Unmarked Categories
The idea of unmarked categories originated in feminism. The theory analyzes the culture of the powerful. The powerful comprise those people in society with easy access to resources, those who can exercise power without considering their actions. For the powerful, their culture seems obvious; for the powerless, on the other hand, it remains out of reach, élite and expensive.
The unmarked category can form the identifying mark of the powerful. The unmarked category becomes the standard against which to measure everything else. For most Western readers, it is posited that if a protagonist's race is not indicated, it will be assumed by the reader that the protagonist is Caucasian; if a sexual identity is not indicated, it will be assumed by the reader that the protagonist is heterosexual; if the gender of a body is not indicated, will be assumed by the reader that it is male; if a disability is not indicated, it will be assumed by the reader that the protagonist is able bodied, just as a set of examples.
One can often overlook unmarked categories. Whiteness forms an unmarked category not commonly visible to the powerful, as they often fall within this category. The unmarked category becomes the norm, with the other categories relegated to deviant status. Social groups can apply this view of power to race, gender and disability without modification: the able body is the neutral body; the man is the normal status.
Representation/Counterpower
Organizational Politics is the use of power and influence in an organization. These actions can have a positive or negative effect on any organization. When someone engages in political behavior, they are engaging in actions not officially sanctioned by an organization that are taken to influence others in order to meet one's personal goals.
• Ingratiation
• Upward appeals
• Coalition tactics
• Exchange tactics
• Pressure.
All these influence tactics can lead to upward influence to the boss, lateral influence of a coworker, downward influence of an employee.
When Managing Political Behavior one must:
• Maintain open communication
• Clarify performance expectations
• Use participative management
• Encourage cooperation among work groups
• Manage scarce resources
• Provide a supportive climate
An important part of success in an organization is a good relationship with your boss. To build this relationship, consider the following aspects. First you must make sure you understand your boss and his or her goals and objectives, pressures, strengths, weaknesses, blind spot and preferred work style. Then assess yourself and your needs including strengths, weaknesses, blind spots, your personal style and your relation to authority figures. In order to maintain a good relationship once you have gained one, find mutual expectations, keep your boss informed, be dependable and honest and selectively use your boss' time and resources.
Gilles Deleuze, the twentieth century French philosopher, compared voting for political representation with being taken hostage. A representational government assumes that people can be divided into categories with distinct shared interests. The representative is regarded as embodying the interests of the group. Many social movements have been successful in gaining access to governments: the working class, women, young people and ethnic minorities are part of the government in many nation-states. However, there is no government where the government represents the population along the characteristics of the categories.
The problem of finding suitable representatives relates to an individual's membership of different categories at the same time. The only truly representative government for a population is the population itself. These ideas have become popular in social movements for global justice. The logic of government open to all underpins the social forums (such as the World Social Forum) that have developed in contradistinction to the forums of the powerful. These alternative forms are sometimes called counter-power.
This view appears in many projects of social change, but its founder Paulo Freire is largely unknown. Freire assumes that people carry archives of knowledge within them. In particular he rejects the idea that people remain ignorant unless they have learned to communicate using the culture of the powerful. The person is seen as part of a culture circle with its own view of reality, based on the circumstances of everyday living.
Dialogue can bring about social change. Such dialogue directly opposes the monologue of the culture of the powerful. Dialogue expands the understanding of the world rather than teaching a correct understanding. The process of social change starts with action, on which the group then reflects. Commonly, more action of some kind then results.
