Occupy DC general assembly (Oct. 2011)

According to Wikipedia:

Parrhesia is a concept developed by Michel Foucault that is a mode of discourse, in which one speaks openly and truthfully about one’s opinions and ideas without the use of rhetoric, manipulation, or generalization […]

There are several conditions upon which the traditional Ancient Greek notion of parrhesia relies. One who uses parrhesia is only recognized as doing so if he holds a credible relationship to the truth, if he serves as critic to either himself or popular opinion or culture, if the revelation of this truth places him in a position of danger and he persists in speaking the truth, nevertheless, as he feels it is his moral, social, and/or political obligation. Further, a user of parrhesia must be in a social position less empowered than those to whom he is revealing. For instance, a pupil speaking the truth to an instructor would be an accurate example of parrhesia, whereas an instructor revealing the truth to his or her pupils would not.

This paper written by Dianne Skinner applies the conceptual themes of parrhesia to an ethnographic study carried out by the author at a self-managing organic farming community. A reading of Foucault’s later work on parrhesia in classical Antiquity is made and used to investigate communal decision-making in terms of how individuals organise themselves to speak out or keep quiet.

Abstract: Through ethnography, this paper applies the conceptual themes of parrhesia to the contemporary setting of a self-managing organic farming community. A reading of Foucault’s later work on parrhesia in classical Antiquity is made, following on from which the paper analyses the contributions put forward by individual community members in reaching agreement on how to farm organically through practices reminiscent of parrhesia. A combination of the different forms of ancient parrhesia are found to be re-enacted in a contemporary setting. These include political parrhesia as enacted in the formal Assembly of the Athenian democracies and informally in the meeting places of the agora; and philosophical parrhesia as enacted in the Epicurean communities through self-writing. Furthermore, in speaking out against the higher-status long-term residents, a newcomer re-enacts the scenario of monarchic parrhesia and some forms of philosophical parrhesia. For this Special Issue on governing work though self- management, the paper contributes by providing an empirical study of how consensus decision-making is enacted in a contemporary self-managing community.

Download the paper (20 pages): Dissertation – Parrhesia in Organic Farming Community