Transcript BBI3303 - Universiti Putra Malaysia

BBI3303
Language and Power
What is power?
1. Power as dominance
Power as dominance entails domination,
coercion and control of subordinate groups.
It comes from privileged access to social
resources such as education, knowledge and
wealth. Access to these resources provides
authority, status and influence.
2. Power as consensual/jointly produced
Power as having a two-way distinction
a. power through dominance
b. power by consent
People believe that dominance has to be
justified in some way.
• In relation to the two understandings of power,
research on power falls into two traditions;
1. Mainstream tradition of research on power
Focuses on the view of power as dominance.
Focuses on how institutions secure compliance
of others through control, even when there is
resistance. Institutions are like the state, church,
court, and businesses.
Origins are in Weber’s study (1941, 1978)
2. Second-stream tradition of research on power
Focuses on the persuasive influence of power.
Origins from Gramsci (1971)
The notion of hegemony arises.
Hegemony involves the mechanisms through
which dominant groups succeed in persuading
subordinate groups to accept the former’s moral,
political and cultural values.
Power is not through control but through routine.
Language and discourse constructs hegemonic
attitudes, opinions and beliefs in a way that
makes these beliefs appear natural and
common sense.
Hegemony is constructed through the cultural
formation of individuals by the institutions of
society such as the education system, family,
court, media etc.
An important factor in this process is consent of
subordinate groups.
Subordinate groups consent to the existing
social order because it is effectively presented
by the state and its institutions as being
beneficial and commonsensical.
Hegemony operates largely through language.
Dominant groups generate language that
present ideas as natural or common sense.
3. Situated close to the second-stream of research
on power is Foucault’s (1977, 1980) model for the
analysis of power in discourse.
• Power is seen as not repressive but productive.
• Power is action or relation between people which
is negotiated and contested in interaction and is
never fixed and stable.
• Power is not a given entity which is maintained
through ideological operations of society.
Ideology
• Ideology refers to the ways in which a person’s beliefs,
opinions and value-systems intersect with the broader
social and political structures of the society in which
they live.
• Language is influenced by ideology, shaped and
determined by political beliefs and socio-cultural
practices.
• Linguistic analysis can help understand how ideology is
embedded in language and help us become aware of
how the reflexes of dominant or mainstream ideologies
are sustained through textual practices.