Language and Power

My Feminist Perspective of Authority – Part 1 by Elise M. Edwards

by Feminism and Religion

Originally posted on the Feminism and Religion project

I make a distinction between power and authority.  Authority is a personal characteristic based on a relationship... more I make a distinction between power and authority.  Authority is a personal characteristic based on a relationship of trust between me and a text, a person, or their work.  Power, on the other hand, is operative with or without trust.

This past weekend, I had the honor of participating in a workshop on Living Texts: Celebrating Feminist Perspective and Theo/alogy, Authority, and the Sacred in the Academy.  The workshop was organized for the Women’s Caucus of WECSOR, a regional association of national organizations who study religion.  I was delighted to connect with new friends, mentors and sisters interested in feminism and religion,

Misyurov D.A. Dialectical formulas based on the binary notation as the development formulas // Credo New. 2012. №2

by Dmitry Misyurov

The article suggests dialectical formulas based on the binary notation as the development formulas: formula with... more The article suggests dialectical formulas based on the binary notation as the development formulas: formula with dominant and the non-dominant elements; universal formula; formula with symbolic weight of elements; tautological formula. For example, it suggests an opportunity to use the dialectical formulas for modeling and artificial intelligence creation, etc.

Discursive enactment of power in Iranian high school EFL classrooms

by Faiz Sathi Abdullah

Co-authored with Kobra Hosseini; published in GEMA Online Journal of Language Studies, Volume 12(2), Special Section, May 2012, pp. 375-392.

Teachers’ dominance in teaching environments has been criticized as an oppressive educational practice by critical... more Teachers’ dominance in teaching environments has been criticized as an oppressive educational practice by critical theories of education. While critical pedagogy that espouses a problem-posing model of education has sought to promote a more equitable and dialogical teacher-student partnership and to transform the oppressive conditions of the ESL/EFL classroom, the claimed potential of the approach has had only limited success in practice. Drawing upon Fairclough’s approach to critical discourse analysis to make for a principled analysis of EFL classroom practice, this study investigated the discoursal features of unequal power relations in Iranian high school EFL classes. The data was collected via observation of two classrooms, one located in an urban area and the other in a semi-urban area of Iran. The analysis of the observation data, which included transcripts of classroom lessons as well as field notes, indicated that teachers played a disproportionately dominant role to the extent that the students were kept
apparently passive and powerless via a range of discursive strategies including maximizing teacher-controlled talking time, turn-taking, topic control, modes of meaning-construction, and elicitation strategies. The findings of this study are expected
to provide critical and emancipatory insights into ESL/EFL classroom practice and contribute to the transformation of its status quo.

Establishment of Tradition by Criticism of Tradition: the case of the Surakarta Style of Javanese Dance

by Michi Tomioka

in Japanese

Urban Research.VOl.12. pp. 50-64.
published in March 2010 by Osaka City University Urban Culture Research Center, Osaka: Japan

　Ramayana Ballet, a dance theater for tourists, was started in 1961 at Prambanan
Temple and has become an... more 　Ramayana Ballet, a dance theater for tourists, was started in 1961 at Prambanan
Temple and has become an Indonesian representative theater. It was choreographed
by R.T.Kusumokesowo, a dance master of the Surakarta Court. However his choreography
was criticized by Gendhon Humardani at the Seminar on National Dance
Theater of Ramayana 1970. It was the beginning of dance criticism in Indonesia, and
Humardani has had an important role in developing Javanese dance since then.
Humardani made severe comments on Kusumokesowo's choreography, especially on
the following 3 points: 1. dance forms representative and external; 2. pendhopo
(Javanese traditional hall) - oriented sense of space; and 3. art direction attaching too
much emphasis to the story. All of these show Humardani appreciated the Western
modern performing arts. It is true Ramayana Ballet produced a new genre named sendratari
(a dance theater) as well as many new character forms, but it still maintained a
conservative sense derived from the Javanese court dance. From the criticism of
Humardani, “the (out‒of‒date) Javanese tradition” has emerged behind “the (up-todate)
Western modernity.”
Humardani got the Western modern-oriented viewpoint from his study abroad in the
U.K and the U.S.A from 1959 to 1961. His viewpoint of the Ramayana Ballet criticism was
already obtained in 1961 when he wrote a criticism on a ballet performance in London.
　Humardani innovated dance both in the PKJT (Central Java Art Center) project and
the ASKI (Indonesian Art Academy), to realize his dance theory. Humardani played an
important role to bring a modern perspective into Javanese dance.
Keywords : tradition, Javanese dance, modern, Ramayana Ballet, Humardani

Rhizomes and other uncountables: The malaise of enumeration in Mexico’s Colorado River Delta

by Shaylih Ryan Muehlmann

American Ethnologist 2012

Spaces of Invention: Dissension, Freedom, and Thought in Foucault

by Kendall Phillips

What symbols

by Dmitry Misyurov

This article contains 12 questions about the symbols. What are your thoughts in response? This article contains 12 questions about the symbols. What are your thoughts in response?

