Sociology Power

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The concept of power has been a central question since the formation of human society and we should first look at what its meaning is in a discussion of power. Power can be most simply defined as the ability for someone to get what they want. Power in society can be further divided into “power over," "power to" and "power with”. “Power over” is the ability to hold power over another group or individual in which the one who holds power can influence their actions or behaviour. “Power to” refers to one’s own abilities and resources which allows them to achieve certain goals with their own power. “Power with” is the ability to work with others through a consensus which allows people to work together to accomplish something or solve a problem, …show more content…

Over the course of history, many philosophers and sociologists such as Marx and Foucault have established theories relating to the central ideas of power. However, I believe that in current society it can be seen that the bases of power are fundamentally economic.
The original theories of Karl Marx involved the proposition of society being divided into many “classes” such as the peasants, bourgeois and aristocracy. Marx speculated that this class division would eventually lead to an uprising of the working class which will create a society where the production means of economic assets are state owned. The resulting benefits would be distributed to the public equally, in terms of the amount of work put in from individuals; Marx (1848) was one of the first to advocate this idea. This can be seen as a form of “power with” as it represents an idealistic society of people working together for a common goal and with the results of their work being fairly distributed by the overarching power which would be the state in this …show more content…

Foucault confronts previously established ideas of power being wielded by only a limited amount of people as an ability of coercion or domination. It was his belief that power and knowledge were intricately connected and his interests and studies were very much focused on discourse, which is defined by Foucault as the ways of constituting knowledge, along with social practices, forms of power relations which exist in knowledge and relations between them. Foucault believes that power is demonstrated not through concentrated authority, but in social institutions such as schools and courts which represent the existence and influence of social discourse. From this perspective, all educational systems can be seen as a means to either maintain or modify the appropriateness of discourses with the authority of knowledge and power they bring. In this light education may well be an instrument whereby every individual, in a society like our own, can gain access to any kind of discourse (Foucault, 1972). The theory of discourse is also applicable to issues of sexuality and minority in society which examines how society treats these topics and the evolution of discourse throughout history. For Foucault, discontinuity and continuity are used to reflect these changes in history whereby discourse can be both a tool which grants power and also the result of power and

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