Having examined misalignment and social tension, we now consider power asymmetries in the field of interpersonal meaning.
Power does not generate meaning.
It shapes who can speak, who is heard, and which meanings persist or vanish.
Power as differential constraint
Power is expressed as unequal constraints on actors:
some have broader horizons of intelligibility,
others operate under tighter pressures,
some meanings are reinforced, others suppressed.
These constraints are not symbolic content.
They are relational effects of value systems acting unevenly.
Silence and invisibility
Silence is not merely the absence of speech.
It can be:
strategic,
enforced,
emergent from anticipated sanction.
Silence shapes the space of meaning:
construals that are never voiced may still exist internally,
some interpretations fail to stabilise,
some voices remain fragile or invisible.
Intelligibility is thus structured by differential access.
Uneven uptake
Power affects uptake:
some actors’ meanings are consistently acknowledged,
others’ are ignored or discounted,
some are selectively amplified.
Meaning itself is not altered.
But its persistence, circulation, and consequences are conditioned by social asymmetries.
Responsibility without representation
Recognising power in this way does not reduce individuals to pawns.
Actors navigate these pressures, adapt, and occasionally resist.
They exercise relational skill, attention, and judgment within the constraints imposed by asymmetrical systems.
The shaping of intelligibility
Through uneven constraints, the field of interpersonal meaning is sculpted:
some interpretations become dominant,
others remain marginal,
new patterns of coordination emerge.
This is the work of power on meaning: not creation, not interpretation, but structuring the possibilities.
Looking ahead
With power asymmetries and selective uptake clarified, the series can conclude by reflecting on what kind of practice meaning is in social life.
Post 8: What Kind of Social Practice Meaning Is will gather the threads of constraint, recruitment, misalignment, and power, showing how interpersonal meaning is cultivated and sustained without collapsing into representation.
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