Across the aid and development sector right now, there is a shared sense that things are shifting in ways we cannot control. Funding is tightening. Geopolitical tensions are reshaping priorities. International human rights and humanitarian norms that once felt relatively stable are being ignored or selectively applied. Decisions are being made further away, faster, and with less space for reflection or dissent.
I have been feeling this in my own work. Not just as uncertainty, but as a sense of being inside systems that are moving without me. There are moments where it feels like the scope to act is shrinking, where the important decisions have already been made, where my role is to implement rather than shape. And in those moments, a quiet thought can start to take hold. The thinking that there is nothing I can do here. I know I am not alone in that. That feeling is not imagined. The constraints are real. Power is unevenly held. Many of the forces shaping our work sit far beyond our reach. But there is a difference between not controlling the system and having no power within it.
One of the things I keep returning to, in both my work and writing, is that power is not only something held at the top of systems. As Michel Foucault reminds us, power moves through everyday practices, through what we normalise, what we repeat, what we leave unquestioned. And as Paulo Freire writes, praxis is not just reflection or action, but the relationship between the two.
Most of us were never in control of these systems to begin with. And yet, every day, we participate in how they are reproduced. Not through big strategic decisions, but through ordinary ones. We sit in meetings where priorities are framed and rarely questioned. We work within designs that were shaped before communities were meaningfully engaged. We decide which questions are asked, which risks are named, which tensions are smoothed over. These moments can feel small, but they are not neutral. They are the places where power is enacted in practice.
When I catch myself thinking that change requires authority, I notice how quickly my own field of action narrows. I start to treat the system as fixed and myself as passive within it. I wait, or defer, or move on. And in doing so, I can feel how easy it is to reinforce the very dynamics I am trying to work against.
Practising differently often looks much quieter than we expect. It might look like asking, in a design conversation, whose perspectives have shaped this work so far, and whose have not. It might look like noticing when participation is being framed as consultation, and choosing not to let that pass without reflection. It might look like slowing something down when it is moving too quickly to be safe, even when timelines are tight. It might look like allowing a difficult question to sit in the room, rather than resolving it too quickly.
These are not dramatic interventions. But they do shift how power moves in that moment. They change what is visible, what is sayable, and what becomes possible next. In the Power to Praxis Companion Guide, this is what reflexive praxis points us toward. Not perfection, but a consistent return to how we act, relate, and make decisions within the systems we are part of .
One of the most common questions that comes up when working with groups is what if I do not have positional power. It is a real question. Many people are navigating organisational hierarchies, donor expectations, and political constraints, and the risks are not evenly shared. The response is not to deny those realities, but to begin where you are.
Decolonial thinkers such as Linda Tuhiwai Smith remind us that this work is not only about changing systems “out there”, but about how we show up within them, how we understand knowledge, authority, and relationship. It requires noticing how power flows around us, but also through us.
To recognise that even within constraint, you are still shaping how work is interpreted, how relationships are held, and how decisions are carried forward. You can choose what you normalise in your own practice. You can create small spaces of honesty, even when larger structures remain unchanged. You can decide which questions you keep alive. This is something I keep coming back to. You can lead from where you stand.
In a moment where the system feels increasingly out of control, this matters. Because while we may not control the broader forces shaping the sector, those forces still move through everyday practice, through conversations, decisions, silences, and actions.
The question is not whether we have power. It is how we understand it, and what we do with the parts of it we hold.
You may not control the system. But the system still moves through you. And that is where practice begins.
If you want to keep sitting with this, it can be helpful to return to some of the thinkers who have shaped how we understand power, not as something held only at the top, but as something that moves through everyday life and practice.
Paulo Freire writes about praxis as the relationship between reflection and action, and the importance of critical consciousness in transforming the conditions we are part of. Michel Foucault shows how power operates through everyday practices and norms, not just through formal authority. Patricia Hill Collins and Kimberlé Crenshaw deepen this by showing how power is structured across intersecting systems of inequality, shaping whose voices are heard and whose are marginalised.
From a decolonial perspective, Linda Tuhiwai Smith reminds us that knowledge itself is shaped by power, and that practice must be accountable to those most affected. Sara Ahmed helps us see how institutions maintain comfort and reproduce inequality, often by smoothing over tension rather than engaging it. And Mia Mingus offers a different lens on care and risk, reminding us that dignity includes the ability to act, reflect, and learn, even within constraint.
These are not abstract ideas. They are ways of understanding what is already happening in our work, and ways of choosing to engage with it more consciously.
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Including the Excluded blog here
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The next free Practice Circle will be held online on Tuesday 14 April, 1:00–2:00pm (AEST). It is a space to pause, reflect, and think alongside others navigating similar shifts in the sector. This month, we will continue exploring the idea of the “reset” and what it means for our practice.
Find out more and join via the link.
Practice Circle Information and Bookings
The next Power to Praxis workshop will take place in Melbourne on Tuesday 26 May, 1:30–4:00pm at Kathleen Syme Library. This session focuses on how power, positionality, and institutional dynamics shape our work across the project cycle, and how reflection can translate into practical shifts.
Details and bookings are available via the link.
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