Arenas for Associating : PH'5Q

The focus in this section is on the Architecture, psychosocial pressures, and determining names, not on specific frameworks enabling practical use of particular Arenas. So there will be minimal specifications or explanations of properties and applications.

Orientation

The Associating Arenas-PH'5Q were the first set that was examined, even if not completely. A brief account was provided in the introduction section of the Work in Organisations satellite.

The RL5/PH5-Communication Domain is dominated by the pressure for understanding and meets the Primal Need for a shared reality.

A summary of the properties of each of the PH5Q Arenas has more recently been provided in the Introduction to Philosophy Schools (Q5). In due course, each Arena will have its own detailed exposition in the Frameworks Sections.

As in all Q complexes, these Associating Arenas are integrated by autonomy pressures as explained earlier. In this case, autonomy enables responsibility (from RL6) and identification (from RL4). These two integrating factors sustain the association by ensuring work commitment in the face of a myriad of unexpected events.

Naming The Arenas

Q1: «Family-Household»

A family-household creates a distinctive shared psychosocial reality that sustains and shapes its members lives. Maintaining a family depends on actions that speak louder than words and this entails a foundation in concrete-L'1 language. Familiarity allows the use of associative-L'2 language which flows from a practical understanding of each other to guide work to be done.

ClosedAutonomy & Taxonomic Integration

Identification (from RL4) with the group is extremely strong, so strong that it is used for social identification by outsiders and official bodies.

Responsibility (from RL6) involves doing whatever has to be done to maintain family life. Work roles are partly given by custom and partly by member preferences, capabilities and needs.

Performance is the psychosocial pressure because provision of adequate physical and psychological care of family members for and by each other is the primary requirement of family life.

Q2: «Formal Organisation»

A formal organisation is created by a group wanting to achieve things in a particular physico-social environment. It is operated with L'2-associative language that depends on information produced via familiarity and by convention. Operations are shaped and controlled using L'3-conceptual language in the form of conventional ideas.

ClosedAutonomy & Taxonomic Integration

Identification (from RL4) with the group is desirable and occurs naturally with long employment. However, the more significant identification is with the role and skills which determine employment, develop over time and enable moving to a new organization.

Responsibility (from RL6) is tied to pre-specified roles needed by the organization and assigned based on competence.

Certainty is the psychosocial pressure because all organizations fear their economic survival is at risk from errors, fraud, competition, regulations and other uncontrollable factors.

Q3: «Academic Discipline»

An Academic Discipline consists of people engaged in the systematic development of knowledge in a specific area of interest. Disciplines are built on defined concepts (the jargon) structured into taken-for-granted paradigms. So associating is dependent on the use of L'3-conceptual language. L'4-universal language provides the values that shape the discipline and embed it in the social milieu.

ClosedAutonomy & Taxonomic Integration

Identification (from RL4) with a discipline is strong for insiders, and well recognized by outsiders. Disciplines provide a natural home for cause-centred (PH'4Q4L3) individuals.

Responsibility (from RL6) involves pursuing or supporting research work and publication within the discipline by using disciplinary methods for accepted topics

Acceptability is the psychosocial pressure because disciplinary work is not intrinsically profit-generating and depends on financial support from others in the wider social context: patrons, donors, governments.

Q4: «Societal Institution»

A Societal Institution» consists of all those who are involved in the provision of services to meet specific personal and communal needs like healthcare, housing, and government, and this unavoidably includes recipients (i.e. usually all citizen-residents of a society). Needs are values articulated using L'4-universal language, and L'5-gestalt language is used to express cultural beliefs that shape needs and their handling.

ClosedAutonomy & Taxonomic Integration

Identification (from RL4) flows from pride in being a citizen of the society, and is socially hard-coded in documents like passports, driving licenses, and social security cards.

Responsibility (from RL6) is a civic duty, whose expression ranges from public protests and expressions of opinion to deep engagement with social debates and official inquiries.

Well-Being is the psychosocial pressure which informs a person whether and how well their needs are being met, and fosters their civic engagement.

Q5: «Philosophy School»

A Philosophy School is a group that forms around a doctrine that is deemed to be valuable, even essential for humanity. The fundamentals of the doctrine are expressed in L'5-gestalt language to generate awareness and belief. L'6-logical language is used to shape awareness and doctrinal development by careful coherent exposition using terms (names) that precisely accord with realities.

ClosedAutonomy & Taxonomic Integration

Identification (from RL4) is extremely strong because the doctrine becomes part of the personality. Functioning in its terms becomes unavoidable and automatic.

Responsibility (from RL6) involves making a publicly recognizable commitment and disseminating the doctrine informally and formally.

Understanding is the psychosocial pressure which ensures that joining the school is genuine.

Q6: «Spiritual Tradition»

 A Spiritual Tradition unites a group of people who share an account of a sacred or divine realm expressed using L'6-logical language and L'7-mythic language as a means to access that realm.

ClosedAutonomy & Taxonomic Integration

Identification (from RL4) with the group is necessary to provide for a comforting commonality amongst members. Choice of a spiritual path is voluntary and may be associated with an active rejection of alternatives.

Responsibility (from RL6) involves adherence to an internal commitment to the discipline and doctrines of the tradition.

