Challenging power and challenging the way we think about power

Challenging Power –
and challenging the way we think
about power
ECF Peer Presentation, 11 April 2018
Michaela O’Brien and Anastasia Kavada
University of Westminster
http://westminster.ac.uk/MACampaigning
@michaelao @anakavada

“Any change process in the social world will
inherently engage with and run up against
structures of power and interest.
These structures, be they
state apparatuses, social norms
or economic patterns,
have played a role in shaping current conditions and
... may be barriers to change.”
Stein and Valters (2012) Understanding theory of change in
international development, Justice and Security Research
Programme, LSE

Where
do you
start to
tackle
obesity?

Visible Hidden Invisible
POWER
PLACES
Global
National
Local
SPACES
Closed
Claimed
Invited
The Power Cube
Slide courtesy of John Gaventa, Institute of Development Studies:
see https://www.powercube.net

Forms of power in
Gaventa’s ‘Power Cube’
Visible: observable decision making
Hidden: setting the political agenda
Invisible: shaping meaning and what is acceptable

One-dimensional view of power
[visible power]
Focus on:
• Behaviour in decision-making processes
• (key) issues
• Observable (overt) conflict
• Subjective interests, seen as policy preferences revealed by
political participation
(Lukes, 2005: 29)

Two-dimensional view of power
[visible + hidden power]
Focus on:
• Decision-making and non-decision making
• Issues and potential issues
• Observable (overt or covert) conflict
• Subjective interests, seen as policy preferences or grievances
(Lukes, 2005: 29)

Three-dimensional view of power
[visible + hidden + invisible power]
Focus on:
• Decision-making and control over political agenda (not
necessarily through decisions but also through the shaping of
wants, interests and meanings)
• Issues and potential issues
• Observable (overt or covert), and latent conflict (and consent)
• Subjective and real interests
(adapted from Lukes, 2005: 29)

Power analysis behind this:
• Visible power: government can regulate food labelling, sugar
limits in food, tax, advertising slots, school exercise programmes
and food; companies can promote or change their products
• Hidden power: voices of children are not heard; food companies
lobby behind the scenes and via government advisory panels;
quangos and health experts develop policy guidance
• Invisible power: social norms of food-on-the-run, lack of
connection to outdoors; parents believe they always do the best
for their child

Where does a power analysis fit
into your planning?
The problem
What is it?
Who is it a problem for? Why?
What causes it?
Who can solve it? The power to solve it
Visible power
Decision making processes in community /
politics / organisation
Hidden power
Behind the scenes inﬂuence
Invisible power
Societal attitudes and assumptions
Power map developed by Michaela O’Brien based on Gaventa’s power cube

“The risk is that campaign objectives become
increasingly focused on policy change as a single
course, and are detached from the idea that
change comes through multiple pathways.
Challenging power dynamics and social norms in
ways that change the environment in which policy
is made are vital strategies for giving voice and
influence to marginalised people, and for helping
to ensure that change is sustainable.”
Jim Coe, 2015 http://www.coeandkingham.org.uk/uncategorized/how-to-succeed/

invisible power
“the fundamental battle being fought in society is
the battle over the minds of the people. The way
people think determines the fate of norms and
values on which societies are constructed. While
coercion and fear are critical sources for imposing the
will of the dominants over the dominated, few
institutional systems can last long if they are
predominantly based on sheer repression. Torturing
bodies is less effective than shaping minds.”
(Castells, 2007: 238)

Antonio Gramsci:
power and ‘common sense’
This is more important in democratic societies
where rule is achieved more by consent rather
than by force
Hegemony = the naturalisation of the rule of a
particular group
Hegemony is consolidated in the values and
facts that society takes for granted, in the
‘common sense’
But: consent needs to be won
Which means that campaigners to challenge the
common sense

Stuart Hall:
defining ideology
f “ideologies are structures... Then they are
not ‘images’ nor ‘concepts’ (we can say, they
are not contents) but are sets of rules which
determine an organization and the functioning
of images and concepts... Ideology is a
system of coding reality and not a
determined set of coded messages”
(Veron quoted in Hall 1982: 71)

Alberto Melucci:
social movements & challenging codes
“beyond the actual contents in terms of
values and norms, what matters is the
hidden operation of symbolic forms,
patterning people’s thoughts, emotions and
feelings” (Melucci, 1996: 180).
Social movements should detect these
‘master codes’ and challenge them

Michel Foucault:
power and knowledge
Power is constituted through accepted
forms of knowledge, scientific
understanding and ‘truth’
But not in the sense of what is real or not,
but in the sense of the rules that we use to
judge whether something is true

Michel Foucault:
Power as a positive capacity
• Is not possessed and wielded by actors
• Instead, “power is everywhere, not because it
embraces everything, but because it comes
from everywhere” (1978: 93)
– a diffuse network of power evident in everyday
interactions, the ‘micro-physics of power’
• Power can be productive and positive, not
only repressive

feminist and development theories:
power as empowerment
Instead of ‘power over’, scholars stress
• ‘power to’
• ‘power with’
• ‘power-from-within’
(for a good introduction see:
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/feminist-power/#DefPow)

Starhawk:
Power as ability
‘the word “power” itself comes from a root that
means “ability.” We each have a different kind
of power: the power that comes from within; our
ability to dare, to do, and to dream; our
creativity. […] Power from within is what many
cultures call “spirit.”’ [2002, Book ‘Webs of
Power: Notes from the Global Uprising, p. 7

John Holloway:
building counter power or anti-power?
The best strategy is not to build ‘counter-power’ but ‘anti-
power’
• Counter-power: mimics the ‘power-over’ relations that
people want to change (e.g. build an army-like
operation that can counter the army of the powerful)
• Anti-power: focuses on a return to ‘power-to’
relationships, builds power in an alternative way

It’s all about
communication!
i.e. conversations (social interaction)
that unfold in different
places and spaces (and times)
and that also include
and/or are influenced by
and/or result in texts of different kinds
(such as video, audio, written rules,
laws and constitutions etc.)

Powers to:
Create
Access
Manage
Persuade
Articulate
Represent
Imagine
Anastasia’s
CAMPARI Model

Create = capacity to create new conversations and new rules of social
interaction (power of the creator)
Access = capacity to gain access and participate in various sites and
conversations (power of the insider)
Manage = capacity to manage and regulate the conversations in
specific sites, to moderate, and enforce the rules (power of the
manager, administrator, regulator, facilitator)
Persuade = capacity to make compelling arguments, texts, visuals
(power of the persuader)
Articulate = capacity to link different sites, actors and conversations
(power of the broker, the bridge, the leaker…)
Represent = capacity to speak on behalf of a group, to assume and
shape its collective voice (power of the spokesperson, delegate,
representative)
Imagine = capacity to think beyond the existing common sense and
rules of social interaction, to engage creatively in ‘what if’ blue sky
thinking (power of the dreamer)

Challenging power and challenging the way we think about power

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