How do large corporations wield power? What are the kinds of outcomes that corporate leaders want to influence? What are the instruments available to them through which they can influence outcomes? And are there impersonal means through which corporations influence society -- i.e., wield power or exert causal influence? Consider first the outcomes. Corporations are …
Power: social movements
Social movements usually have to do with change rather than persistence. And they usually emerge from "under-class" groups who lack meaningful access to other official and institutionalized means of power. They are among the "weapons of the weak", and their effectiveness usually turns on the ability of a sub-population to mobilize in collective action with …
What is "power" in the twenty-first century?
Is "power" different in the twenty-first century? Is power the same as "ability to influence behavior"? Do the internet and new forms of communication and social networking create new opportunities for power--for good or bad purposes? Think about the ways power was created and used in the nineteenth or twentieth centuries: the power of the …
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Understanding Society 