User:LGreg/sandbox/Approaches to Knowledge (LG seminar 2020/21)/Seminar 12/Power

This is the sandbox page for the issue: Power.

Power in Medical Research- Leadership

Medical research ensures that society can have the best, most up to date healthcare. Although, the majority of leadership positions are taken by men, even in departments of women's health, Obstetrics and Gynaecology, and their power has an indirect and systematic influence on how Medical Research is conducted.

How its Leadership Influences Medical Research

In the field of research, in order to climb up the rankings and get work promoted and peer-reviewed, scientists would aim to get their articles published in journals and have authorship to them. Although this is at core gender-neutral, however, these articles are more likely to be published if they are written by men, who usually also have authorship to the paper .This is further emphasised by the fact that women are also less requested to write papers. This results in men dominated fields of study as the more peer-reviewed a paper, the more credibility and power the researcher receives.

Preference is even embedded in how research is conducted. For example, coronary artery disease is more prevalent in older women. Despite this, funding for research to be done on more men as test subjects is higher than it is for females to get tested. Hence, this could prevent accurate evidence and treatment being researched. Something which seems as small and early as funding may be the factor which limits human health and prevention of coronary artery diseases within the population. It may also give us one reason behind the gender pay gap especially as female-specific research doesn't seem to be as supported, implying bias. In a way, money can be thought as a way to influence power and power can impact truth (and vice versa). The more funding one gets, the more in-depth experiments a researcher can do and the more likely the research paper will get published and recognised by the public and become the accepted "truth". This all links back to leadership. People in authority are giving out funding and the majority are men who may unconsciously prefer one study to another which may not be representative of the population. Furthermore, this even applies to non-human test subjects. More male animals are being tested and evidence from male testing is assumed that the same applies to females. The truth then is only being based on one gender.

Conclusion

The medical research industry has an indirect and institutionalised coercion on genders and the people in leadership have the power to influence decision making who may have an unconscious bias towards one gender. Medical research has come a long way over the recent decades but more acceptance towards female studies and leadership can lead to more efficient advancements of human health, which is ultimately the goal.

The Power that Social Media Holds

Introduction to social media

Social media is a form of communication through apps and websites by sharing pictures, news, and much more information. In today’s world, social media is an amazing asset to stay in touch with people from around the world and to meet new people with the ease of communication. Moreover, staying up to date on news became much mire easier thanks to this innovation. Yet, social media holds a much bigger power than this superficial asset. The next few paragraphs will tackle a few different disciplines: marketing and news. There'll also be a paragraph on a social media in China more precisely.

The Power of Social Media in Marketing

Social media has made reaching out to a bigger audience easier to businesses. Think about the many ads that pop up on your Instagram feed on the daily. Businesses now have to include a great social media strategy to help them grow. The biggest advantage that social media offers to businesses is the power of visuals. When using attention grabbing visuals the consumer would want to take action. Furthermore, since recently, businesses and content creators are able to advertise their posts on Instagram. By doing so, they select a certain audience they want to reach based on age, countries, accounts they follow, etc… It’s safe to say that social media, if used properly, can help boost a business and create a loyal consumer base.

The Power of Social Media in News

With social media, accessing news is as simple as touching a button. Nobody has to wait for the morning newspaper to get updated on a certain election or the gossips on celebrities. 2.4 billion of people resort to social media to get their news from, and 64.5% use Facebook, Twitter and Instagram instead of a news app such as BBC news. In the Netflix documentary “The Social Dilemma”, ex-workers of big social media companies such as Instagram, Twitter and Google discussed this issue. They stated that if 3 people with different political views researched the same question about politics they’d have different responses. In other words, the search results we end up with are not facts, but they’re our own opinions somewhat changed to catch our attention. Hence, a person can’t resort to social media to get facts or news.