The panoptic role of advertising agencies in the production of consumer culture

by Chris Hackley

Hackley, C. (2002) The panoptic role of advertising agencies in the production of consumer cultureConsumption, Markets and Culture, Vol. 5 (3), pp. 211–229

Advertising’s role in promoting an ideology of marketed consumption has been widely commented upon by critical more Advertising’s role in promoting an ideology of marketed consumption has been widely commented upon by critical
theorists yet the mechanisms through which this influence becomes manifest remain relatively under-examined. In
particular there has been no explicit examination of the mediating role of cultural knowledge in the production of
ideologically driven advertising. This paper invokes the panoptic metaphor to position the knowledge gathered by and on behalf of advertising agencies as a major dynamic in the production of consumer culture. The consumer of advertising is a known entity for advertising agencies: the subject is watched, filmed, questioned, recorded, and tracked. Indeed, consumer biography and subjectivity itself has become material that is both produced and consumed by advertising agencies in order to produce culturally constitutive advertising. The paper integrates disparate
literatures to situate knowledge of consumer culture at the hub of advertising’s constitutive ideological influence.

Maids and Masters: The Distribution of Power in Series 3 of Doctor Who

by Courtney Stoker

Will be published in the new Chicks Unravel Time: Women Journey Through Every Season of Doctor Who, which is edited by Deborah Stanish and Lynne M. Thomas. Published by Mad Norwegian Press, publication date TBA.

Discusses the problematic power dynamics between the Doctor and his companion(s), focusing on Martha Jones in series 3. Discusses the problematic power dynamics between the Doctor and his companion(s), focusing on Martha Jones in series 3.

The chariot-racing metaphor in Homer and Aeschylus: Power politics, high stakes, and the threat of death.

by Kevin Solez

Under review at a peer-reviewed journal.

"Why Do You Write Your Name Long Like That?" Language and Literacy In a San Francisco Kindergarten

by Espen Helgesen

Unpublished Master's Thesis, University of Bergen 2008

In this thesis I investigate the role of language awareness in early literacy, and argue that skills acquired when... more In this thesis I investigate the role of language awareness in early literacy, and argue that skills acquired when becoming literate can provide resources for manipulating social as well as textual relations. Based on ethnographic research among a group of 5- and 6-year old kindergartners in a San Francisco public school, I describe how the kids' personal names provided them with stable landmarks with which to explore both oral and written language. The capacity of names to facilitate communication was, however, countered by the equally powerful capacity of names to obstruct communication. Presenting the kids' personal names as examples of how language is often polysemic, or ambiguous, I argue that, even if the words they used did not have a singular meaning, they were often treated as if they did. I argue that there was a mismatch between two dominant perspectives on names among the kindergartners. Whereas some of the kids primarily used names as markers of identity, others challenged this stability by manipulating names in what I refer to as name joking; the playful manipulation of phonemes or letters for humorous effect. The assumed fixity of names seemed to make them particularly suitable for joking purposes, and a tension could often be found between the kids who considered names to be attached to individuals, and those who considered names to be detached or detachable from individuals. I argue that metalinguistic awareness, understood as the ability to attend to elements of language as objects, was a prerequisite for name joking. Rather than emphasizing this single skill, however, I argue that the kids' different perspectives on language was the product of a difference in communicative flexibility. As such, the kids who were able to switch between considering names to be attached and to be detached from people had a distinct advantage both in conversation and play among the kindergartners. Although teachers encouraged the kids to consider language to be a fluid and flexible tool, they also treated language as a direct reflection of reality by responding with sanctions when the kids used what was referred to as "bad words".

Madness, Fear, and Control in Bangladesh: Clashing Bodies of Power/Knowledge

by James Wilce

Published in Medical Anthropology Quarterly

This article presents an understanding of how Bangladeshis cope with madness in relation to two assumptions: that... more This article presents an understanding of how Bangladeshis cope with madness in relation to two assumptions: that systems of knowledge and of power are coterminous, and that actors in medical encounters draw on incompatible and unequal bodies of knowledge-power. I first offer a perspective on psychiatry, emotion, and discourse in Bangladesh as a society increasingly caught up in globalizing modernity. Then I present two types of data to illumine tensions between various attempts to control the fears associated with schizophrenia. The first is a set of exchanges in the advice column of a new popular psychiatry magazine in Bangladesh that inculcate new perspectives on self. Those who write to the editors signal their fears of what might, in the end, be impossible to control. Answers from the psychiatrists who edit the magazine reflect discourses circulating on the web, at international conferences, and at the institutions in the United Kingdom and the United States where one of them received his training. The second data set consists of video recordings of persons diagnosed with schizophrenia interacting with families and/or psychiatrists. In part because of knowledge-power asymmetries, attempts at controlling fears surrounding schizophrenia in these four cases fail to address the depths, tacitness, embodiment, and narrative embedding of anxieties experienced by all parties. I close with an argument about the implications for theories of culture and of medical pluralism that arise from cases in which the local Self is experienced from the perspective of powerful Others. [schizophrenia, psychiatric discourse, globalization, power, Bangladesh]

