Examining Politics and Power Socially
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Power, Politics & Resistance Week 1: Examining Power & Politics Socially A/Prof Alana Lentin [email protected]
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The aim of this first session is to introduce the general aims of the Unit, and to answer any queries you may have. We will have an initial discussion about what the concerns of the Unit are. In particular, we will be focusing on the connection between politics and society and on the ways in which power, at both the local and the global levels, functions to produce inequalities. In tutorials, the assessment methods will be introduced and explained in detail.
Transcript of Examining Politics and Power Socially
Power, Politics & Resistance
Week 1: Examining Power & Politics Socially A/Prof Alana Lentin
What are we dealing with?
Power
The State
Governance
NationsInterdependence
Globalization
Democracy Corruption
ExploitationSocial class
Gender
RaceSexuality
Inequality
Citizenship
Punishment
Surveillance
Protest
Economics
Social change
1. Ask students to think about what they mean by politics by talking to their neighbour.Call out responses.
2. Reveal themes. How do they fit in with the students’ thoughts?
Howard Zinn’s A People’s History
Why read Howard Zinn’s ‘A People’s History of the American Century’ to find out more about the ideas behind political sociology?
Watch this excerpt from the graphic version of the book. Note down the main points of what he is saying.
After the film: Zinn shows us how world events not only have an effect on how we lead our lives, but also that we in turn can have an effect on the course history follows depending on how we react to what we experience.
This leads us to looking at the relationship between society and politics...
‘Political sociology looks to “the social circumstances of politics, that is, to how politics both is shaped by and shapes other events in societies”.’
Anthony Orum (1983)
“Is there a distinctive sociological contribution to the study of politics? If there is, it is perhaps in this attempt to make connections - between constitutional theory and class structure, between social base and political doctrine, between global changes and local politics.”
Outhwaite and Martell (1998)It is important to understand, that political processes and institutions do not emerge in a void. In other words, while they do not always take public opinion into account, they nevertheless reflect social structures and have an impact upon them.
For example, the class system has an important effect on the way in which governmental institutions and state bodies have been formed. We could not envisage labour rights or social security services without the history of class-‐based protest that made it possible for the reforms that enabled them to take place.
Similarly, events on the global political stage and the concomitant changes in the global economy have a direct impact on the way local lives are led -‐ how we do our shopping, how we travel, what jobs we can get etc.
Shaping and being shaped by politicsThink of an example where a government decision or a world political event had an impact on you?
Have your actions ever had an impact on politics? If so, how?
“The chance of a man or a number of men to realise their own will in a communal action even against the resistance of others who are participating in the action.”
Max Weber
Ultimately political sociology is concerned with how power operates.
As Kate Nash points out (reading for Week 2), although Max Weber’s definition seems to imply that power can be exercised in a variety of circumstances - not just political ones - traditionally, political sociology has taken it as a given that the most important site of power is the state. Political sociologists have therefore mainly focused on how states have wielded power over individuals/citizens.
However, as Nash also stresses, more recently analyses of power have shifted away from a sole focus on the state for a variety of reasons including - globalization and the lessening importance of the nation-state- a change in traditional class formations due to the changing nature of work (flexibilised, precarious, knowledge society)- a flexibilization and pluralization of values and lifestyles due to the greater acceptance of non-normative identities.
Despite these cultural changes which Nash says have led to a focus in political sociology on cultural politics (e.g. the way in which race, gender, sexuality, location, age, ability, work, etc. affect one’s social and political positioning), more classically ‘hard-nosed’ issues continue to exist side-by-side with these more identity-based considerations.
Especially in today’s economic climate we might be seeing a return to more Marxian analyses of capital and the effect that the crisis of capitalism has on class relations. There seems to be an ever growing gap between the richest and the poorest in society, both at a domestic and on a global level. These disparities cannot be explained culturally alone.
Political sociology today should be focused on how ideology, economics, the state, global capital, and individual social relations play a part in making sense of our political world.
Power & Resistance
In this Unit, we will be focusing on how power is exercised in a variety of circumstances, prioritising the effect this has on individuals but also on how individuals - acting together with others - can challenge or overturn their circumstances.
As Michel Foucault has noted, power has no one centre. We are both the objects and the subjects of power meaning that we all exercise power in different circumstances. However, we do not all have the possibility to affect political or institutional power.
We see power in operation most obviously at the times in which power is being resisted. Here we see individuals without power attempting to become the subjects of power (e.g during revolutions or other social mobilisations - think of the events of the Arab Spring) and we also see the state and its institutions exercising its power against that resistance (for example Syrian President Assad’s violent repression of protestors).
In this Unit we will be paying a lot of attention to power as a process that produces inequalities but also at the way in which people can resist their exploitation.
Overview2 3 5
6 9-11 12-137
4
Teaching & LearningLecture - main theoretical overview
Reaction and critique
Case study (introduced using film, webdocs, blogs, articles, photos...)
Bringing theory and practice together (different method each week)
Assessment: 1,500 word essay (50%) / continuous analytical reflection (50%)
Week 2: Theories of PowerTheory
The relationship between the state, capital and citizens
Marxist, neo-Marxist versus Weberian approaches
Perspectives
The Hacking Scandal
Methods
Mapping power exercise
Week 3: The Shrinking WorldTheory
Globalization, interdependence, decolonial and border thinking
Contrasting western approaches to globalization with historicised emphasis on interconnection
Perspectives
The Big Sell Out
Methods
Film
Week 4: Neoliberalism, Politics & Society
Theory
The relationship between the state and capital under neoliberalism
Ideology and individualisation
Perspectives
Post-Hurricane Katrina
Methods
TV/Newspapers
Week 5: The Disciplinary & Punitive State
Theory
Foucauldian approaches to discipline, surveillance and punishment
The panopticon
Perspectives
Prison Industrial Complex
Methods
Film, articles
Week 6: A Clash of Civilizations?
Theory
The challenge to western liberal ideology in the context of the ‘war on terror’
Critical, post-secular analyses of the relationship between the West and Islam
Perspectives
The ‘veil debate’
Methods
‘Couscous global’
Week 7: Democracy and its discontents
Theory
Comparative theories of democracy
The functioning of ‘liberal democracy’
Perspectives
Freedom of Association
Methods
Debate
Week 9-11:Citizenship & Inequality I, II, II
Theory
Theories of citizenship
Social exclusion and inequality (overview, migration, gender)
Perspectives
Classless society, EU migration, intersectionality
Methods
Articles, film, social media analysis
Week 12-13: Action for Change
Theory
Social movement theory
After ‘alterglobalization’
Contemporary Revolutions
Perspectives
Refugee activism, the Arab Spring
Methods
Analysis of activist methods
Resources
vUWS for bonus resources, discussion forum, links to readings and links to...
Slideshare
Enhanced podcasts
Explain everything tutorials
Nearpod quizzes
Deep, continuous assessment
Your Tutors
Sherene Idriss, BankstownBettina Roesler, Penrith
Bankstown Campus 1.G.67Tuesdays 12-1