Autonomy is the psychosocial pressure which ensures a genuine and voluntary participation in the social group, as well as the necessary constant self-discipline.

Q7: «Artistic Events»

An Artistic Event depends on a diverse group of individuals committed to the event. The event itself flows from images that have power and that requires L'7-mythic language. However, the images must be realized in the actual socio-physical world and that means using techniques, physical objects and such like which demand L'1 concrete language.

ClosedAutonomy & Taxonomic Integration

Identification (from RL4) with a transient project is necessary to generate the required dedication and commitment.

Responsibility (from RL6) involves participation as appropriate, required and accepted by others.

Selflessness is the psychosocial pressure that ensures service to the art, so that egos or profits do not interfere with an imaginative realization.

Secondary Psychosocial Pressures

Psychosocial pressures as allocated above relate to the work-dependent social group i.e. the form of the Arena. However, earlier we used Q2-Organizations and Q3-Disciplines to identify a secondary pressure experienced by the individuals working to maintain the group (i.e. the contents or operation of the Arena. Doubt was raised as to whether those findings could be generalized, and the first step is to extend the inquiry systematically to other Association Arenas.

Q1 Arenas contain Family-Households and its primary pressure is performance, which fits with the potential for tragedy if a family collapses. Adequate family functioning is vital for communities and wider society.

The operation of a family-household is a form of communism and family members operate on the basis of "to each according to their needs, from each according to their ability" but to become aware what those are and to be responsive means members experience a secondary pressure for understanding, the RL5-Communication pressure. This strengthens their shared reality and enables a stronger association.

Q2 Arenas contain Formal Organisations and its primary pressure is certainty, which fits with the social importance of organizational continuity for employment and economic well-being. Information and conventional concepts are used in annual reports and similar documents to generate certainty.

However, effective functioning and social support depend on individual participants delivering the mission within the resources available, and this means there is a secondary pressure for performance to produce achievement.

Performance derives from Action-RL1, and the focus on decision (PH'1) often confuses efforts to manage organizations PH'5-Q5 for certainty.

Q3 Arenas contain Academic Disciplines and its primary pressure is acceptability, which fits with the domination of universal language, a form of language which creates the feeling of mutual understanding. It also fits the empirical finding that consensus is expected to dominate decision-making.

Functioning of a discipline depends on meticulous scholarship and rigorous investigations which are driven by scholars who are ready to put their own biases and theories to one side. Disciplines depend on willing peer review and supervision of doctoral candidates without pay. There is also the demand on members to respect findings within the disciplinary corpus, even if disagreeing. These requirements generate a secondary pressure for selflessness.
ClosedMore 

Q4 Arenas contain Societal Institutions and its primary pressure is well-being, which fits with their function to meet social needs. The various bodies, including government, that make up any institution tend to put their own self-interest first. That commonly impedes functioning that best serves the public interest.

Responsibility for institutional functioning is therefore about discerning the public interest and tackling vested interests. That appears to be a matter for all in society. Individuals must speak their mind, and make their needs, views and complaints heard. Whether via the media or by joining relevant campaigns, and supporting public inquiries, such demands depend on a secondary pressure for autonomy.

Autonomy derives from Purpose-RL6, and the focus on ethics-PH'6 and politics (PH'6C) often confuses an appreciation of how institutions can be evolved to promote well-being.

Q5 Arenas contain Philosophy Schools and its primary pressure is understanding, which fits with their function to develop and promote awareness of certain fundamentals of human existence so as to benefit society.

Adherents within the Schools are expected to penetrate their misconceptions and biases. They must focus on properly grasping the doctrine which they believe is so important for wider society and, indeed, humanity in general. Given the extent and seriousness of the claims and requirement for total commitment, there is a secondary pressure for certainty.

Certainty derives from Inquiry-RL2, and the focus on research methods (PH'2) often confuses an appreciation of how doctrines enable understanding.

Q6 Arenas contain Spiritual Traditions and its primary pressure is autonomy, which fits with the need for adherents to freely choose the path and deliberately exercise the required form of self-discipline.

People participate in these traditions because all promise states like bliss, serenity, release from suffering, and even fusion with the divine. This suggests a secondary pressure for well-being.

Q7 Arenas contain Artistic Events and its primary pressure is selflessness, which fits with the high dedication and devotion called for by any creative effort.

The successful functioning of any event depends on the audience which is taken, usually indiscriminately, from wider society. Events require expenditure and this means funding from governments or supporters as well as from any audience. So the efforts of those involved are unavoidably driven by a secondary pressure for acceptability.

Comparison

Confirming the initial conjecture, there appears to be an identical pattern of content-operational pressures for PH'2Q and PH'5Q Arenas.

There now two possibilities:

  1. PH'2Q and PH'5Q are providing a standard pattern which will be found in all the other Domains.
  2. One or more of the other Domains will show an alternative pattern.

Taking things further: As we proceed to investigate and name the remaining Domains—PH'1Q-Achieving Arenas, PH'4Q-Individualizing Arenas, PH'6Q-Governing Arenas—secondary operating pressures will also be identified.

Originally posted:  24-Sep-2022. Last updated: 12-Mar-2023.