MGH Guides: CEC 101: What's the IHP's Role in Health Equity?: Social Power Structures

Social Power Structures

Image provided by opensource.com and used courtesy of a creative commons license

Key Concepts Related to Power Systems

The following materials will introduce you to key concepts.

Brave Spaces: Conversations about structural inequality and oppression can be challenging, and at the IHP we regularly use the idea of a "Brave Space," which speaks to how learning requires embracing discomfort. Please review this document about Brave Space and think about ways you can lean into your own particular brave space and growth frontiers.

Brave Spaces
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From the Program on Intergroup Relations, University of Michigan, 2014.

Our Power Context: Health Care and communities exist within a broader social context. Each of the following materials helps us understand more about power systems in society and how they show up in our lives and experiences.

Why Ordinary People Need to Understand Power
(Approx. 17-18 min): Eric Liu's TED Talk emphasizes the importance of understanding power in society, arguing that ordinary people must recognize, harness, and exercise power to shape democracy and drive meaningful change.
Understanding Complex Power Systems in Lived Experiences
(Approx. 7-8 min): Author, educator, and historian, Blair Imani, breaks down how complex power systems show up in lived experiences in society today.

Understanding Your Identity: Not only do we exist within social and power contexts, but your experiences as an individual are also impacted by how you are socially positioned within these contexts. Use the following materials to reflect on how the broader environment may affect your own identity and how you relate to others.

Sometimes You're a Caterpillar
(Approx. 3 min): Franchesca Ramsey uses a metaphorical story to illustrate privilege and emphasize the importance of recognizing the different changes that people face in their daily lives while overcoming obstacles together with empathy and understanding.
Racial Identity Development
(Approx 5-7 min): This resource from the National Museum of African American History and Culture provides a framework for social identity development relative to social position.

Opportunities for Reflection

There are dimensions to our identities, some that we are more aware of and some that we are not. There are pitfalls to having society or even personally ascribing ourselves singular identities. The Social Identity Wheel is a tool that can help us think about multiple aspects of our identities.

Option 1

Review the Social Identity Wheel, linked below, and reflect on these questions

What do you notice about the parts of your identity that you think about more relative to the ones you think about less?
How might that relate to relative experiences of structural benefits or challenges?
What are parts of your own identity that you might want to learn more about?

Social Identity Wheel

Option 2

Complete the Mapping your Social Identity Timeline, using the Cycle of Socialization to help you. Then reflect on the following questions.

What key insights did you gain through this activity and how do they relate to how you understand this part of your identity?
What/who were some of the biggest influences on your understanding of the identity you chose to map?