User:Nicola.georgiou/sandbox/Approaches to Knowledge/Seminar group 7/ Power

Power
Power within disciplines comes from the authority it holds. Truth, evidence and history can all affect the power of a discipline and affect people's behaviours and attitudes towards them.

There are four significant forms of power:


 * Power as Direct Coercion : when power can be directly utilised to control someone's behaviour (e.g. the police). Power, in this case, is a possession that allows one to cause actions.
 * Power as Indirect Coercion : when power is institutionalised (e.g., institutional racism or patriarchy) or unconscious biases (e.g. glass ceiling for women in a workplace)
 * Power as Strategy/Language : the power of diction (e.g. association of "childcare" with "women")
 * Power as Multiple Strategies : when multiple forms of power interact and have an impact on multiple levels (individual and societal) like gender, race or class.

Approaches to "Power" in International Relations
The concept of “power” plays one of the central roles in the sphere of IR, as the question of how should this notion be conceptualised great controversy.

Realism
Even though multiple approaches to power exist, traditionally, the discipline of International Relations views "power" through the realist lens. This perception implies that power is put at the core of the way nation-states view everything around them. Thus, it is widely agreed among realists that power is the principal factor of international relations. However, even within the realist paradigm, there is a split in the approaches to power analysis. Some scholars lean towards “elements of the national power approach”, others incorporate “relational power approach”. The former implies that the state’s power lies in its resources, whereas the latter depicts power as a status in an interstate relationship.

"Power Cycle" theory
Under the framework of “power cycle”, what constitutes the “power” of a state is determined by the government officials and diplomats, usually referring to indicators such as GDP, size of the military, spending on armed forces, population size, and the extent of development in the technological innovations. All these variables together are the power cycle of a state – factors that enable governments to pursue their foreign agenda. More importantly, this theory introduces the concept of “relative” power cycle. Here, countries compete for a relative share of the whole power in the system, implying the fact that at different times in history, states have different indicators and levels of growth.

Nye’s notion of power
Joseph Nye viewed “power” as an ability to influence the actions of others to produce the result one desires. Theoretic approaches outline three main approaches to conceptualise power under the framework of international relations: soft power, hard power and smart power.

Soft power
This paradigm implies the use of peaceful methods such as of persuasion and attraction as means to shape the preferences, opinions or behaviour of others to produce a certain outcome, and stresses the importance of the power legitimacy. States exercise soft power through their culture, ideology, political relations and values.

Hard power
Hard power recognises the use of coercion and force to achieve one’s goals. Under this framework, state’s power is determined by its size of population and territory, geography, natural resources as well as military and economic capacity.

Smart power
Smart power is a more holistic approach, combining both hard and soft power strategies. In other words, this approach recognises the use and necessity of military force, however, at the same time, emphasises the importance of power legitimacy by supporting the establishment of new international coalitions, partnerships and institutions.

Power in Journalism
Historically, Journalism has struggled to be recognised as a discipline. Yet, it is also present as a part of all other disciplines and holds great authority and power. With the ability and authority to affect people’s behaviour and culture itself, the power of journalism stems from its perceived objectiveness

Journalism can affect people’s perception of the world itself because it enables the spread of information and ensures people’s rights to knowledge and democracy, and thus holds power directly. The discipline has widespread influence because it can draw attention to where needed and stir up public discussion, which may lead to a change in society or culture. Some may even view journalism as reflecting “truth” due to how the media poses itself as “objective”. However, even though journalism tries to be neutral as much as possible, the media can still be biased whether intentionally (e.g. propaganda) or unintentionally (e.g. implicit bias), especially when it comes to political news. This can be a problem when it comes to power in the form of strategy and language that journalism holds — because journalism relies heavily on the use language to convey ideas and knowledge posed as facts, the diction used in journalism may sway public opinion (from affecting the emotions of readers to even associating things like terrorism with certain ethnic groups ); and the language used can also be affected by social factors surrounding the author. Furthermore, journalism has the power to gatekeep — which is a form of power as multiple strategies (or intersectionality). Minorities may struggle to be represented by or to work in journalism and thus, be “othered” by society, which reflects the indirect authority of journalism.

The Medicalization of Society and The Power of Medicine
As Zola points out, our daily life is filled with activities that present, to a certain extent, a risk to our wellbeing and that our health care is mainly dealt by the medical field. Whether it be for a diagnosis or a treatment, our welfare resides at the end of a minority. For that matter, it is undeniable that this certain group, as well as the discipline as a whole, exert great control in many ways. The concept of power in medicine thus takes many forms. We find first and foremost an indirect form of power, as it is hidden through subconscious bias. Indeed, there is a tendency that any proposal, when coming from medical science, is considered superior. As a result, the medical profession is often seen as one the most prestigious profession and yields for that matter of a higher authority. If we take the simple example of a doctor consultation, one would hardly contradict the practitioner as the patient is usually less educated in that matter. Subconsciously, we look up to that institution and place our trust in it. Moreover, there exists another phenomenon called the ‘medicalising of society’ from which medicine holds great power. Medicalisation is the process of defining nonmedical disorders as medical problems and then provide treatment accordingly. This process shows how medical language can have substantial impacts on society. Newman illustrates this concept by describing how medicine bounds us to follow a certain behaviour by simply labelling what is healthy or not. But the impact is even greater as it can intersect at different levels. For instance, studies have shown that the simple labelling of alcoholism as a disease would not only impact alcoholics by decreasing their guilt but also reduce arrest rates by police officers. This phenomenon has an impact on a wide range of societal debates, such as homosexuality, abortion and even the degree of freedom one has over its body (i.e. sex modification). As having the authority to define most of the human behaviours, the medical field holds great power and social control.

