W S 3010 Chapter 2: Class 3 Book Notes
Document Summary
A focus on difference, hierarchy, and systems of inequality and privilege implies the study of power. Power does not necessarily operate in a binary or top-down fashion. Power can be dispersed, multidimensional, and can function in all aspects of our everyday lives. Discourse is the process of creating knowledge or a culturally constructed representation of reality. It involves language and other categories of meaning that work with social, material practices to produce regimes of truth . Regimes of truth are shaped by general truths/discourses such as science . Language, or the symbolic means by which we communicate, is a key aspect of regimes of truth. Language is an incredibly sophisticated process of symbols we learn at an early age and mostly take for granted unless we are confronted with trying to communicate in a language not our own. Language influences how its speakers focus their attention, remember events and people, and think about the world.