Power & Knowledge

This week we will discuss
Power and Knowledge, moving from personal experience to broader social and political analysis.

Part l : Personal and Conceptual Grounding

1. What do we mean by “power”?

Is power the ability to coerce, to influence, to shape reality, or something else?

Can power exist without being visible?

Is power always relational?

2. What do we mean by “knowledge”?

Is knowledge simply “true belief,” or is it socially constructed?

Who decides what counts as knowledge?

Is all knowledge connected to some form of authority?

3. Initial Connection

Is knowledge itself a form of power?

Does power always seek to control knowledge?

Part II – Power Producing Knowledge

4. Who controls what is considered “true”?

How do institutions (schools, media, governments, religious authorities) shape knowledge?

Can you think of historical examples where dominant powers shaped “truth”?

5. Ideology and Narrative

What is ideology?

How do narratives (national history, cultural myths, media framing) sustain power?

Are we aware of the ideologies we live within?

6. Knowledge as Discipline

How does expert knowledge (medical, psychological, legal) shape how individuals see themselves?

Does modern society control people more through knowledge than through force?

Part III – Knowledge Producing Power

7. Does knowledge liberate?

Can education be a form of empowerment?

When does knowledge become subversive?

8. Technology and Information

In the digital age, who holds power: those with information, or those who control platforms?

Is data the new form of power?

9. Personal Level

In your own life, when has gaining knowledge shifted your sense of power?

Can ignorance ever feel powerful?

Part IV – Tensions, Ethics, and Critique

10. Is power necessarily oppressive?

Can there be “good” power?

Is power always zero-sum?

11. Resistance

If power shapes knowledge, how is resistance possible?

How do marginalized groups create alternative knowledge systems?

12. Truth vs Power

Is there such a thing as truth independent of power?

Or is all truth embedded in power relations?