hmm. from my sociology of power course as an undergrad--power is the ability to control and distribute needed resources; from weber we get the 3 forms of authority--charismatic, rational/legal, and traditional, and ideology is a belief or myth system...adolf hitler is the quentessential example of all of these--he slowly increased his power until is was absolute; he had charisma, he assassinated off and abolished leaders and their positions, and linked himself to 3,000 years of history, and provided a nazi ideology that appealed to the masses...students can then make links to similar demogogues...morten
________________________________ From: [email protected] on behalf of [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tue 1/24/2006 9:17 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [email protected] Subject: TEACHSOC: Re: Teaching power to intro Hi Judith: we actually were discussing power today w/in context of Goffman & stigma. The definition of power I tend to use in class is as simply the capacity to achieve one's will in a social setting. I then went on to give a story of something that happened a few years ago in my interactions with a homeless woman, where I approached her thru stigma of homeless and she in the process of refusing a meat dinner I purchased for her informed me that she was a Christian woman and she does not eat meat on Fridays. Students I find like this example and approach to power and then we go on to discuss other sources of stratification and their potential for stigmatization (gender, race, class, health/disability, sexuality, etc. etc. etc.) and how these affect the one-to-one interactions. Somehow they find it easier to go from the micro to the macro than vice-versa. Anna K. In a message dated 1/24/2006 7:43:26 P.M. Eastern Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Hi All, I'm having trouble with explaining power, authority, ideology to my intro class. Last term they just looked very confused and re-reading my notes I can see that it was unclear and dry. This term, (actually on Thursday), I want to communicate to this class of 179 how important power and ideology are to understanding how the world works. I was thinking of maybe concentrating on the idea that 'knowledge is power' and work from there. Any ideas or tips on communicating this topic? Thanks in advance! Judith
