Power: interpersonal, organizational and global dimensions

Lectures: 2 sessions / week, 1.5 hours / session

"The fundamental concept in social science is power, in the same sense in which energy is the fundamental concept in physics."

Russell, Bertrand. Power: A New Social Analysis.

"Power relations are both intentional and nonsubjective. ... [T]hey are imbued, through and through with calculation: there is no power that is exercised without a series of aims and objectives. But this does not mean that it results from the choice or decision of an individual subject."

Foucault, Michel. The History of Sexuality. Vol 1.

Power is one of the most significant phenomena in society as well as personal life; even though we often like to act as if everyone is equally free to do just as he or she pleases, we do not all enjoy equal power to determine what happens. The study of power extends far beyond formal politics or the use of overt force into the operation of every institution and every life: how we are influenced by the people around us, who makes controlling decisions in the family, how people get ahead at work, whether democratic governments, in fact, reflect the 'will' of the people.

This course is divided into three parts. The first portion involves a preliminary specification and analysis of the concept of power. We will begin with an effort to differentiate power from influence, from conformity and from socialization, after which we will explore the various forms of social power, relying predominantly on descriptive empirical and historical studies of the ways that power has been enacted in social relationships.

The second portion of the course uses historically significant writers to develop a set of general questions about the sources and distribution of power in society. This part concludes by locating the sources and dimensions of institutionalized power in the modern world. By the end of this second section, we will revise our preliminary conceptualization of power to produce a more complex cultural and structural understanding of power.

The last section of the course returns to empirical studies and examines the organization and distribution of power in professions, organizations, communities, nations and the globe. We will conclude with an analysis of the possibilities of resistance challenging institutionalized power and creating situations of shared power.

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