Social Media in China

In china, social media is much more controlled. The government has imposed laws that censors a lot of words that are deemed sensitive. If someone's post breaks this law in any form they might have their accounts banned. . During the coronavirus outbreak, a big number of keywords were censored from the media such as "Sars variation". The freedom of speech in China on social media is therefore very limited with their laws that are in place.

Conclusion

To put it into a nutshell, social media does have some advantages such as the ease of communication and staying in touch. For businesses, it helps them advertise their products way more easily. Yet, the downsides of social media are awful and create a big divide between people.

Power in History

Introduction

History, even though it appears to be a clearly descriptive discipline has a very tight relationship with the notion of power. Already in the nineteenth century Friedrich Nietzsche definitely stated that the methodology of history does not lead to reaching some objective truth but to imposing historian’s own viewpoint and theories. In other words,, that knowledge is a form of power – the information recorded is the information that is considered worth recording. Another thinker that has seen the issue of power structures influencing the discipline was Michel Foucault. He continues Nietzsche’s thought that the historian is the person holding certain power. In his works, Foucault reveals a direct link between the past and the present, where one is used to make sense of another (and vice versa). It is most visible in his example of the Marxist historians who, even though still trying to make ‘positivist’ sense of it , think of the history as the way to perpetuate the revolution, relating it to the times they’re living in.

Eurocentric and elitist focus of history

One of the brightest examples of power’s connection with history is the general idea of what was recognized as part o history (until very recently). The historians recorded facts and information which were ‘worth noting’ and these were socially established by the elite, people with power. This way, most of the available records concern the life and actions of the upper class, which consisted mostly of rich and well educated males. Thus, it may be (mistakenly) inferred that only rich and well educated males were the ones contributing to the history and only their actions were of any value to the rest.

Narratives of nationalism

Another common narrative that can be considered a product of power is the narration of nationalism. State, as an entity that is holding power, decides how the history is taught in the country. Historical narration is usually organised in the way that has to maintain people’s sense of nationality and affiliation, thus the phrases such as patriotism, honor and duty are especially prominent.

Power in Geography

Geography is the study of land and its relationship to its inhabitants. It is interested both in the natural processes on the surface of the earth and the way people arrange themselves in this surface.

Both these arrangements and the study of them are subject to being influenced to people's self-interest. Thus, they provide useful insight into the world's power structures and struggles.

Borders

Borders are the boundaries separating different areas. They are politically motivated and constructed by humans. As land is an important resource, the way it is distributed on a map is inextricably linked to power.

Borders can often bear evidence of colonisation. In Africa, the majority of the current borders were drawn by colonisers during the Berlin Conference. This was done to make it easier for the empires to trade African land. These borders were drawn to the benefit of the colonists, for instance creating larger states in low population density areas to save money rather than to reflect the complex political and cultural structures of the population. Many parts of Africa didn't previously have borders due to operating under different political systems to those of Europeans. The colonists saw that as evidence of primitiveness. The artificial borders created multiple problems. Communities were lumped together or split apart. The size of the state and the extent of artificiality in its borders are closely related to international conflict. In one area between Egypt and Sudan, two versions of the borders created by the colonists at different times led to the creation of a Terra Nulla called Bir Tawil.

The influence of power in borders goes beyond even colonialism, although colonialism's impact is vast. Often borders are drawn as a means to legitimise one's power over space and resources. For instance, there are territorial claims of parts of the East China sea from six different nations. This is an example of how borders can be used as an instrument of exerting power.

Approaches to Geography

The power structures of our world are also reflected in the way we study Geography. For instance, while it may seem like maps are simply a reflection of the Earth's surface and thus cannot be biased, in fact many choices go into making the map the way it is, and often these reflect the world's power structures. The map commonly used today is the Mercator's projection, originally created in the sixteenth century for the purposes of navigation. This map places Europe at the top and at the centre, creating quite literally a Eurocentric picture of the world with a clear bias to the Northern Hemisphere. Additionally, the projection sacrafices the accuracy of size for the accuracy of distances (as both at once are mathematically impossible to achieve on a flat projection of a round object). This results in Europe appearing much larger, and Africa much smaller, than they currently are. While Mercator's map can indeed be useful for navigation, its widespread use in most other areas over other projections speaks to the way the view of those with power shapes the field of Geography.

