POWER of meanings // MEANINGS of power
  • About
  • Introduction
  • Browse the book
    • Completed pages
    • All the pages alphabetically >
      • B >
        • Benefits of understanding power
        • Binary thinking
        • Buddhism
      • C >
        • Choice
      • D >
        • Discovering your power
      • E >
        • Empowerment
      • F >
        • Foucault's "power is everywhere"
        • Free will
      • H >
        • Having power and using power
        • How everybody is powerful
        • How everybody is powerless
      • I >
        • Improving mental abilities
        • In control
        • Inequality
        • Influencing each other
        • Intentionality and power
      • L >
        • Language has power over us
        • Limited resources
      • M >
        • Macropower: discourse
        • Main theories of power
        • "May" power
        • Meanings of power that are not directly related to social power
        • Micropower: ability and influence
        • Mindfulness
        • My synesthetic perception of "power"
      • P >
        • Power and knowledge
        • Power as ability
        • Power as a chess game
        • Power as influence
        • Powerful and powerless
        • "Power" in language
        • Power is not a thing
        • Power of speech
        • Power of mind
        • Power on/off
        • Privilege
      • R >
        • Responsibility, blame and power
      • S >
        • Synonyms of power
      • T >
        • Theory of micro- and macropower
      • W >
        • What is power?
  • Author
    • My process

Theory of Micro- and Macropower

PAGE IN PROGRESS
What you see here is a page of my hypertext book POWER of meanings // MEANINGS of power. Initially empty, this page will slowly be filled with thoughts, notes, and quotes. One day, I will use them to write a coherent entry, similar to these completed pages. See this post to better understand my creative process. Thank you for your interest and patience! :)
We start with the understanding that power is not a thing.

​Interplay of micro- and macropower: 
Not having power over our own power

Here is the brief description of this theory from my official website: https://www.elizavetafriesem.com/micro--and-macropower.html

From my book Media Is Us:

"We know from physics that rules of the macro world do not apply to quantum mechanics. Atoms might look like little solar systems, but subatomic particles behave nothing like planets. Einstein was actually quite disturbed by the unpredictability of the quantum world, and in his letter to Max Born, he famously stated that God 'does not play dice' (meaning that the same rules should apply to phenomena we see through the microscope and through the telescope). I suggest that, similarly to the universe described by physics, the social world has two different but interconnected planes of existence. I argue that power struggles play out differently based on whether they happen in specific relationships between people (the micro level) or in the universe of all relationships interconnected with each other (the macro level). Oppressors can still oppress and villains do cause harm, but when it comes to society as a whole—which we have such trouble wrapping our individual minds around—additional explanations are necessary" (p. 67).
  • About
  • Introduction
  • Browse the book
    • Completed pages
    • All the pages alphabetically >
      • B >
        • Benefits of understanding power
        • Binary thinking
        • Buddhism
      • C >
        • Choice
      • D >
        • Discovering your power
      • E >
        • Empowerment
      • F >
        • Foucault's "power is everywhere"
        • Free will
      • H >
        • Having power and using power
        • How everybody is powerful
        • How everybody is powerless
      • I >
        • Improving mental abilities
        • In control
        • Inequality
        • Influencing each other
        • Intentionality and power
      • L >
        • Language has power over us
        • Limited resources
      • M >
        • Macropower: discourse
        • Main theories of power
        • "May" power
        • Meanings of power that are not directly related to social power
        • Micropower: ability and influence
        • Mindfulness
        • My synesthetic perception of "power"
      • P >
        • Power and knowledge
        • Power as ability
        • Power as a chess game
        • Power as influence
        • Powerful and powerless
        • "Power" in language
        • Power is not a thing
        • Power of speech
        • Power of mind
        • Power on/off
        • Privilege
      • R >
        • Responsibility, blame and power
      • S >
        • Synonyms of power
      • T >
        • Theory of micro- and macropower
      • W >
        • What is power?
  • Author
    • My process