Nobody quite recovers from being a child: the asymmetry of power between parents and children always leaves a trace
The Physics and Metaphysics of Social Powers: Bridging Cognitive Processing and Social Dynamics, a New Perspective on Power through Active Inference
Children’s Sense of Fairness as Equal Respect
One influential view holds that children’s sense of fairness emerges at age 8 and is rooted in the development of an aversion to unequal resource distributions. Here, we suggest two amendments to this view. First, we argue and present evidence that children’s sense of fairness emerges already at age 3 in (and only in) the context of collaborative activities. This is because, in our theoretical view, collaboration creates a sense of equal respect among partners. Second, we argue and present evidence that children’s judgments about what is fair are essentially judgments about the social meaning of the distributive act; for example, children accept unequal distributions if the procedure gave everyone an equal chance (so-called distributive justice). Children thus respond to unequal (and other) distributions not based on material concerns, but rather based on interpersonal concerns: they want equal respect.
A quote from 1984
In the long run, a hierarchical society was only possible on a basis of poverty and ignorance.
Children's Acquisition and Application of Norms
All human societies are permeated by collectively shared entities that govern daily social interactions and promote coordination and cooperation: norms. While the study of norm development is not new to developmental psychology, it has only recently been the target of an interdisciplinary wave of research using new methodologies and (often) complementary theoretical accounts to describe and explain the origins and potentially species-unique aspects of human norm psychology. Here we review recent developmental research showing that young children swiftly acquire and infer norms in a variety of social contexts. Moreover, children actively enforce these norms, even as unaffected bystanders, when third parties do things the wrong way. This research suggests that the foundations of human norm psychology can be found in early childhood. Deeper insights into the ontogenetic roots of norm psychology may contribute to understanding the evolutionary emergence of human cooperation and its maintenance in the contemporary world.
(PDF) Power concentrations in the ATmosphere: Balancing between feudalism and conflict exhaustion
PDF | On Apr 24, 2025, Nathalie Van Raemdonck published Power concentrations in the ATmosphere: Balancing between feudalism and conflict exhaustion | Find, read and cite all the research you need on ResearchGate
How to parent more predictably
(As with anything else I write about parenting, this is mostly just my observations with my own two kids and may not generalize as well as I think it does.) A few weeks ago I wrote about why I think it's valuable for parents to be predictable. I was mostly describing an end state, though, and reasons why it's a good place to be, but what should you do if you're interested in being more consistent
Locating Family Values: A Field Trial of the Whereabouts Clock: (Nominated for the Best Paper Award)
Ten fathers took extended leave to care for their babies – how their family life changed
Fathers became more involved in the often invisible domestic work needed to keep family life running smoothly.
Technology is Society Made Durable
Is it possible to devise a set of concepts that could replace the technology/society divide? This set of new concepts - association and substitution - might help to rephrase some of the traditional questions of social order and especially that of the durability of domination of power. However, instead of using different tools to analyse power and weakness, it is argued that power and domination are simply different values of variables that should be studied in their whole range. By reconstructing networks it is argued that a full description of power and domination may be obtained.
Discerning What Power Is For - Mockingbird
The Spirit’s dynamic work in history will always rhyme with what God has manifested in Jesus.
The Technological Construction of Social Power
This essay presents a theory of the role of technology in the distribution and exercise of social power. The paper studies how technical artefacts and systems are used to construct, maintain or st...
A heartbreaking work of staggering genius
A book that redefines both family and narrative for the…