Power in Education: How school can shape an entire generation's mind
Teaching presupposes power because it is about getting the students to learn what they would not otherwise have learned (not as well or as quickly at least). The teacher, seen by his students as an expert in the discipline, often carries an aura of authority and power. Power in education depends on the compliance of those who are its ‘subjects’, that’s why the younger students are, the more likely their minds are to be moldable and more the persons in charge of their education (as their teacher or their parents) are inclined to instil in them an ideology. The basic form of power in education is the ideological power that can make learnings, ideas and values seem reasonable to the students and transform those ideas and values into accepted and institutionalized truths. Ideological power is a matter of what seems reasonable and legitimate to people who, as teachers, students or parents, are involved in education. And those people, through this involvement, control a source of power.

The power of education is indirect coercion. Thereby, the persons in charge of education have this particular and singular power. Through its role of the shaper of patterns, of belief, conduct, and ways of thinking, the public school is in the unique social position of gathering almost all the nation’s young together for an extended common experience, and this allows to shape an entire generation’s mind. If schools exhibit democratic characteristics and learn to nurture personal thinking development, it would entertain an even more democratic society’s movement. Conversely, an authoritarian experience in school such as never thinking by yourself but always being told what to learn without asking a question may develop broader cultural authoritarianism, which would contribute to a further advance of authoritarianism.

Too often, the focus of education has been knowledge acquisition. The main question the student should ask its self is not: ‘what to learn?’, rather, ‘how to learn?’.

COVID-19 and the empowerment of destructive collective forces
Criminal groups hold great power, especially where the government struggles to assert its authority and is often corrupted. This feeling of insecurity from the population is a form of indirect coercion, but the armed groups also use -direct- coercion through violence onto the population to reinforce their power. Organised Crime groups have developed a form of non-state governance as a soft power strategy: filling the state’s gaps in providing essential goods and services in the poorest parts of their country and prisons, that way demonstrating the legitimacy of their power. By keeping the monopoly on the "legitimate" use of violence, criminal groups have the capacity to influence the norms and expectations of the society and sometimes they even have the power to organise criminal tribunals.

The pandemic showed how those groups establish their power through multiple strategies: violence and governance. In Brazil, for example, criminal groups saw in the lockdown an opportunity to increase their power by showing how adaptive they can be during the lockdown. In April 2020 a spike in homicides in the poorest parts of Fortaleza showed that the pandemic didn’t deter Brazilian gangs from violence. To show their growing power, criminal groups forced the lockdown onto the population, distribute -sometimes stolen - equipment and repurposed chemicals used for drug production to make hand sanitiser. They also negotiated with the health minister to make the entrance of the favelas more accessible and safe for health personnel while closing the doors to outsiders, showing their legitimacy as the government needed them. Apart from this, the criminal groups showed stability when continuing their "usual" extortion and drug trafficking.

Using violence, fear and terror but also governance, help the role of providers and criminal groups gain power. An interdisciplinary approach to power has thus been demonstrated as it operates in different fields and uses multiple strategies.

Gender and Ethnic Power Imbalances in Physics
Physics as a discipline involves large amounts of research into the traditional, explicit use of the word ‘power’ in natural sciences; for example, Scottish physician, inventor and engineer, James Watt, invented the steam engine in 1765 and was the first to introduce the term horsepower, which lead to vast developments in experiments into electricity and the powering of machinery. However, there is also implicit power involved in the discipline, such as the large gender and ethnic divides. Only 13% of people publishing in the field of physics are women, with this figure only increasing by 0.1% a year, and meaning that it would take over 250 years for there to be within a 5% parity of genders if progress does not increase, making physics one of the least diverse disciplines. This means that there is a severe power imbalance within physics, with men holding almost all of the most senior, influential positions, and women having little representation. This is not due to women being unable to do the jobs in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM), or a lack of women interested in it, but rather, studies have found that its because ‘assumptions and stereotypes about gender operate in personal interactions, evaluative processes and departmental cultures that systematically impede women’s career advancement in academic medicine, science and engineering’. Ethnic minorities are also under-represented in physics, with only 7% of physics postgraduates being from ethnic minorities, and over 75% being white men. This again affects the power within the discipline, as white male voices crowd out minority groups, which affects how far the field can progress as many capable physicists are not given the opportunities to develop their ideas.

