User:JREverest/sandbox/Approaches to Knowledge/Seminar group 2/Power

Definition

Power is something that everyone craves when they don’t have it; and when they do, they need to keep it. It’s the capacity to direct the behaviour of others or the course of events. It gives authority and credibility to some people. Human History and evolution is based on power. Every group needs a leader and everybody wants to be one. Power manifests itself through colonialism (the age of discovery ), sexism, racism (apartheid ) and many other issues of injustice

Power through global issues

Power in Voluntourism

Power and colonisation are two terms which go hand in hand, as colonisation was arguably the biggest manifestations of a power disparity in history. Although the Western world may believe we have moved on from colonisation, the effects continue to be felt worldwide and the colonial mentality has found itself entrenched in many fields.

Voluntourism is a portmanteau of the words "volunteer" and "tourism", creating a term describing the phenomenon whereby a person does volunteer work outside their home country. People who typically participate in voluntourism do so because they might feel like going abroad to volunteer gives them a chance to do more, or impact more lives. This form of volunteering, which often plays out as a group of white volunteers travelling to a non-white country, with the aim to help them, is reminiscent of the colonial mentality of 16th-century colonizers. "White savior" is a term used to refer to such people, suggesting the need to "save people of colour" as their motivation to volunteer, a desire which implies that the white saviors see the people of colour as being in need of saving.

This is a modern-day example of how power disparity can play out on a seemingly innocent level. There's absolutely no problem with volunteering, but, in this case, the motivation to volunteer comes from a place of racially induced power-hunger, which is highly problematic.

Power through Sexism

Many discipline have focused on power. Sociology for example talks about the difference between men and women in the work world. From the beginning of their education, unconsciously, young girls are told that they are less capable of pursuing certain field of studies than boys. They are being oppressed by the patriarchal system.

Once, an engineering professor at Northeastern University looked around and said “I see women in the classroom. I don't believe women have any business in engineering, and I'm going to personally see to it that you all fail”.

Furthermore, let’s talk about the gender pay gap . If a woman and a man do the same job; having exactly the same educational background, the man will be better paid.

Power leads to social inequalities

There is always a group of people that sees itself as superior beings, smarter, better, because they earn more money. They impose their way of life, their preferences on everybody else, this is called the symbolic violence according to the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu. This form of power inevitably creates financial, economical and social inequalities.

Power has shaped our history and explains a lot of what is happening nowadays. If we do not act upon it, to rebalance the dynamics, inequalities will widen.

Power and Creativity

The relationship between creativity and power seems to be quite contradictory. On one hand, it is widely thought that people who hold great amounts of power prevent creative people and therefore creative work to make its way into the world. Evariste Galois is a perfect example to this topic. He came up with an algebraic theorem so complex it was ‘unintelligible’ to the Academy of Science. Those who owned the power prevented him from introducing ideas that would only appear a quarter of a century later, as the way of thinking progressively changed. This is only one of many ways power in creativity has been evidently shut down through external issues.

On the other, there is a general conception that many people with power seem to have made their way to that state with the help of, or thanks to creativity. This has led to a further hierarchical issue, where the belief that creativity provides stability yet possibility of moving along to the top of the hierarchy. Daniel Sligte et al. carried out a study where a group of people were divided into four categories, depending on higher or lower job stability or higher/lower positions in charge of a series of tasks. The group had previously taken some tests regarding their levels of creativity, and concluded in those having higher stability and positions to also have more creativity.

Female Education and Climate Change: Power as an Interdisciplinary Issue

There are 130 million girls out of education worldwide. Aside from having a hugely profound effect on individual lives, families and communities, female education is a huge factor in the route to combatting climate change both now and in the future. According to Project Drawdown's list of solutions, educating girls is the sixth most important factor in stopping climate change. In contrast, electric vehicles and rooftop solar panels are ranked at only the 26th and 10th most important factors respectively. Female education is such an important factor because girls who are educated typically have less children and are more likely to pursue careers in science and technology. Moreover, it is shown that with every year a girl is in education, climate resilience in the country increases by a factor of 3.2, according to the ND-GAIN Index. This evidence sets questions such as "Why is more not being said about this issue?"; "Why is money being invested in solar panels and electric cars and not educating girls?" and "Why is progress in girls education and climate change rarely considered together, when they are integrally connected?"

How does the concept of power within disciplines affect this issue?