Art and Power

How power appropriates art for its own benefit ?

Arts has always been used by the persons at the head of the societies to spread their power and sometimes their ideas. They even often used it as propaganda to pray a certain person or a particular party. For that purpose, artists use many different tools : mostly symbols, such as significant colors, but also slogans. 



To begin with, all monarchs had painters do their portrait. Few decades ago, the accent was put on the truth of the portraits. They really were made in a way that would put the queen/king forward. However, nowadays with the appearance of photography, those paintings have mostly been replaced by photographs which are obviously more close to the reality.

At a time where political power and religion were tightly linked, architecture was used as a way to show the power of the church. Majestic cathedrals were built all around Europe, such as St. Denis near Paris, to demonstrate the power of the monarchs, in this case Louis XVI. Moreover, the XXth century with the world wars and authoritarian regimes is a great example of how art was used as propaganda by the power.
As an example, at that time in the USSR, propaganda poster were really common. They were praising the merits of the communist party. In this regard, the color red and all the other symbols of the party, such as the hammer and sickle, were used as tools.

Art as a counter power

Nevertheless, art can also be used as a counter power to denounce the actual power and its flaws. Some examples of the way it can be done are caricatures and cartoons published in the press but also street art. The importance of art as a counter power has increase all the more so as with the development of social media, there is no need to be a professional to touch a large group of person.

The emergence of social media also reconsiders the reliability of the art which is directly used by the power because it gives us the tools to re-evaluate it. For instance, to continue the previous example, nowadays, the official royal portraits can always be compared to paparazzi photos.

Power of Literature

Introduction

Literature can be defined as «writings in which expression and form, in connection with ideas of permanent and universal interest, are characteristic or essential features, as poetry, novels, history, biography, and essays. ». A human tends to learn how to read around the age of 6 to 7 years old. However, literature comes into our life even before that. Indeed, parents often spend time reading stories to babies as young as 4 months old, as it helps develop the baby's brain. . According to data from the American Time Use Survey, Americans spend less and less time reading, and more and more time watching television or going on the internet.In times where technologies continue to emerge, it is important to remember that Literature is very powerful.

Power of explanation

In a way, the words of other people allow us to reflect on the consequences and possibilities of our own experiences. It provides us with a better understanding of the world we live in. Literature helps to comprehend aspects of the human condition without needing to experience them. But not only is Literature allowing us to figure out how our current society functions, but also how past societies worked. Reading gives us the ability to step back in time and gather a better understanding of cultures in general. For example, Italian and Jewish Primo Levi's memoir: "If this is a man", published in 1947 describes his arrestation, in 1944, for being a member of the Italian anti-fascist resistance, and his incarceration in the Auschwitz concentration camp from 1944 to 1945. His words narrate the horror of life in a concentration camp as he explains his "day-to-day" life, without really giving his point of view or opinions. The type of Literature that narrates the horrors of the past, persuade us not to recreate them and make us want to work for a better world. As Kurt Vonnegut, an American writer said in his book Palm Sunday: An Autobiographical Collage: "I believe that reading and writing are the most nourishing forms of meditation anyone has so far found. By reading the writings of the most interesting minds in history, we meditate with our own minds and theirs as well. This to me is a miracle.".

Power in children's literature

Even though children read less and less, the power of literature and the stories written can influence children a lot. For example, according to Evelyn Arizpe and Vivienne Smith in Children as Readers in Children's Literature, children shouldn't read fiction and fantasy books too soon because they need to understand that what they are reading about will not come true. Because children learn a lot through books and stories and they are more likely to believe in what the books are talking about than adults that already have a critical sense. Therefore, the power of literature and the stories told are more extensive than with adults.. However, children definitely should continue reading any piece of Literature. Indeed, Literature helps put into words what they are thinking, but can't seem to express: their point of view on life, their emotions that are often troubled during teenage years... Margaret Atwood, a modern Canadian poet, and novelist said: "Reading and writing, like everything else, improve with practice. And, of course, if there are no young readers and writers, there will shortly be no older ones. Literacy will be dead, and democracy – which many believe goes hand in hand with it – will be dead as well."

