| 
  • If you are citizen of an European Union member nation, you may not use this service unless you are at least 16 years old.

  • You already know Dokkio is an AI-powered assistant to organize & manage your digital files & messages. Very soon, Dokkio will support Outlook as well as One Drive. Check it out today!

View
 

Authority

Page history last edited by PBworks 17 years, 5 months ago

Theories of authority

 

Power-over, power-from-within, and power-with

 

Starhawk (1989) and other thinkers have formulated a threefold model of power. Power-over is authoritarian and unequal. Power-from-within is authoritative and authentic. Power-with is shared, consensus-based power.

 

Power-over is the dominant form in our society. Often associated with violence or the threat of violence, power-over is the ability to force others to submit to your will, regardless of their wishes.

Power-from-within refers to the inner strength associated with courage, conviction, creativity and self-discipline. For some, power-within carries strong spiritual connotations.

Power-with is the result when we co-operate with others to achieve shared ends. It comes from our ability to listen to, empathise with and understand others, and to identify shared beliefs or interests.

- http://www.nonviolence.org.au/power.html

 

"Patriarchy"

 

Patriarchy is generally defined as the rule of men and the imposition of "masculine" values upon society.

 

I think feminism probably shot itself in the foot when it labelled excessive gender-role specialisation "patriarchy". In many cultures (past and present), men get a lot of the power; and the pendulum is likely to swing a bit in the opposite direction before it settles to the centre. However, it shouldn't be forgotten that many oppressive customs were perpetuated or invented by women. Female circumcision is carried out by women in many cultures. It was the memsahibs who said that white men couldn't marry Indian women. And a lot of the time, it is women who pass on cultural mores to their children (both sons and daughters), including "Boys don't cry", "Men get bigger food portions", "Girls help clear up while boys sit back" etc etc. So women are complicit in the oppression. It could be argued that this is "false consciousness" (Marcuse). Also men do not benefit from "patriarchy" because they have to suppress their feelings, talk endlessly about football and cars, and go to war.

 

"Matriarchy"

 

The problem with matriarchy, if it ever existed, would be that it would simply replace the authoritarian "patriarchal" model with a similar one where women ruled the roost.

 

Matrifocal

 

A matrifocal system would be one that was centred on values usually associated with women - consensus, peace, power-from-within, sharing power.

 

References

 

Comments (0)

You don't have permission to comment on this page.