MULT10018 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Panopticon
17 Jun 2018
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Lecture 1: What is power?
What is power?
- The capacity or ability to direct or influence the behaviour of others or the
course of events
- The levels on which power can be perceived include:
● Interpersonal (face to face) dimensions of a power relationship (micro
aspect)
▪ The exercise of power – to direct or influence one another, usually by
those who have power.
Their ability to direct or influence is often contingent upon those other
people who are willing to subject to the power of those exerting it; this
leads to the 2nd aspect of power- the deferential aspect.
▪ Deferential aspect of power – the extent to which a person is willing to
yield to the power of another
▪ Resistant aspect of power – the extent to which people refuse to yield
to the power, which in some senses, is exerting power within itself
● Structural dimension of power (macro aspect, deals with power exercised
on a societal body made of social structures and factors), which contains
factors that seem to exceed the power of an individual and lie above the realm
of individual behaviours, even though sometimes they are articulated through
particular actions. There is a multiplicity of structural dimensions of power,
such as:
▪ Economic: whether one owns, or does not own the means of
production, the ways in which things are produced in any given social
order, is a key determinant of power. In general, wealth ownership
▪ Political: power in certain circumstances is contingent upon, for
example the ability of a group of people to decide the current of the
state e.g. the state
▪ Ideological/Cultural: of links to the state, power can be contingent
upon the possession of various forms of what might be termed
‘ideological apparatus’ e.g. media, newspaper, TV, radios, so on, or
even other realms of society that are concerned with ideas e.g. the
church, religious groups, or even the education system
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
The capacity or ability to direct or influence the behaviour of others or the course of events. The levels on which power can be perceived include: Interpersonal (face to face) dimensions of a power relationship (micro aspect: the exercise of power to direct or influence one another, usually by those who have power. In general, wealth ownership: political: power in certain circumstances is contingent upon, for example the ability of a group of people to decide the current of the state e. g. the state. Ideological/cultural: of links to the state, power can be contingent upon the possession of various forms of what might be termed. On the one hand, power is involving an interpersonal dimension, and powers are sometimes involving structural forces. This framework will be referred to in depth in the future, but also simplistically, one might split a power relationship in 3 ways. The panopticon the sign of power being psychologized, internalized.
