public safety, law and order, all of which are instrumental in scaling up the development process and poverty eradication. Moreover sustainable poverty reduction strategies must engage both women and men as actors and beneficiaries. Key words: Kenya, poverty, gender, development, strategies.