Análisis del silencio como respuesta a crisis de relaciones de poder

Abstract

More than 500 years ago Da Vinci stated, "Nothing strengthens authority like silence" and over time this statement has only become more legitimate. Our history, our being, even our character has taken shape around silence, and silence can only be understood by his side as it both reigns and rebels. According to a communicational approach, silence can be understood from the concept of complement and/or strategy because the definition of word and silence is not a confrontation but rather, they are necessarily reciprocal. That is to say they depend on each other to fulfil one of their goals which is to communicate. The objective of this research is to understand what happens behind the silence originated by a power conflict, which is precisely one of the few response alternatives in an environment in which people are clearly at a disadvantage. Through a triangulation, used as a method of qualitative research, an analysis of three experiences related to political, health or religious environments was carried out. The objective is to understand what happens when silence is invoked as a communicational strategy in order to limit or confront possible damage. Once the results were obtained, they were contrasted with a non-participating observation of social media, which allowed us to determine and contrast to what was said by the interviewees. Thus, silence as a response to crises in power relations is understood as an instrument to perpetuate the will of those in positions of authority, a way to spread behaviours, or as a complex coercion system that involves its members through the impossibility of replication and fear.