Power in Education: Gender Discrimination

Education In Human Rights

The right to education has been a part of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights since its creation in 1948. While significant progress has been made in terms of worldwide accessibility to primary education, there remain several issues regarding gender discrimination and unequal access across various nations.

Instances of Unequal Access

63% of the world’s illiterate adult population (people above 15 years old) are women, many of whom live in developing areas. This demonstrates historical bias, and while it is improving, girls are still more likely to experience worse educational outcomes than their male counterparts, according to Campaign For Education. In nations with more developed education infrastructure, women are more likely to score lower in assessments where their gender is known to the examiner, shown by a recent study of the Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris. COVID-19 led to the typical face-to-face interview being replaced with a gender-blind essay, which culminated in a higher proportion of female admissions. While this was more of an incidental study than an official one, the same results were found in a Harvard study regarding gender bias within orchestra auditions. Here, power dynamics are reinforced with no evidence to back them up, and their effect remains significant thought deeply-ingrained bias that, had these studies not occurred, could easily be explained by other factors.

Sources of Disadvantage

There are a variety of reasons these unfair power dynamics continue to manifest themselves within educational structures. For the girls themselves, perceiving themselves as conforming to the stereotype of being worse at math can create a self-fulfilling prophecy, and the same effect occurs if that stereotype is held by their teachers or parents. Aside from that, there are cultural barriers that can prevent women from accessing education. Lack of sanitation facilities can pose a problem in situations where girls and women do not have access to menstrual hygiene resources, especially in places where the topic remains culturally shameful. While both of the above are also indirect and institutionalized, a direct example would be violence within the household, which makes students more likely to drop out. However, because sexual assault is often more targeted towards girls, they are the larger proportion of affected individuals. Underage marriage, while on the decline, is still common in areas of South Asia, where cultural norms expect a family to quickly follow a marriage, and girls are simply not given the opportunity to complete an education because they are more valuable fulfilling the role of a housewife. All of these factors lead to educational systems that, directly or indirectly, continue discrimination against women by limiting career opportunities, which include political involvement. The vicious cycle of female representatives not having the power to make decisions in areas of the law that affect their rights continues, as many are relegated to childcare, housework, or to fighting for one of the "female spots" in a male-dominated group.

Power of Social media in politics

Technology and social media changed the game in politics and diplomacy. It is probably the one discipline that was the most challenged because of technology and the way we use social media to do politics. Indeed, now politicians are faced with a public that has access to information like no one could before and they have to adapt to deliver content on those platforms. Nowadays, social medias are the centre of political campaign. We can also see for example that Twitter is at the centre of the political stage with politicians and presidents using it every day to easily pass on messages. The most famous example of that is probably the president of the United States, Donald Trump that uses its Twitter account daily to talk about everything.

Social media changes 2 things in politics, the first one being the number of information, communications and news changes the way people have information and how they perceive it and second, politicians now have the power to shape their program and ideas to reach a wider audience and especially the younger ones. Social media had the power to influence people and have a wider audience for politicians.  

The power of social media in politics is from the change of dynamics from traditional politics to the ‘technological politics’ where the lines between the cultural, the political and the popular’ are blurred. Social media offer a way to express emotions and to challenge the conventional ways politics are being made and who can participate.

Politicians are not the only one to pass on political messages because social media are platforms where even simple citizen with no background in politics can become activists. Indeed, it’s now very easy to make petitions reach a wider audience than just a city but also sometimes a whole country.

Social media give power to everyone and not just the politicians like before which means that the power is shifting from a small number of people to a much larger number of people that can bring new ideas and ways of thinking.

