POWER

2 mins: ungraded -

for your own purposes

Some examples of

power

QUICK-WRITE

WHAT IS POWER?

Power Ethnic cleansing

Judicial execution

Protest group

Census Canada

Vancouver Sun

‘War against terror’

Dieting

Taking an SFU class

What is power?

Where does power come

from?

How does it operate?

Is power distinctive?

What does it feel like?

Where do we locate it?

Is power only repressive?

What are the geographies

of power?

AMBIGUITIES

CONCEPTIONS OF POWER

Instrumental Associational

Representational Dispersed

¡  Robert Dahl: A has power over B when A can get B to do something that they would not otherwise have done.

¡  The power of A can be measured by the response of B

¡  Dah l , R A ( 1958) ‘A c r i t i que o f the ru l i ng e l i te m ode l’ Am. Po l . S c i . Rev. 52 , 4 6 3 - 4 6 9

INSTRUMENTAL POWER

¡ Individually centred and dyadic (cf. institutions, ‘structures’)

¡ Zero-sum: A wins, B loses

¡ Intentionality : B is conscious of the power of A

¡ Visible, measurable

INSTRUMENTAL POWER - CHARACTERISTICS

HOBBES’ LEVIATHAN

¡ Social contract theory ¡ Power centralized in the

sovereign state to ensure freedom.

¡ Sovereign has absolute power.

¡ Power imagined as top-down

¡  Power is a thing, possessed by individuals

¡  Or, Power is a relational ef fect, not a thing.

INSTRUMENTAL POWER - IMPLICIT CHARACTERISTICS

¡  Power is locatable.

INSTRUMENTAL POWER - IMPLICIT CHARACTERISTICS

¡ Power and resources are easily confused.

¡ Resources are the media through which power is exercised

¡ Hobbes’ ‘marks of sovereignty’ are distinct from the sovereign: military

¡ Puissance/pouvoir

INSTRUMENTAL POWER - IMPLICIT CHARACTERISTICS

¡ Talcott Parsons: critical of zero-sum power in which a fixed amount of power is distributed among participants.

¡ Argued for a collective dimension to power: persons can join together to enhance their power: power can be produced and be productive.

ASSOCIATIONAL POWER

¡ Power produced through the action of people or institutions pooling their resources to secure certain outcomes

¡ Not ‘power over’, but ‘power with’

¡ Not power as a thing, but power as a medium

¡ Power is ‘in the moment’

ASSOCIATIONAL POWER - REFINEMENT

¡ ‘mutual action’ ¡ Power as positive

force à power as a facility

¡ ‘public spaces’ where alliances are formed, groups come together to move a similar set of goals

HANNAH ARENDT

Representational power Dispersed power

POSTMODERN POWER

¡  Instrumental and associational conceptions tend to emphasize practice; Overlooks the importance of representation to power

¡  Tuathail: ‘ Geo-power’: representations of space that justify or sustain prevailing power relations.

¡  Portrayals of people, places, institutions, and things; how we understand the world

¡  Spatial representation as sustaining prevailing forms of power.

SPATIAL REPRESENTATION AND POWER

POLITICAL REPRESENTATION

George W. Bush’s ‘Axis of Evil’ speech (January 2002).

¡  Opposes only top-down model of power (held by the power ful, exercised over others)

¡  Power is pervasive and omnipresent: ‘capillary’ model of power

¡  Power is not ‘outside’ us but a means by which we make ourselves up.

¡  Power as imminent—the routine deployment of techniques—spatial, organizational, classif icatory, representational, ethical—that seek to mould the conduct of specif ic groups or individuals, and, above all, l imit their possible range of actions. (Allen 2003: 67).

DISPERSED POWER

Foucault on self care.

¡  Rule through freedom ¡  Self-government ¡  Government of conduct at a distance

DISPERSED POWER

WHAT IS POWER?

Power Ethnic cleansing

Judicial execution

Protest group

Census Canada

Vancouver Sun

‘War against terror’

Dieting

Taking an SFU class