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Re: Power relationships in conferences
Went to a conference a few years ago where the organizers hired cartoonists to summarize, in real time, what was being said. As you might guess, the cartoonists were selective in what they drew, so the result was kind of a pictorial outline of the main speakers' talks from which dissent, as you might also expect, was omitted. Regarding the asymmetrical power relationship between speaker and audience you mention in the last paragraph: If you haven't read it, you might like to read the first chapter of Henri Nouwen's book "Creative Ministry". He makes a very interesting and challenging argument that teaching can become a "violent process" (his term) because of the power relationships implicit in the role of teacher and student, and he suggests ways to think about the process that combat those negative influences. The book is targeted at a religious audience, but I think the point is valid in other contexts as well.
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