Facebook - Cambridge Analytica Scandal

The Facebook-Cambridge Analytica scandal is one of the most famous scandals of social media being intrusive of politics. The scandal involved Facebook that sold more than 87 million people’s data to advertise election and influence candidates. The data was collected by Cambridge Analytica and then processed to build a psychological profile on users. The firm sought to sell these data to a political campaign that now had the ability to target the right audience.

This leak is one of the greatest in the history of social media that involved politics and it shows that it is easy for people to have the power of others because of information that they thought was private and only on their social media platforms.

Power in Religion

Introduction

Religion can be defined as “a specific fundamental set of beliefs and practices generally agreed upon by a number of persons or sects“. Many religions include the belief in a higher power that stands above us as humans.

There is no doubt that the development of religions has had an immense impact on humanity throughout history. There have been books written about the various religions, religious studies are a subject taught at school and theology is a degree available at university. The development of religious belief has gone hand in hand with the establishment of religious institutions, which ultimately became the means of exertion of religious power.

Religion and social control

Religious beliefs in a higher power determining what is right and wrong were often as a way of legitimizing the enforcement of rules within society. These rules might be based on pragmatic intentions. For instance, rather than simply forbidding it early religious law stated that pork meat is impure in god’s eyes to prevent the early Hebrew population from consuming it after people had died from doing so. The reason, unknown at the time, was that the meat had to be cooked through in order not to be harmful to the body. Thus, religion was the mechanism for developing and enforcing codes of conduct.

In other cases, however, the intentions underlying the reference to religion were directly linked to furthering political power. Thus, in pre-democratic Europe, European monarchs derived legitimacy through the approval of their reign by a religious institution. The crowning ceremonies kings and queens took place in churches, confirming that their right to rule was god-given.

Religion was also an extremely powerful way of strengthening the sense community in empires, binding people together through a common belief. Again, that goes back to the idea of motivating a community to do something by declaring that it is god’s will. An example would be the crusades, that combined religious as well as political motivations.

Religion and control over women

Religious institutions find justification for their actions and beliefs, including their perception of women’s positions within society, in interpretations of religious texts. However, most of these texts have been written and further interpreted by men themselves, thus legitimizing prejudices against women in the name of religion. The fact that in some religions women are regarded as “unclean” while menstruating, are forbidden control of their own sexuality (e.g. when it comes to contraception), or that some positions in religious institutions can only be occupied by men, only reflect men’s claim of power over women, both historically and in contemporary society.

Conclusion

For many people, religion is a source of comfort and spiritual growth. However, undeniably, religion and religious institutions are inextricably linked to questions power in human social structures.

Power in Political Activism: Race

What is political activism

Political activism occurs when people, usually as a collective, speak out and protest against perceived injustices in order to create change and often encourage or force their governments to make policy changes. Political activism has always been rife throughout society however has been especially prevalent since the election of Donald Trump in 2016, with the Black Lives Matter movement to encourage people to take a stand against police brutality and several environmental movements to encourage climate change awareness.

White Saviour Complex

“White Saviour Industrial Complex”, a term created by the writer Teju Cole, demonstrates the somewhat perceived power of being a “white saviour” within activism. The term helps to describe the disconnect that many white activists have with the issues that they protest, especially racially charged ones. Cole describes President Obama as having to be “wary of being seen as the “angry black man,”” an issue that many people of colour face whilst trying to create change, especially on more local levels such as workplace environments.

Another effect of white saviour complex and white fragility within activist issues is that it prevents people of colour from having their voices heard, even within issues that directly concern them. Often within this, white fragility and need to be validated can take away from creating real change as it leads to performative activism. This was a common occurrence during the Black Lives Matter movement where social media “challenges” and trends overcame the movement, reducing it to something that white people could participate in without feeling the burden that people of colour have had to endure for generations.

