POWER

WHAT IS POWER?

We encounter power in many forms during our lives—at home, in society, in institutions, at workplace, in nations and in the world. Power implies the ability to do something or act in a particular way. Power exists in the interaction of various trajectories and possesses its own organization. At times it becomes strong in a system and at others weak through disjunction. Power expresses itself in the grand design of a nation, the making of state institutions, enunciation of laws and  production of social hegemonies. Cultural and academic discourses also exert power. Many philosophers including Michael Foucault and Jacques Derrida have analyzed the dynamics of power in society. Foucault points out that power is ubiquitous in society not because it “embraces everything” but comes from “everywhere.” It is not something “acquired, seized, or shared” but is an “interplay of non-egalitarian and mobile relations” (Foucault, History of Sexuality, pp. 92-93). Foucault explains that power cannot be seen as an institution, structure or innate individual strength but as “complex stategical situation” in a given society. The status of power should not be construed as a noun but as a verb--it is something that one does, not something one possesses.  

Mukesh Williams © 2012