7
Dec

Power & Positionality

   Posted by: Jeffrey Keefer   in Power & Positionality

Add Comment

I think silence and voice are elusive concepts that are so intertwined they cannot be seen independently. Silence means others can have a voice, and to have one’s voice means another is silenced.

Is it this simple? Who decides?

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 7th, 2006 at 8:34 am and is filed under Power & Positionality. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

12 comments so far

artie
 1 

Ha! I stole yer title!

http://foc08-artie.blogspot.com/2008/09/power-positionality.html

September 10th, 2008 at 9:05 am
artie
 2 

It was a good post so I couldn’t help it.

September 10th, 2008 at 9:06 am
Jeffrey Keefer
 3 

@artie

Thank you for the feedback, and I am glad my post encouraged you to think and reflect. That in itself is the reason why I blog . . .

September 10th, 2008 at 9:40 am
artie
 4 

Why did you label your thought “Power & Positionality”?

September 10th, 2008 at 11:23 pm
Jeffrey Keefer
 5 

@artie

Power and positionality influence everything that happens within social structures and institutions. From this paradigm, those in power have a voice, and those who are silent do not have one; they are not positioned on top in the system. Having and using power always means that others can be silenced.

Ahh, I love critical theory!

September 11th, 2008 at 3:43 pm
artie
 6 

Looks to me that those who have a voice are the ones who have organized themselves.

September 11th, 2008 at 4:11 pm
Jeffrey Keefer
 7 

@artie

Can you elaborate on this . . . ???

September 14th, 2008 at 10:57 pm
artie
 8 

I was hoping that you would elaborate! It is your thought that we are talking about. You are talking about organizations and the relationship of power to position, I think.

I take it that you are basing your observations upon factual experiences. If we are going to elaborate upon your theme, maybe we should find some real examples from experience? Can you give a personal experience where position in a system gave power to a voice and power to silence other voices?

September 15th, 2008 at 4:56 pm
artie
 9 

Jeffrey,

What relationship does position have to power? I would like to explore this question further with you. The implication is that where there is no position, there is no power. When I think of “position” I also think of “place”. I don’t understand why place should affect power. How is it possible to even approach this question?

:)
artie

September 28th, 2008 at 5:12 pm
Jeffrey Keefer
 10 

@artie

What a delicious set of questions, Artie. I wonder that if positions were equal, then power would be equalized and thus (perhaps) not even acknowledged or noticed. I sometimes think that unrecognized power is in-fact useless, though potentially quite the opposite.

I am not thinking about position as being a physical place, per se, but more relational (online together, within an organization, in a classroom, with financial transactions or the lack thereof, etc.). Let’s see–positionality then is relational, but not physical.

September 28th, 2008 at 6:44 pm
artie
 11 

Jeffrey,

I don’t know if it’s possible to answer this question but I would like to know if it is possible by trying.

If we are going to deepen the discussion, maybe we should discuss the correct form to use first?

:)
artie

September 28th, 2008 at 8:24 pm
Jeffrey Keefer
 12 

@artie

Please, elaborate . . .

September 29th, 2008 at 7:46 am

One Trackback/Ping

  1. Silence and Voice » Self-Definition    Jan 06 2008 / 12am:

    [...] to use this to partially share something about me right now, especially as I just celebrated my first anniversary of this [...]

Leave a reply

Name (*)
Mail (will not be published) (*)
URI
Comment
Back to top