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FOR them, BY them

sasha's picture

I think institutions are maybe the most important vaariable when speaking about identity and access, because most (if not all) of the times when we speak of access it is in relation to some sort of institution. I'd like to change the word institution to a much more larger, wider range term: social structure or organization. Our society is composed of social organizations, both formal and informal. Formal organization refers to organizations that are written down, in documents. Informal organization refers to the type of organization that is not written down, but that it is understood and the way that things get done. Whenever we speak of access, we refer to access to a social organization, or any structure. For example, when speaking of access to education we are talking about access to schools, college, afterschool programs, community clubs or organizations, street knowledge -- all these are a type od social organization. The problem with these organizations is that they are created by/for a certain group of people, and those who were not apart of it since birth will have to work on getting access to it.