Power in Cult Organisation

The dimensions of power

According to Steven Lukes in Power: a Radical View there are three dimensions of power. The first dimension of power, as formulated by Robert A. Dahl, is when “A has power over B to the extent that he can get B to do something that B would not otherwise do.”. This dimension can be referred to as the power of decision-making or direct coercive power.

The second dimension of power, as formulated by Bachrach and Baratz demonstrates that power is also exercised when A uses social, political and institutional structures to limit the options of B and sustain the dynamics that keep A powerful. The difference is that the first face of power uses explicit decision-making whereas the second face of power focuses on institutions and values. This dimension can be referred to as the power of non-decision making or indirect coercive power.

The third dimension of power, as formulated by Lukes is “the power ‘to prevent people, to whatever degree, from having grievances by shaping their perceptions, cognitions and preferences in such a way that they accept their role in the existing order of things’.”. This dimension can be referred to as ideological power.

What constitutes a cult?

Dena S. Davis refers to the Cult Awareness Network’s definition of a cult as “a closed system whose followers have been unethically and deceptively recruited through the use of manipulative techniques of thought reform or mind control.”. Thomas Robbins and Dick Anthony outline 6 characteristics of cults stating that “These groups are usually: (1) authoritarian in their leadership; (2) communal and totalistic in their organization; (3) aggressive in their proselytizing; (4) systematic in their programs of indoctrination; (5) relatively new and unfamiliar in the United States; and (6) middle class in their clientele.”. Cults recruit people at vulnerable stages in their lives, often young people in uncertain times. One could argue that cults take advantage of impressionable people by offering to provide answers to the many uncertainties of life.

Power dimensions within cults

Cults are organisations that rely on a clear hierarchical structure based on firm power dynamics. There is often a strong, charismatic leader at the top of this hierarchy that holds power over the members of the cult. All three dimensions of power can be found within the organisational structure of the typical cult.

The first dimension of power is present in many cults as members are subject to the decisions of cult leaders. An example of this is the case of the self-help guru, James Arthur Ray, who initiated sweat lodges as a way to help his followers push boundaries and overcome fears. The annual event was known as the “spiritual warrior” event and in 2009 it resulted in the hospitalization of 18 people and the deaths of 3. A witness and attendee of the spiritual warrior event witnesses hearing Ray urge the participants to stay in the sweat lodge: “You are not going to die. You might think you are, but you are not going to die.”. This tragic event can be seen as a prime example of the first dimension of power as James Arthur Ray possessed the power to make individuals perform actions they would not otherwise partake in, in this case proving to be fatal.

An example of the second dimension of power, the power of non-decision making, can be seen in the concept of disconnection within the Church of Scientology through which members are excluded if they maintain contact with so-called suppressive people; previous members who have chosen to leave the cult or are in other ways critical of Scientology. By setting an agenda in which the members concerned are aware of their potential exclusion, they are under the influence of the power of the cult to make a decision to either maintain or cut off contact with a previous loved-one.

The third dimension of power is perhaps the most inherent within the cult organisation as it leads members to believe that they are choosing to adhere to cult rules out of their own free will when in reality they are the products of biased education and socialisation within the cult by leaders and other members. They are made to believe that certain abnormalities are in fact normal. An example of this is the extreme case of the Heaven’s Gate cult where 39 members were indoctrinated to such an extent that they ended their lives in a ritual collective suicide in March 1997. The education and socialisation based on the cult’s beliefs regarding UFOs led members to believe that a collective suicide would lead them to higher levels of existence. The manipulative nature of the third dimension of power of the cult leaders over their members is arguably responsible for causing these members to perform an act (in this case suicide) that they would otherwise not do while simultaneously making them believe that this is their “role in the existing order of things”.

Conclusion

The authoritarian nature of cult organisations and the strategies of indoctrination and manipulation they entail are subject to analysis by all three of Dahl; Bachrach and Baratz; and Lukes’ dimensions of power. Here illustrated by three specific examples, one can begin to understand the power dynamics of cult organisation and the power they possess over their followers.