The Concept: "Power is Everywhere"
Hello everyone,
My name is Sana Mumtaz. I live in Los Angeles, California. I'm a senior at Webster University and my major is Business Management. I currently work for the accounting department of a small business. After graduating I plan to pursue my Master's degree in Human resources.
My Passion for Language and Culture |
| My (left) last dinner in Pakistan, 2000 |
Growing up I was very interested in learning about different cultures. My family is from Pakistan and I moved to Southern California very young. Thankfully my parents encouraged my siblings and me to have a strong relationship with our culture. I speak Urdu fluently and I am currently learning how to write it as well. One major characteristic that follows culture is language. It has the power to connect people from different religions, countries, and backgrounds.
Foucault's Theory of Power
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| Created by Sana Mumtaz, "Language is Powerful"
in English, Russian, Korean, Urdu, Turkish
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The power theory connects deeply to how humans interact with one another and social discipline. According to
Gaventa (2003:2), Michel Foucalt places a great emphasis on how power is an everyday socialised and embodied phenomenon. According to Foucault, power has an important role in social discipline and conformity. His approach to power is that it goes beyond politics to see power as a daily, socialized, and lived reality. He points out how norms can be so deeply established that they are invisible to us and cause us to self-discipline with any pressure from others. Foucault uses the terms power/knowledge to indicate that power is derived from established norms of knowledge, and scientific understanding and truth. This is established in
Language and Power by Sik Hung Ng and Fei Deng, when the topic of language and power relationships arises.
Power has the ability to unite, divide, and create influence. One of the things that stands out to me is how language can be percieved by people of different religions, cultures, and identites. There are many universal phrases that mean the same thing amongst different countries. But the way they are said can create a different emphasis. I relate to this becasue Urdu is very simialr to Hindi. And because of this I can understand people who speak Hindi even though i myself am not Hindu or from India (where the languge is most commanly spoken). I can even watch movies and TV shows from India. This encourgaes me to learn more about the people, and their culture. I also enjoy relating them to Pakistani dramas. This is very fasinating to me, people who may have an entirely different background from myself are able to understand my native tongue. This shows me that the beauty of languge is deeper than just people who come from the same region as my family.
Hi Sana!
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, great job on the post and the pictures! I love that you included one of yourself, it makes the blog feel much more personal.
You mentioned Foucault's idea that: "norms can be so deeply established that they are invisible to us and cause us to self-discipline with any pressure from others," which is one of the ideas I found so interesting during my own research. The idea that power can come from social norms wasn't something I've really thought about before, but makes total sense. This power, albeit invisible, is so deeply ingrained in society, which in turn influences the words and actions of the individuals who are part of it.
I love that you included an example of how you personally relate to the topic of language. One phrase being interpreted differently throughout so many different countries is a great example of language and power in itself. Different languages and the cultures in which they're spoken can change the way power is both obtained and given, depending on where you are in the world, which is so interesting to think about.