Kelly meets Foucault: understanding school underachievement

by Jelena Pavlovic

Published in Journal of Constructivist Psychology, 2008

“Underachievement” in school is seen as a failure in traditional theories of education. An alternative construction of... more “Underachievement” in school is seen as a failure in traditional theories of education. An alternative construction of school underachievement is offered based on Michel Foucault's (1975) approach to power and George Kelly's (1955) principle of elaborative choice. Instead of being construed exclusively as a measure of good education, school success can be seen as the effect of normalization based on the power of discourses dominating in a society. By the same token, underachievement can be seen as a form of resistance to dominant discourse, as well as a way of defining one's identity through marginalized discourses. Kelly's notion of elaborative choice is used to expand upon a Foucauldian analysis of school underachievement.

Towards a "Critical Ontology of Ourselves"? Foucault, Subjectivity and Discourse Analysis

by Scott Yates

Published in Theory & Psychology
Co-authored with Dave Hiles

Applications of Foucault’s work in psychology have been criticized for using an under-theorized notion of discourse.... more Applications of Foucault’s work in psychology have been criticized for using an under-theorized notion of discourse. This has recently been addressed by Hook, who provides a timely and detailed consideration of the implications of Foucault’s theoretical and methodological writings on genealogy. Hook’s work also hints at but leaves unaddressed the challenge for critical psychology of accounting for Foucault’s concerns with the constitution and experience of forms of subjectivity. In relation to this challenge, we contend that Foucault’s work can productively be understood as a series of analyses comprising a tripartite critical ontology with significant concerns for subjectivity and individual conduct. We set out this reading and briefly explore Foucault’s intellectual debt to Heidegger. We argue that this suggests the possibility of a form of discourse analysis conceptualized along similar lines to Foucault’s “critical ontology of ourselves.” This is illustrated with some examples from recent research.

Beyond normalization and impairment: Theorizing subjectivity in learning difficulties - theory and practice

by Scott Yates

Published in Disability & Society
Co-authored with Simon Dyson and Dave Hiles

Normalization and social role valorization continue to play a central role in shaping debates and practice relating to... more Normalization and social role valorization continue to play a central role in shaping debates and practice relating to learning difficulties. In the context of recent arguments this paper draws on the work of Foucault to deconstruct these theories. Foucault’s work alerts us to a conceptual confusion at their heart which reproduces a common but problematic individual– society dualism. There is an implicit, and problematic, presence in the theories of a pre-social individual conceived as having essential impairments and who is passive in the face of negative socialization. We propose that Foucault’s ‘ethical’ domain of inquiry, with its concern for how people actively understand themselves and govern their conduct in relation to specific values and a ‘truth’ that they are obliged to recognize in themselves, provides the basis for returning the individual-as-subject to theories in an active, critical manner.

Truth, power, and ethics in care services for people with learning difficulties

by Scott Yates

Published in Tremain, S. (ed) (2005) Foucault and the Government of Disability. Michigan: University of Michigan Press

In Foucault’s later work, he was concerned to understand how, within particular systems of knowledge, certain human... more In Foucault’s later work, he was concerned to understand how, within particular systems of knowledge, certain human characteristics (such as “mental capacities”) become constructed as specific problems. Foucault contended that these “problematizations” are dynamically linked to power and the formation of subject positions, through which people become tied to a certain identity (such as “person with learning difficulties”). Thus, his work is hugely relevant for an understanding of the situation of individuals identified as “people with learning difficulties” in modern society.
In this chapter, I demonstrate the promise of a Foucauldian approach to help us understand power and governance in modern society’s community care accommodation for people with learning difficulties. In particular, Foucault’s work can provide a framework with which to analyze the discourse of people who use care services, an analysis which will enable the building of a picture of the forms of power which take hold of these people, subjectify them, and the ways in which they interact with these forces. In order to understand the relationships to forms of power and subjectivity of people who live in this sort of accommodation, I employ methods of discourse analysis. This type of analysis provides a new set of criteria for understanding and evaluating community care services, criteria that are grounded in understanding how the people who are involved in care services interact with particular dynamics of power which direct their conduct and position them as subjects in specific ways. Furthermore, this kind of analysis presents the possibility of finding new ways in which to look at services and to work through the problems that they present to the people who use them. After a brief discussion of the concept of community care, we will consider how Foucault’s work encourages us to think in new ways about learning difficulties. Then, we will turn to briefly examine an example which explores the merits of this new approach.

De l'€™un et du divers. La région Rhône-Alpes et la mise en récit de ses langues.

by James Costa

Costa, J. & Bert, M., 2011. De l'€™un et du divers. La région Rhône-Alpes et la mise en récit de ses langues. Mots. Les langages du politique, 97, pp.45-57.

„Masculinity and Politics in Njáls saga,“ Viator 38 (2007), 191–215.

by Ármann Jakobsson

Page proofs.

Tibetan education in exile

by Kalsang Wangdu

English-Only and Standard English Ideologies in the U.S.

by Marguerite Lukes