04. Bibliography

How We Got Here...

The PowerMyth Machine, and this Index in general, only exists because of the work that has come before. Its very design is an attempt to reconcile different schools of thought, so this Bibliography is part of tracking all those significant contributions.

Comprehensive reference lists will be maintained on each individual page, but that is a little harder to do with theoretical sections 10 - 21... I'm not sure how exactly to cite ideas that developed from broad frameworks or works that don't have a clear place to embed in the text. I also want to be able to differentiate between what influenced the origins of the Machine versus what bolstered its development through independent alignment.

So, my attempt to maximize transparency is using this page as a snapshot in time. Below, you'll find three related and non-chronological sections that detail what (and who!) influenced my thinking, including personal experience. Part bibliography, part story? Don't just rely on what you find here, though!! Explore the People and Concepts sections! Search for related concepts outside this Index! Mine is only one perspective and might not match yours.

Origins: Inequity & Power

For a few years in the 2020s, I worked in what Elon Musk lovingly refers to as the "Homeless Industrial Complex." If you're unfamiliar, support for people experiencing homelessness is very confusingly distributed across a number of different nonprofits, government agencies, and charities. Me and my small team were responsible for trying to patch it all together for a coordinated regional response (emphasis on response).

The term "homelessness" gives the implication that the central problem to solve was housing, but that's really just the most visible/pressing outcome, you know? Folks become economically deprived for any number of reasons - job loss, medical emergencies, domestic violence - that housing alone doesn't solve. Quite frankly, this country just has a super precarious economic structure that doesn't leave much room for error if you don't have support of your own. So, homelessness represents when every system fails people. The resulting exclusion from society, and the health/legal/social effects therein, makes it significantly harder to come back to "life as usual."

So why was so much of our effort (speaking very broadly here), focused on the response, anyway? All this time trying to make it easier for people to get government benefits they're eligible for, but why was navigating these processes a full-time job in the first place? All this time trying to squeeze out the most efficient use of every government grant, but... wait, who called it the Homeless Industrial Complex again? Wait, the wealthiest people in America have how much money??! Dang shouldn't we, idk, do something about that?

Theory

Wealth inequity seemed overwhelming and inevitable. Not only was the material gap between the richest and the poorest already dramatic and growing wider, but the vast majority of our policies and institutions only seemed to entrench it further. Why wasn't it a priority to address this?

The picture got a little clearer after I was led to the excellent Power & Powerlessness (1980) by John Gaventa. Guided by the three faces of Power as described by Steven Lukes and others, he explored the relationship between a community of impoverished coal miners and exploitative Company owners in Appalachia. Beyond existing material and structural advantages, the Company appeared to successfully convince the community that exploitation was actually in their interest. It was a sort of psychological manipulation. This was extremely helpful in conceptualizing more complex forms of domination (including those that are invisible!).

Meanwhile, Iris Marion Young, in her Justice and the Politics of Difference (1990), offered a caution against social justice relying exclusively on the notion of equal "distribution." Though advocates tend to emphasize goals of greater access to resources or opportunity for marginalized groups, she argued this often obscures the institutional context (like decision-making structures) and loses its meaning with noncountable concepts like rights or self-respect. Well, dang. That complicates the idea of there being the powerful and the powerless.

Power is a rich concept, though, and one tackled by an endless cadre of scholars since the 60s (see: 80.01. Power Debate). Michel Foucault used a genealogical method^[1] to broaden Power as a ubiquitous concept baked into disciplinary institutions. Power, instead of something people have, is something that just is. It's not just used for domination; it is also productive, relational, and necessary. Pierre Bourdieu saw it similarly and wrote extensively about socialized processes that develop unstated assumptions and shape who we become. These French postmodernists articulated the reality I saw in homelessness, but perhaps rightfully met critique for lacking clear, actionable solutions in the context of inequity. Enter Clarissa Hayward, whose De-facing Power (2000) applied these ideas (along with those from Jürgen Habermas and others) to the "three faces" debate, suggesting that Power instead be conceptualized as the social boundaries that demarcate possible fields of action. The influence of her study of a classroom, analyzing how Power shapes not just the actions of the students but also of the teachers, should be extremely evident in the PowerMyth Machine.

Myth: Critical Race Theory & Intersectionality

For discussion:

• Misperceptions of government assistance and the normalization of poverty

Theory:

• The Racial Contract and 81.27. Charles W. Mills
• White Logic, White Methods and 81.25. Eduardo Bonilla-Silva
• 81.30. Kimberlé Crenshaw, 81.13. Patricia Hill Collins, and 82.11. Intersectionality

Realms: Sociology & Cultural Studies

For discussion:

• Competing interests and agendas in homeless systems coordination

Theory:

• 61.00. Countercultures and 81.16. J. Milton Yinger
• 81.05. Stuart Hall and the Birmingham School
• 82.01. Hegemony and 81.22. Antonio Gramsci
• 81.23. Herbert Marcuse and the Frankfurt School
• 81.36. Charles Reich