《旅游管理专业英语》(第二版) 讲义 Lesson05 Definition of power精品.pdfVIP

Definition of power (sociology) Sociologists usually define power as the ability to impose ones will on others, even if those others resist in some way. By power is meant that opportunity existing within a social relationship which permits one to carry out ones own will even against resistance and regardless of the basis on which this opportunity rests. Max Weber, Basic Concepts in Sociology The imposition need not involve coercion (force or threat of force). Thus power in the sociological sense subsumes both physical power and political power, including many of the types listed at power. In some ways it more closely resembles what everyday English-speakers call influence. More generally, one could define power as the more or less unilateral ability (real or perceived) or potential to bring about significant change, usually in people’s lives, through the actions of oneself or of others. The exercise of power seems endemic to humans as social and gregarious beings. Analysis and operation of power Power manifests itself in a relational manner: one cannot meaningfully say (pace advocates of empowerment) that a particular social actor has power without also specifying the other parties to the social relationship. Power almost always operates reciprocally, but usually not equally reciprocally. To control others, one must have control over things that they desire or need, but one can rarely exercise that control without a measure of reverse control - larger, smaller or equal - also existing. For example, an employer usually wields considerable power over his workers because he has control over wages, working conditions, hiring and firing. The workers, however, hold some reciprocal power: they may leave, work more or less diligently, group together to form a union, and so on. Because power operates both relationally and reciprocally, sociologists speak of the balance of power between parties to a relationship: