Dear Terry
The obvious retort is that the desire to get rid of such powerful terms is in the interest of the powerful.
The best example I know of this lingusitic quest to deny authority while keep it happens in the social work area: here problems are called "experiences" - so, people living in poverty don't actually have a "problem", rather, they have an "experience of , Y or Z". The social worker then doesn't have to act as if addressing a "problem" which takes power from the "victim" - telling starving people they are having a negative digestive experience helps them realise that they might have an alternative "digestive experience" sometimes called "eating".
This is not to pretend that the issue is simple. The terms used are crucial. They need to change according to the circumstances - that is, valency can only be determined locally.
keith russell
OZ newcastle
>>> Terence Love <[log in to unmask]> 04/30/04 16:33 PM >>>
Hi Kari-Hans,
How is the weather in Helsinki?
You raise an important point with Lubomir about the problems of using the term 'oppression' - it shows up in other fields. In the UK, in the 80s and 90s, there was a shift by social and political professionals towards using 'disadvantage' and 'exclusion'. There was also other terminology around equity and access to resources. The 'exclusion' discourse took on some strength in the output-centred policy context of the recent 'Labour' government era. A quick review of the titles of the last 20 years successful ESRC grant applications and government policy changes would probably throw up a good alternative term list to 'oppression'. Looking at the alternative terminology of 'disadvantage', 'exclusion' and the like also raises that perhaps it is necessary for design researchers to carefully use words that express the design issues and which are accurate, situation-specific and provide the right sort of discursive manipulative pressure. Seems to me one problem is that "Oppression' and 'Empowerment' are a bit grand and overemotive in many practical contexts.
Best wishes,
Terry
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