This interdisciplinary problem is affected by the concept of power within the disciplines of International Relations and Postcolonial Studies. Within Postcolonial Studies, power is said to reside within ex-colonial powers, now often referred to as 'the West'. A solution is offered to the aforementioned questions as S. Basij-Rasikh argues - 'climate change discussion has been largely driven by Western nations — and in Western nations, girls’ education is a given. It’s not a topic most Westerners think about.' Therefore, it could be argued industrialised countries with high GDPs such as the US, UK, Germany, France and Italy should be leading the way to focus investment on girls education. Thus, one postcolonial approach could argue that western countries should broaden their outlook on climate action strategies and increase investments into more effective and long term solutions such as female education. Within International Relations, a feminist outlook on this would suggest that because there are not enough women in positions of power, issues concerning women such as this are overlooked. Consequently, they believe that power resides within the patriarchal systems within areas such as Sub-Saharan Africa where 52 million girls are out of education. An International Relations scholar would argue that this is a problem which is occurring because the patriarchal nature of the media is less concerned with the struggle of females and hence educating girls is not a topic which is widely covered. In contrast, a Postcolonial Studies scholar would argue that it is because educating girls is not an issue in western society, it is not something covered by the media or heavily invested in.

Does Power lead to Corruption? An interdisciplinary Approach through the Dictator Game

The dictator game is a frequently used tool by economists and psychologists, that can help illustrate how humans respond to the attribution of power. The game is very simple yet shows interestingly complex and unpredictable results, which is why an interdisciplinary approach to the analysis of the results is required. The game involves two players: one player, the dictator, is given a significant sum of money, whilst the other player, the follower, does not receive any. The dictator has the choice to either keep the money for himself, send it to the follower, or share it with the other player. Note that the dictator is acting alone, and that it is up to him, and him only, to decide how to split the endowment. Ie. the follower has no influence on the outcome and respective payoffs of the players.

According to Adam Smith, players in a such game will always try to maximize their own welfare. Smith, and many other economists, focus on the concept of rationality in economics, and argue that everyone will act in an egoistic manner in situations where given a choice like in the Dictator game. This phenomenon is called homo oeconomicus and is today the building stone of all economics taught at school or university. Hence, we can predict that the dictator will keep all the money for himself. Psychologists, theologists and historians argue that humans have the ability to be benevolent, to share and give, even in situations where huge amounts of power is given to them. So, are humans more egoistic homo oeconomicus or altruistic benevolent?

Taking a look at the data collected during such experiments, we find the results quite surprising: it has been found that, on average, only 30 to 40% of the dictators keep the money. So, can we conclude that humans are altruistic and benevolent? Of course not, it is crucial to note that a huge amount of uncontrollable factors come into play during such games: personality, intelligence, honesty, gender, age etc... What these results show for sure, is that the idea of rationality is, in reality, simply an assumption made by economists and that humans do not always aim to maximize their welfare. John Antonakis, a researcher and professor at HEC Lausanne , is one of the many researchers that chose to take a deeper look into this game. He progressively added more followers to the experiment: instead of having one dictator and one follower, he then chose to add five, ten, twenty followers to one dictator. The more power given to dictators, the more antisocial decisions started to be made. Some kept half of the money and shared the rest, whilst some kept the entire sum.

While we cannot be 100% confident that there is a direct correlation between power and corruption, it is important to note that this experiment has fundamental applications in politics and many more disciplines. How can we trust our leaders to make geopolitic decisions that are in the best interest of the nation when we can show that the more power one has, the more likely he/she is to make egoistic decisions? Fortunately, power is not freely handed out on the street, and it doesn't take one day to become the leader of a nation. As History has shown, one power-craving, dedicated dictator is enough to initiate worldwide chaos and end the life of 85 million people. This only emphasizes how important it is for institutions to limit how much of the addicting "power-pill" their leaders should be allowed to take. As John Dalberg-Acton said, "power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely".

Power in advertisement during the Chilean plebiscite in 1988

Pinochet was a general who established a dictatorship in 1973 which lasted for 13 years. This dictature ended with a plebiscite which was supposed to legitimise Pinochet’s power.
However an advertisement countered this power by encouraging people to vote No to Pinochet’s power. It was supposed to be a lost cause because the country was either agreeing with Pinochet’s government or terrorised by it.
However the advertisement was so well done that it gave the courage to 56% of the population to vote against Pinochet trusting he wouldn’t rig the referendum.

How is power in this example an interdisciplinary issue?

