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Power: Interpersonal, Organizational and Global Dimensions >> Content Detail



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Readings and films are also listed by session.



Books Available for Purchase


Amazon logo Lukes, Steven. Power: A Radical View. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004. ISBN: 9780333420928.

Amazon logo Goffman, Erving. Asylums. Garden City, NY: Anchor Books, 1961. ISBN: 9780385000161.

Amazon logo Appignanesi, Michael. Marx for Beginners. New York, NY: Pantheon Books, 1979. ISBN: 9780394737164.

Amazon logo Marx, Karl, and Frederick Engels. The Communist Manifesto. New York, NY: Penguin, 2002. ISBN: 9780140447576.

Amazon logo Giddens, Anthony. The Consequences of Modernity. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1990. ISBN: 9780804717625.

Amazon logo Wrong, Dennis. Power: Its Forms, Bases and Uses. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 1996. ISBN: 9781560008224.



Recommended Books on Writing


Cuba, Lee. Writing About Social Science. New York, NY: Longman Press, 2001.

Strunk, William, and E. B. White. Elements of Style. New York, NY: Penguin Press, 2005.



Readings and Films by Session



Lec #TOPICSReadings/Films
1Introduction, Opening Discussion

- How is power defined? Is it possible to use a single definition of power to describe a variety of social situations?
- How do people get and use power?
- How much power is lodged within personality and how much is part of the structure of the situation?
- How does the use of power sometimes mystify the targets so that they do not recognize that power is being exerted?
- Can power be equalized, or must some people always have more?
- What is resistance? How might we identify resistance in situations of institutionalized power?
I. Defining the Concept of Power: A Preliminary Analysis
2-3What is Power? Action and IntentionAmazon logo Gouldner, Alvin. "Basic Assumptions." The Coming Crisis of Western Sociology. New York, NY: Basic Books, 1970, pp. 52-54. ISBN: 9780465012787.

Amazon logo Simmel, Georg. "On Superordination and Subordination." The Sociology of Georg Simmel. Edited and translated by Kurt H. Wolff. New York, NY: Free Press, pp. 181-189. ISBN: 9780029289204.

Amazon logo Wrong, Dennis. Power: Its Forms, Bases and Uses. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 1996, pp. 1-20. ISBN: 9781560008224.
4-6What Power is Not: Influence and ConformityFilm: "Obedience and Conformity."

Amazon logo Asch, Solomon. "Effects of Group Pressure upon the Modification and Distortion of Judgements." In Doing Unto Others. Edited by Zick Rubin. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1975. ISBN: 9780132175968.

Stanley, Milgram. "Behavioral study of obedience." J Abnormal Soc Psychol 67 (1963): 371-8.

Amazon logo Janis, Irving. "Groupthink Among Policy Makers." In Sanctions for Evil. Edited by Nevitt Sanford, Craig Comstock and associates. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 1971. ISBN: 9780875890777.

Amazon logo Zimbardo, Philip, Craig Haney, W. Curtis Banks, and David Jaffe. "The Psychology of Imprisonment." In Theory and Research in Abnormal Psychology. Edited by D. Rosenhan, and P. London. New York, NY: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1969, pp. 271-287. ISBN: 9780030745607.
7-10Force: The Limiting CaseAmazon logo Goffman, Erving. Asylums. Garden City, NY: Anchor books, 1961. ISBN: 9780385000161.

Amazon logo Wrong, Dennis. Power: Its Forms, Bases and Uses. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 1996, pp. 21-34. ISBN: 9781560008224.
11-12Leadership and Charisma: Personal and Inspirational PowerFilm: Riefenstahl, Leni. The Triumph of the Will, 1935.

Amazon logo Rustow, Dankwart A. "The Study of Leadership." In Philosophers and Kings: Studies in Leadership. Edited by Dankwart A. Rustow. New York, NY: George Braziller, 1970, pp. 1-32. ISBN: 9780807605394.

Amazon logo Tucker, Robert C. "The Theory of Charismatic Leadership." In Philosophers and Kings: Studies in Leadership. Edited by Dankwart A. Rustow. New York, NY: George Braziller, 1970, pp. 1-32. ISBN: 9780807605394.

