Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
summary
Analytical problem
Analytical solution
Social power takes a range of distinct
forms
Identify these forms and study their
interactions and non-interactions
Some forms of social power are
perceived as legitimate
Distinguish socially legitimate and
illegitimate forms of social power,
and cases where legitimate power is
exercised illegitimately
Different forms of social power
interfere with one another, by
design and by accident
Identify the contradictions and
tensions among different forms of
power, not just the
complementarities
Some forms of social power are more
efficacious than others
Recognise asymmetries between forms
of social power
'Soft' social power can work by hiding
and silencing as much as by making
certain things known
Attend to the absences as much as the
presences in socially powerful
discourses and knowledges
Social power can sometimes empower
those 'subject' to it
Avoid presuming social power is a
zero-sum game between social actors
Some forms of social power escape the
intentions of those directly involved
in exercising it
Look for the unintended and
unanticipated effects of social power
Social power does not always achieve
the goals of those discharging it
Look for signs of resistance to, or
indifference to, social power in the
wider society
Social power is not separate from the
process of naming and analysing it
Recognise that the analyst of social
power is necessarily implicated in
that which s/he studies
in which those involved tended not to perceive social power as being
operative.
•
Arguably, some forms of social power serve to countermand, stymie and resist other
forms
At various points in his career, Foucault looked for widespread 'rationali-
ties' of social power. This risked eliding the tensions, even contradictions,
between different modalities of (both 'legitimate' and 'illegitimate') forms
of social power. For instance, the representational power of the mass
media is regulated by powers exercised by press complaints commissions,
courts (who enforce privacy and decency laws), and so on. Is this the same
as the power of a national government to prevent environmentalists from
protesting outside a nuclear fuel enrichment facility?
•
Arguably some institutions, epistemic communities or sections of a society exercise
far more soft power than do others
To say, as Foucault frequently did, that social power is dispersed is not
to say it's evenly spread. For instance, Marxists since the time of Marx
have been insistent that capitalists, in various ways, seek to advance