The power of the advertisement in both cases affected history. For the « yes » campaign, Pinochet obstructed its government real history with all the tortures and deaths that he was responsible for.In this case we have a confrontation between the political and the historical approach to the subject.
For the « no » campaign, the power of the advertisement produced a conflict between psychology and history. Their first ad showed the suffering caused by the dictatorship however it wasn’t really well received by the population and scared them even more to vote against Pinochet. The dictator’s opponents then opted for a more psychologically impacting ad with a jingle and bright colours. Therefore they set aside the historic data for a more traditional psychological ad which would sell more.

Power through gender inequalities in the art industry

From a young age, children are taught that disciplines are split in half. The ones that are soft, subjective and feminine, as opposed to the ones that are hard, objective and masculine: art vs science. Throughout one's lifetime, one is taught to follow a path because it is the one that conforms to gender norms. We therefore see a significant gender gap both in arts and sciences-directed schools. More women go to art (here, we are focusing on applied arts) schools, and more men go to maths and sciences schools. One would expect to encounter more successful women in the art industry, but is is not the case. When thinking at successful "artists", one thinks about Picasso, Degas, Dali, Pollock, Duchamp... None of which are women. It is only when one is a bit more cultured in that area that women start to appear in the list. However, always in the background. "According to the National Museum of Women in the Arts, 51% of visual artists today are women. But when it comes to exhibitions and gallery representation, the numbers tell a less optimistic story. In London, for example, 78%t of the galleries represent more men than women, while only 5% represent an equal number of male and female artists."

How is power in this example an interdisciplinary issue ?

The power dynamics between men and women in the art industry can be looked at from 3 different viewpoints:

• Sociology = Major institutions have often failed to support the careers of women who wanted to make art their job. Indeed, art galleries often require a certain 'pace' and 'speed' from the artist, that makes it difficult for mother artists to keep up. Children do have an impact on the time these women can allocate to moving around between galleries and clients.
• Psychology = When growing up, men are taught to be ambitious and confident in their ideas, even if they don't necessarily have the skills required. To the contrary, women are often made to believe they are incompetent and unable to make a career out of something like art. Many cases show that women who study fine arts in school change directions in their career and paint as a hobby.
• Economics = Art auctions = men's artwork sells better than women's. Why is that ?
• Literature = Virginia Wolf's To The Lighthouse reveals the phenomenon where women are brought to persuade themselves that they cannot make art for a living. Charles Tansley, who represents the societal view of gender norms, says to Lily Briscoe, one of the main characters (and aspiring painter): "Women can't paint. Women can't write." Throughout the novel, the author makes clear that Lily is constantly repeating those sentences to herself and doubting her skills. Through this, one can see the impact of society's pressure on women in this microcosm.

Tate. “What Does It Mean to Be a Woman in Art? .” Tate, www.tate.org.uk/art/tate-exchange/women-in-art. Elderton, Louisa. “Redressing the Balance: Women in the Art World.” The White Review, 2013, www.thewhitereview.org/feature/redressing-the-balance-women-in-the-art-world/.

Power in Postcolonial rule

As mentioned in the section about Voluntourism, colonialism had a large on global world politics and this is manifested in various disciplines such as Economics and International Relations. Postcolonial theory is concerned with the "political, aesthetic, economic, historical and social impact of European colonial rule around the world in the 18th through to the 20th century". Though the era of physical colonisation is over, "much post-colonial scholarship also highlights the important degree of continuity and persistence of colonial forms of power in contemporary world politics". An interesting example of this would be the development aid provided by First World countries to Third World countries (usually between the former colonisers and the colonised). However, this aid does not improve the countries in the long run and instead cause them to grow reliant on the aid provider, putting the former colonisers in a position of power. Establishing trade instead of aid with these countries would be more effective in their development but also cause First World countries to possibly lose the vast advantage they have now. Thus, they are more content to exploit the economic, political and cultural resources that colonisation has provided them with.

Power in Gastronomy

Power refers to the historically embedded systems of politics, economics and culture that underpin major aspects of society. This can be understood through the discipline of Gastronomy, which is a Western-orientated system of classifying and rating the quality of food. The Michelin-star system originated in 1926 as part of the restaurant reviews of the guide-books produced by the tyre-brand Michelin that were to encourage driving. Therefore, the categories were initially described and categorised by first French and later Europeans, which meant the opinions are biased towards the tastes and traditions of Western Europeans.