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Unequal power relationship: Difference between revisions
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An '''unequal power relationship''' is the basic component of a [[power structure]]. The person with superior power, either due to trust or to technology access or superior knowledge, does not necessarily have superior ethical judgement, just because they are trusted, technologically enabled, or better educated. Very often, such a position is an open door to abuses, e.g. [[sysop vandalism]] or [[ad hominem delete]]s, to which the lesser powered have no recourse. For instance the [[sysop power structure]] is based on unequal power relationships between sysops and their victims, whom they call [[trolls]]. Quite often, those on the victimized end of such an unequal power relationship claim and co-opt the label applied to them by their controllers, jailers, masters, owners, regulators, doctors or bosses. For this reason, rap musicians may refer to each other as "nigger" and so-called trolls may refer to each other as, well, "trolls". This is one way to reclaim the power of labels. | An '''unequal power relationship''' is the basic component of a [[power structure]]. The person with superior power, either due to trust or to technology access or superior knowledge, does not necessarily have superior ethical judgement, just because they are trusted, technologically enabled, or better educated. Very often, such a position is an open door to abuses, e.g. [[sysop vandalism]] or [[ad hominem delete]]s, to which the lesser powered have no recourse. For instance the [[sysop power structure]] pussy bitch nigga head is based on unequal power relationships between sysops and their victims, whom they call [[trolls]]. Quite often, those on the victimized end of such an unequal power relationship claim and co-opt the label applied to them by their controllers, jailers, masters, owners, regulators, doctors or bosses. For this reason, rap musicians may refer to each other as "nigger" and so-called trolls may refer to each other as, well, "trolls". This is one way to reclaim the power of labels. | ||
Technological powers are however only a symptom, usually, of some other power based on knowledge or trust. The concept of [[social capital]] is important to understand unequal allocations of power based on trust - effectively those with more 'social capital' can perform more power grabs and power plays without any consequences to themselves, than those with less. This may appear as hierarchy but is actually subject to change if someone uses their power too much, and is perhaps reducing the overall power or respect granted to the others with the same level of power. For example [[sysop vandalism]] makes the rest of the [[sysop power structure]] appear to be simple a bunch of friends doing damage to a project to please each other personally, ignore the [[end user]]'s needs. Which is, of course, exactly what it is, and demonstrates contempt for users. The ultimate expression of this is a [[GodKing]] who claims that his "virtual community" and its needs are more important than demonstrable needs of users of a [[large public wiki]] - here we have all the claims of openness and lots of contributions and volunteer effort poured in under the false pretenses that the project deals reasonably with unequal power relationships. This kind of claim, when not backed up by action, is what tends to make [[enemy projects]]. Trust that is not directly allocated based on ability to find and serve end user needs is not going to consistently serve those users, and it will kill projects. | Technological powers are however only a symptom, usually, of some other power based on knowledge or trust. The concept of [[social capital]] is important to understand unequal allocations of power based on trust - effectively those with more 'social capital' can perform more power grabs and power plays without any consequences to themselves, than those with less. This may appear as hierarchy but is actually subject to change if someone uses their power too much, and is perhaps reducing the overall power or respect granted to the others with the same level of power. For example [[sysop vandalism]] makes the rest of the [[sysop power structure]] appear to be simple a bunch of friends doing damage to a project to please each other personally, ignore the [[end user]]'s needs. Which is, of course, exactly what it is, and demonstrates contempt for users. The ultimate expression of this is a [[GodKing]] who claims that his "virtual community" and its needs are more important than demonstrable needs of users of a [[large public wiki]] - here we have all the claims of openness and lots of contributions and volunteer effort poured in under the false pretenses that the project deals reasonably with unequal power relationships. This kind of claim, when not backed up by action, is what tends to make [[enemy projects]]. Trust that is not directly allocated based on ability to find and serve end user needs is not going to consistently serve those users, and it will kill projects. | ||