Power in Psychology: Gender Inequality within Mental Illness Diagnosis
Gender imbalance is pervasive within psychological academia, with 46% of all male psychology faculty being professors in 2013/14, compared to just 28% of female psychology faculty according to the American Psychological Association. There is debate over the reasons for this disparity, with evidence to suggest at least partial responsibility from women's choice, as seemingly women are more likely to pursue clinical work over research positions. Yet research has also shown consistent subtle forms of sexism towards women's research in psychological academia, with them winning less research funding and research covering topics deemed to be 'more female' (sexual violence, reproductive experiences) being evaluated more harshly in peer review processes. However, there is no debate over the fact that this imbalance creates a reality in which mental illness in women is often misdiagnosed or goes completely undetected, due to the overwhelmingly male perspective in diagnostic research, particularly in personality and developmental disorders. Therefore, women are subjected to indirect coercion via an institutionalised bias towards men within mental illness diagnosis.

Using autism as an example, historically it was thought that the disorder affected more men than women as early researchers were all male and disregarded the female experience- this lead to underrepresentation and systematic exclusion of women in studies causing a distinct lack of information and an inability to diagnose women on the autistic spectrum. More recent, inclusive research has shown characteristics of autism in women as differing to the classic characteristics in men, for example, more neurotypical special interests (e.g. boybands rather than bus timetables) and less conspicuous repetitive behaviour. These differences ensure that women have to present characteristics of much higher severity than men to be diagnosed, placing unfair requirements on women's symptoms and often preventing them from getting the help they need.

Power in Marketing
Power in marketing is multifaceted; the subject focuses on both the individual and organisational levels of power, it relies on a particular strategic use of language and imagery, and an indirect but effective ‘institutionalised’ position in society.

A defining feature of power in marketing is in advertising itself; functioning strategically, advertising exerts immense power in its contribution to society’s perception of itself and others. A prime example of this – in a harmful form– is the representation of men and women in the media, propagating gender stereotypes. Evidence of this is exemplified by the depiction of women in domestic roles/settings or their sexualisation and objectification. The presence of these stereotypes in the media is in part what keeps them alive. That said, this power works both ways meaning that changes in societal thinking prompted by movements like the feminist movement have also contributed to both the way advertising (in this case, about women) is perceived and subsequently, how marketing adapts its strategy to best ‘reflect’ society.

Ultimately marketing is also about selling a product, and the power it uses to find and rope in its consumers is one that targets a human emotional response to provoke a feeling of desire for the product or idea being promoted. This targeting is facilitated nowadays through many means including general media, advertisement and product placement in movies and TV shows, sports, etc. This unofficially institutionalised presence of marketing all plays into the power of subliminal messaging which is used to evoke psychological effects like the "mere exposure effect" which explains the effective use of product placement in media/entertainment to elicit a positive subliminal reaction to a brand. Power is thus evident in marketing in the resulting actions of the consumer and society as a whole.

Panopticon: Power as Surveillance


When in the 18th century Jeremy Bentham invented the panopticon—a round-shaped prison with an inspection house in the centre from which a sentinel could observe prisoners unaware they were being watched—he also gave birth to the conceptual theory of the power of surveillance. “Bentham reasoned that if the prisoners of the panopticon could be seen but never knew when they were watched, the prisoners would need to follow the rules” and that such idea could be exported to a factory, a hospital, a school, society or any institution that could be controlled. The French philosopher Michel Foucault elaborated this theory and applied it to the modern world with the idea of the power of control. With Foucault, the idea of the panopticon became a disciplinary and organizing principle of power actually assuring the automatic functioning of power. The concept of traditional power located at the apex of a pyramid was changed into a circular form in which one who can surveil the others from a centre to a periphery. Foucault’s ideas have influenced the modern world in a variety of disciplines (from architecture to philosophy) so much so that we can speak of panopticism, panoptic vision, panoptical narration investing the concept with the allure of a super concept.

Power In Law
Law can be defined as the “the system of rules which a particular country or community recognizes as regulating the actions of its members and which it may enforce by the imposition of penalties.”. Law is a form of power, as it allows the governments to sanction one’s actions and behavior in the name of justice. Ideally, the legal system exists to maintain justice and allow for the well-functioning of society. However, in some instances, the law can participate in the reinforcement of inequalities and racists ideologies.

The 13th Amendment in the United States is believed to have abolished slavery. Slavery was abolished “except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted”. This exception is one of the causes of the mass incarceration of Black people in the US. Currently, Black people make up for 38.5% of the total prison population while they only represent 13.4% of the total US population.

After the enactment of the 13th Amendment, prisons were built in the Southern States to re-enslave Black workers, and make them work to rebuild the cities destroyed by the Civil War. Also, Black codes were introduced. They sanctioned originally legal activities for Black people, like walking in the night. This led to a massive increase in the number of African American inmates, and for the first time, they surpassed the white population imprisoned. In this way, the economic advantage of slavery was maintained.

The “War on Drugs” under the Nixon administration also led to mass incarceration of African Americans. The Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986 established “mandatory minimum” prisons sentences for different drugs. However, there was a huge discrepancy between the amount of crack (five grams) and powder cocaine (five hundred grams) required for the equivalent minimum sentence (five years sentence). It can be argued that this policy was racist, “80% of crack users were African American, mandatory minimums led to an unequal increase of incarceration rates for nonviolent Black drug offenders”