Worldwork Glossary

Revenge

When anyone uses rank and privilege unconsciously, the other side may resort to revenge as the only means available to call attention to injustice.  Here, revenge is a momentary “wake-up call” to become aware of the abuse of rank.

Rank and Privilege

Rank consists of the power and privileges – earned
or unearned –  that one receives within society, community, or within oneself.  Unconsciousness of our relative rank and privileges organizes much of our communication difficulties and conflicts.  
Process Work defines four kinds of rank.  The first two are external and more related to how society is structured. The second two are more internally oriented, that is, how we feel about ourselves.  They are:
Social rank:  has to do with the social status one receives based on what the mainstream culture values and supports. Some factors that determine social rank are gender, race, religion, class, health and (dis)ability, age, sexual orientation and education.
Structural rank:  the rank associated with structural positions of power. Teachers, parents, bosses and leaders of organizations all have structural rank in relation to their students, children, workers and newcomers to an organization. Structural rank is seen in hierarchies in our businesses, organizations, and governments; the structure elevates certain positions over others.
Psychological rank:  is related to how we feel about ourselves. It includes how we weather our childhood traumas and families. If one has good self-esteem, she has higher psychological rank than if she is depressed, lonely and feels much personal suffering. Our psychological rank can be seen in our centeredness and in our ability to fluid, open, and expressive.
Spiritual rank:  has to do with the ease or sense of well-being that comes from feeling some energy source bigger than ourselves. It may be an affirming experience in the background sustaining us in difficult moments. Someone from an oppressed group may have spiritual rank, from having endured and survived their suffering. They may gain a realization that they don’t want to perpetuate the oppression they suffered from. Spiritual rank gives us the sense that we are supported by something larger than ourselves, or our culture, that allows us to withstand difficulty and to create community.
Contextual rank: Rank is also dependent on context. For example, when you are in a group that you know well, you might have rank that a newcomer does not have, or that you don’t have in a different group.

Rank Complexity
Rank dynamics are complex. It is almost never a simple matter of one person having more rank than another.  In relation to others, you have more rank in one area, and less in another.  Facilitating awareness of rank complexity is an important part of facilitating in situations of conflict, and can support conflict resolution and deeper levels of communication. 
Rank Consciousness:  If you become aware of your rank, you can choose to use it for the benefit of the whole. Unconsciousness of rank can perpetuate hurt or abuse.  While each of us has high rank in some areas and lower rank in others, it is in the nature of ‘rank’ that it is harder to notice areas of our privilege and higher rank, than areas we have lower rank. 
Privilege: An advantage - something that gives opportunity or power. Sometimes the word ‘privilege’ also refers to a special pleasure or honour as in ‘it is a privilege to be with you’. Generally privilege is thought of as belonging to the few as compared to the many – like university education, which on a world scale is the privilege of a few. In ‘Worldwork’, we bring awareness to privilege in relation to social, structural, contextual, psychological and spiritual rank dynamics.

Roles

Timespirit  The concept of roles belongs to the ‘dreamland’ level of group process. While each role such as “boss”, “underling”, “patient”, “helper” seems to be located with a given individual or group, it is actually a “Timespirit” that needs to be filled by many of us. In other words, each role is much greater than any one individual or group. Moreover, each of us is bigger than any one role. In other words, people are not roles. Stepping into a role means helping to manifest one facet of the role.  
Role Switching There is a natural tendency to role switch. That is, we find that we may identify with a particular role but then at a given point notice that we feel pulled to represent another role, or that we are in another role.  An individual is bigger than any one role. For example, someone in a social service organization who is identified as a helper for others who are suffering and in need of care, may begin to speak about her or his own suffering. At that moment, she or he has switched roles into the “others” that need care. Noticing and allowing yourself to switch roles is awareness practice; sensing when you are in one role and when you begin to move to another. This is another aspect of ‘dreamland’ in which we share roles.  
Ghost Roles  Ghosts are a part of ‘dreamland’. They refer to those things that are spoken about but not directly represented by anyone in a given group. Some typical ghosts are ancestors who are spoken about but who are no longer present, the “bad” person who is not in the room, the environment. Everyone shares these ghost roles. If someone is able to represent and express the views and thoughts of ghosts, it can be an important key to the process.

Racism

Is the intentional or unintentional and unconscious use of the mainstream or dominant power (political or otherwise) against another race with less social power. It involves prejudice plus the power to enforce this prejudice. Racism may be individual or systemic, and the worldwide system, which privileges white people, is also racism.

Institutional racism  The term was coined by Stokely Carmichael of the Black Panther movement in the late 1960s. in the United States. He defined the term as "the collective failure of an organization to provide an appropriate and professional service to people because of their color, culture or ethnic origin”. 

Refugee