Weber, Max. "Charisma." In On Charisma and Institution Building. Edited by S. N. Eisenstadt. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1968.
13-14Authority (1): The Ability to CommandAmazon logo Wrong, Dennis. Power: Its Forms, Bases and Uses. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 1996, pp. 35-83. ISBN: 9781560008224.
II. The Sources, Structure and Institutionalization of Power
15-16Some Classical ViewsAmazon logo Denby, David. "Aristotle." Great Books. New York, NY: Touchstone, 1996, pp. 117-127. ISBN: 9780684809755.

Amazon logo ———. "Machiavelli." Great Books. New York, NY: Touchstone, 1996, pp. 194-201. ISBN: 9780684809755.

Amazon logo ———. "Hobbes and Locke." Great Books. New York, NY: Touchstone, 1996, pp. 206-220. ISBN: 9780684809755.

Amazon logo ———. "Marx." "Hobbes and Locke." Great Books. New York, NY: Touchstone, 1996, pp. 338-352. ISBN: 9780684809755.

Amazon logo Machiavelli, Niccolo. "How a Prince Must Act In Order to Gain Reputation." The Prince. New York, NY: Signet Classics, 1999, pp. 110-113. ISBN: 9780451527462.

Hobbes, Thomas. The Leviathan. pp. 344-261.

Pareto, Vilfredo. "The Circulation of Elites."

Amazon logo Marx, Karl, and Frederick Engels. The Communist Manifesto. New York, NY: Penguin, 2002. ISBN: 9780140447576.

Amazon logo ———. "Preface." A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy. New York, NY: International Publishers, 1979. ISBN: 9780717800414.

Amazon logo Appignanesi, Michael. Marx for Beginners. New York, NY: Pantheon Books, 1979. ISBN: 9780394737164.

Amazon logo Tocqueville, Alexis de. "That Aristocracy May be Engendered by Manufactures." Democracy in America. New York, NY: Signet Classics, 2001. ISBN: 9780451528124.

Amazon logo Michels, Robert. "Democracy and the Iron Law of Oligarchy." Political Parties. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 1999. ISBN: 9780765804693.

Weber, Max. "Class, Status and Party," and "Three Types of Legitimate Rule." Theory of Social and Economic Organization. New York, NY: Free Press, 1964. ISBN: 0684836408.

Amazon logo Foucault, Michel. The History of Sexuality. New York, NY: Vintage Books, 1980, pp. 3-13, 17-35, and 92-114. ISBN: 9780394740263.
17-18Modern DebatesBachrach, Peter, and Morton Baratz. "Two Faces of Power." Power and Poverty; Theory and Practice. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1970.

Amazon logo Lukes, Steven. Power: A Radical View. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004. ISBN: 9780333420928.
19-20Authority (2): Power Redefined, Institutionalized, and DisciplinedAmazon logo Foucault, Michel. "Truth and Power." In Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings 1972-1977. Edited by Colin Gordon. New York, NY: Pantheon Books, 1980. ISBN: 9780394739540.

Peller, Gary. "Reason and the Mob: The Politics of Representation." Tikkun Magazine 2, no. 3 (1987): 28-31, and 92-95.

Scott, Joan Wallace. "The Pitfalls of 'Scientific' Feminism." Tikkun Magazine 4, no. 2 (March 1989): 90-91.

Fallows, James. "The Case Against Credentialism." The Atlantic Monthly (December 1985): 49-67.
III. Institutionalized Power: Examples and Transformations
21-22Bureaucratic Organizations and Entrepreneurial CorporationsAmazon logo Herzfeld. The Social Production of Indifference. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1993. ISBN: 9780226329086.
23-24Modernity, Post-modern Colonialism, and The Global CommunitySilbey, Susan. "Let Them Eat Cake." Law and Society Review 31, no. 2 (1997): 207-236.

Amazon logo Sasson, Saskia. The Global City. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1991, pp. 3-34. ISBN: 9780691078663.

Amazon logo Mintz, Sidney. Sweetness and Power. New York, NY: Penguin Books, 1986. ISBN: 9780140092332. (Excerpts)

Amazon logo Giddens, Anthony. The Consequences of Modernity. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1990. ISBN: 9780804717625. (Excerpts)
25-26The Possibilities of ResistanceEwick, and Silbey. "Narrating Social Structure: Stories of Resistance to Law." American Journal of Sociology 108, no. 6 (May 2003): 1328-72.
27Powersharing

Can Power be Distributed Equally?

 








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