Problems (7): PR-00001–PR-00007 — Meaning Crisis, Illegitimate Domination, Performance Society Exhaustion, Fascization, Epistemic Power Concentration, Platform Feudalism, Knowledge Isolation Models (5): Han, Fisher, Foucault, Vervaeke, Graeber/Anarchism Values (6): Epistemic Sovereignty, Authority Requires Justification, Exhaustion Is Structural, Mutual Aid Over Market, Digital Autonomy Is Political, Deep Reflection As Practice Arguments (3): Platform Feudalism → Democracy, PKM as Epistemic Strategy, Algorithmic Rationality Erodes Autonomy Organizations (5): IndieWeb, Wikimedia Deutschland, Reporter ohne Grenzen, Mehr Demokratie e.V., netzpolitik.org Plans (1): de-plan1-sven.md — Germany plan with 6 challenges, 5 strategies Data (1): DE-Democracy-Metrics — V-Dem, RSF, EIU, ARD-DeutschlandTREND, Bundeswahlleiter, More in Common Cross-linking: KNOWLEDGE-GRAPH.md + entities.json index Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
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Model: Power-Knowledge (Michel Foucault)
Author: Michel Foucault (French philosopher, 1926–1984)
Core Thesis: Knowledge is never neutral — it arises in power relations and reproduces them. Truth regimes define what is allowed to count as true. Every claim to objectivity conceals a particular perspective and particular interests.
Key Concepts:
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Pouvoir-Savoir (Power-Knowledge): Power and knowledge are not separate domains where one influences the other — they are mutually constitutive. There is no knowledge outside power relations, and no power relation that does not simultaneously produce knowledge.
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Régime de Vérité (Truth Regime): Every society has its own regime of truth — the types of discourse it accepts, the mechanisms for distinguishing true from false, the techniques valued for attaining truth. Modern truth regimes are managed through scientific institutions, media, and increasingly: algorithms.
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Epistemic Violence: The destruction of knowledge forms, worldviews, and languages of marginalized groups. Not mere ignorance but active erasure. Epistemicide — the killing of knowledge systems.
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Wissen ist situiert (Knowledge is Situated): Every claim to knowledge comes from a position. The view from nowhere is a myth. Haraway (extending Foucault): "situated knowledges" — partial perspectives are not weaknesses but the condition of genuine knowledge.
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Maschinelle Epistemologie (Machine Epistemology): Foucault's framework extended to algorithmic systems: what becomes visible through recommendation algorithms, what disappears, what is amplified. Algorithmic truth regimes.
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Disciplinary Society → Performance Society: Foucault's analysis of the disciplinary society (surveillance, normalization, examination) was extended by Han: when discipline is internalized, external surveillance becomes unnecessary.
Problems Addressed: PR-00005 (Epistemic Power Concentration), PR-00006 (Platform Feudalism — as epistemic control), PR-00002 (Illegitimate Domination)
Application: When an institution claims truth, ask: whose truth? What knowledge forms does this render invisible? What power relations does this claim of objectivity serve?