Unit 3 - Power and Resistance PDF

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I took this class with Professor Gordon....

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Power and Resistance -Under what conditions do we participate in, encourage, tolerate, passively accept or ignore power laden situations in which people suffer and are harmed? -Under what conditions do we refuse to participate in or accept these situations and resist or oppose them? ●

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Power is not dyadic (A two party or binary or 0/1 relationship) ○ The world does not consist simply of victims and perpetrators. ○ There’s a middle ■ A powerful and powerless at the same time ■ EX: police officers and soldiers ● They hold power, use violence approved by the government. ● But individuals power in the group is very low. → there’s people above the police and soldiers who can tell them what to do. Measuring Power ○ The systematic and structured social order is what matters, not just the individuals in a two way encounter ■ The big picture directs us to a more accurate assessment of power ○ The presence of organized power is a feature of all known societies thus far. ■ Domination never appears without resistance to it. Resistance ○ To the exercise of unwanted power is a constant in every society. ○ Can be individual, loud, quiet ○ Can be infrapolitics (off the radar of formal politics, part of everyday life) ■ Ex: to compensate for the low paid wage, workers steal paper, coffee, etc. ○ Or organized into collective social action, social movements, insurrections, rebellions, and revolutions. What do we mean by power? ○ Authorized socio-political power (Official top-down power) ■ Social relationships confer power and social institutions authorize it. ■ Even if people are replaced, the power relationship doesn’t change ● Ex: Jackie (protest) saw the man in the train who used to be her worker and recognized him, even though he seemed so insignificant. ■ Is not merely interpersonal; some gain and some loss in systematic ways. ■ Intent and outcome often do not line up ○ Unauthorized socio-political power from below ■ Oppositional bottom-up power Measuring inequalities in power ○ By outcome, not by intent because intent and outcome usually do not line up ○ By looking at the organization of society itself, its organizational structures and institutions, its beliefs, the organization of its economy and policy.

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Who governs? What governs? ○ “The crucial question..is not ‘who governs’ but ‘what governs.’ (pg 13). ○ Beyond the interpersonal are the forces that impel social actors to act in ways that are not entirely of their choosing. Obedience to Authority ○ Secured through coercion (force) and c onsent (you do what I want because you want it too, or you agree to do what I ask or demand) ○ Parenti (pg 41) ■ Power is exercised not only when A is able to get B to do something, but also when A is able to get B to think, feel a certain way ○ The tricky problem with consent :context of choice ■ Choice is always limited by necessity ● Relative deprivation vs. relative advantage ○ The lesser of undesirable choices ○ Ex: Jackie chose to put kids over her education 2 ways Consensual power is exercised ○ Control the definition of our interests (includes “preventing decisions, muting issues, limiting the agenda” p30) ■ I get you to want what I want ○ Control the definition of what’s possible and what’s impossible ■ I get you to forget that I asked you in the first place and the other choices Ideology ○ cultural ensemble of beliefs, values and common sense we’re taught is real and right. Sets the limits around which the possible and the impossible are conceived. ■ PG 43, Parenti ● We’re only held back by ourselves… self advancement is more important than social progress… inequality reflects the value of the winner... political democracy and economic inequality are compatible. ○ An ideology is not just a set of ideas, but lived ideas,  like a skin that envelops us. ■ Ex: if your brother decides to become a women, your ideas of gender and gender identifications change Socialization ○ the process through which people learn the expectations of the society and its values. Social Roles ○ Individuals are carriers of socially defined identities arising from institutionally defined roles. ○ Social roles- are the expected routine behavior associated with a given status in society ■ You perform a role that you want to embrace and become while bringing in a degree of individuality ■ Ex: Jose wanted to become a man like his father

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Social Institutions ○ Are more powerful than individuals ○ Context for socialization and roles ○ Teach us what counts as normal and as successful ■ Ex: women becoming girls?? ○ Have the power to define available roles and to reward compliance or punish noncompliance ○ The content of the definitions matter ■ What specific kind of social order vs if we have a social order....