Power can be understood and defined in different ways. Instrumental power sees it as a thing possessed by individuals that can be used to make others do what they would not otherwise do. Associational power views it as something that can be produced collectively when people or institutions pool their resources. Power is also represented spatially through portrayals that justify prevailing relations, and it can be dispersed and pervasive through subtle techniques that shape conduct.

1. POWER

2. QUICK-WRITE
Some
examples of
power
2 mins:
ungraded -
for your own
purposes

3. WHAT IS POWER?
Census Vancouver
Canada Sun
‘War
Protest
against
group
terror’
Judicial
Dieting
execution
Ethnic Taking an
cleansing Power SFU class

4. AMBIGUITIES
Where does
What is How does it
power come
power? operate?
from?
Is power What does it Where do we
distinctive? feel like? locate it?
What are the
Is power only
geographies
repressive?
of power?

5. CONCEPTIONS OF POWER
Instrumental Associational
Representational Dispersed

6. INSTRUMENTAL POWER
¡ Rober t 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
¡ D a h l , R A ( 1 9 5 8 ) ‘ A c r i t i q u e o f t h e r u l i n g
e l i t e m o d e l ’ A m . P o l . S c i . R e v. 5 2 ,
463-469

7. INSTRUMENTAL POWER - CHARACTERISTICS
¡ I ndividually centred
and dyadic (cf.
institutions,
‘structures’)
¡ Z ero-sum: A wins, B
loses
¡ I ntentionality : B is
conscious of the
power of A
¡ V isible, measurable

8. HOBBES’ LEVIATHAN
¡ Social contract theory
¡ Power centralized in the
sovereign state to
ensure freedom.
¡ Sovereign has absolute
power.
¡ Power imagined as top-
down

9. INSTRUMENTAL POWER -
IMPLICIT CHARACTERISTICS
¡ Power is a thing,
possessed by
individuals
¡ Or, Power is a
relational ef fect, not a
thing.

10. INSTRUMENTAL POWER -
IMPLICIT CHARACTERISTICS
¡ Power is locatable.

11. INSTRUMENTAL POWER -
IMPLICIT CHARACTERISTICS
¡ P ower and resources
are easily confused.
¡ R esources are the
media through which
power is exercised
¡ H obbes’ ‘marks of
sovereignty’ are
distinct from the
sovereign: military
¡ P uissance/pouvoir

12. ASSOCIATIONAL POWER
¡ 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.

13. ASSOCIATIONAL POWER - REFINEMENT
¡ 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’

14. HANNAH ARENDT
¡ ‘ mutual action’
¡ P ower as positive
force à power as a
facility
¡ ‘ public spaces’
where alliances are
formed, groups come
together to move a
similar set of goals

15. POSTMODERN POWER
Representational power Dispersed power

16. SPATIAL REPRESENTATION AND POWER
¡ Instrumental and associational
conceptions tend to emphasize
practice; Overlooks the impor tance
of representation to power
¡ Tuathail: ‘ Geo-power’:
representations of space that
justify or sustain prevailing power
relations.
¡ Por trayals of people, places,
institutions, and things; how we
understand the world
¡ Spatial representation as
sustaining prevailing forms of
power.

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

18. DISPERSED POWER
¡ Opposes only top-down model of
power (held by the power ful,
exercised over others)
¡ Power is per vasive and
omnipresent: ‘capillar y’ 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, classificator y,
representational, ethical—that seek
to mould the conduct of specific
groups or individuals, and, above
all, limit their possible range of
actions. (Allen 2003: 67).
Foucault on self care.

19. DISPERSED POWER
¡ Rule through freedom
¡ Self-government
¡ Government of conduct at a distance

20. WHAT IS POWER?
Census Vancouver
Canada Sun
‘War
Protest
against
group
terror’
Judicial
Dieting
execution
Ethnic Taking an
cleansing Power SFU class