Power

Abstract

Power is an “essentially contested and complex term” (Lukes 1974: 7) that cuts right across social science disciplines. The literature on power is marked by a deep disagreement over the basic definition of power. Some theorists define power as getting someone else to do what you want them to do (power over), whereas others define it more broadly as an ability or a capacity to act (power to). Thomas Hobbes's (1985 [1641]: 150) definition of power as a person's “present means … to obtain some future apparent Good” is a classic example of this understanding of power, as is Hannah Arendt's definition of power as “the human ability not just to act but to act in concert” (1970: 44). Feminist theorists of power Stacey and Price (1983) define power as the more or less one‐sided patriarchal ability to position women's lives through the actions of men over them. Conversely, Michel Foucault (1977) suggests that power itself is “relational” in that whilst one social actor may exercise power with other individuals, we also need to be aware that all other individuals have “power” in their social relationship that can be expressed through “resistance.”