3.2: Sources of Power

Overview

In this section, we will discuss the variety of places where power can come from. Power comes from a multitude of sources, and every one of us has some access to some sources of power. None of us are ever powerless, as we can all draw our power from somewhere.

Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\): Water well in Yangdong Village, South Korea - a metaphor for our sources of power. (CC0 1.0; Bernard Gagnon via Wikimedia)

Learning Objectives

• Identify and explain the major sources of power, including hierarchical authority, access to resources, and cultural capital.
• Describe how legitimized hierarchical authority creates power through socially constructed roles, responsibilities, and institutional positions.
• Analyze how access to resources can create power dynamics by understanding how control over needed resources influences relationships and decision-making.
• Define cultural capital and explain how socially valued characteristics, identities, and achievements can function as sources of power.
• Recognize how cultural values and social identities influence who receives power and how power is distributed within society.

Sources of Power

How do certain people and groups end up in positions of power and how do they stay there? Where does their power come from?

Power can come from many places. A metaphor that works in my mind is thinking of wells; like deep wells of water that storybook princesses wish into. Some of these wells are very deep with lots of water, some of these wells may be more shallow with less water. We all have access to certain amounts of wells; the more well water we can tap into, the greater access to power we will have.

Lets talk through some of the primary clusters of these "wells" to see which ones we have access to and how they work.

Hierarchical Authority

The most simple and straightforward group of sources of power is legitimized hierarchical authority. When a great number of people are existing together in a social system, it takes a great deal of coordination to ensure that everyone is moving in the same direction and on the same page so that we can all achieve our goals in a fulfilling and meaningful way. Often, this coordination is organized as a hierarchy: a sort of family tree where the folks in the upper levels are responsible for the folks at the lower levels. What gives a professor the right to tell you what books you have to read? What gives the assistant manager of the coffee shop you work at the right to tell you when you will work? What gives the state legislature the right to tell you how much taxes you must pay? In all of these cases, the answer is "its literally their job." These hierarchies are of course a social construct, but we have socially constructed certain positions in this stratification to have certain titles, and with that title comes the responsibilities of power.

Access to Resources

Another source of power that may seem fairly straight forward is access to resources. To put it simply: if you have something that I need, it gives you power over me. Examples of this are scattered throughout history. Groups of people have fought wars for centuries struggle over things such as access to trade routes for commerce, oil for fuel, or rare minerals for electronics. For decades there have been political arguments in California between environmental groups and agricultural groups over access to water. The resource that may be held for power could even be life itself; through the threat of immense violence one group is holding the resource of life over the other tho gain leverage and power. On a smaller scale, though, this source of power can ebb and flow fairly dramatically. This category involves what may considered base level needs: access to food, water, shelter, clean air, transportation, internet access, and other similar resources that determine a foundational standard of living. Having access to these resources can be a source of power. But we can also go on from there.

Example \(\PageIndex{1}\)

Example 1:

• As a middle-class person who lives in a suburban neighborhood, I find that I have quite a lot of resources that tends to give me leverage in quite a lot of decision-making instances. When my car broke down and had to be towed to a mechanic, I found myself in an extremely low power position. My car stopped running; I could not drive it out of this shop if I wanted to. In that moment, the mechanic had a resource that was very valuable to me (tools, time, & skill to repair my car) and it gave them a lot of leverage in our interaction. Having access to needed resources can be a source of power.

Cultural Capital

This is where things get a little slippery: power can also come from cultural capital. Cultural capital describes the intangible assets that a person possesses that allow that person to move and influence the society in which they reside. These are different than necessary resources as they tend to be more abstract and conceptual; socially constructed by each cultural group. As a cultural group, we decide what we think is good or valuable or worthy or desired. And yet, even though they are social construct they are very real and so are their effects: a person who amasses the qualities that our culture determines a valuable becomes a more valuable - and a more powerful - person.

Take a moment to consider what qualities or characteristics you think make a good person. What are they? For some, perhaps its perseverance, loyalty, and dedication? For others it may be wit, humor, and charm? For others still, perhaps intelligence, wisdom, and discernment? Empathy, kindness, and generosity? Strength, athleticism, and courage? Beauty, grace, and dignity? Mindfulness, gratitude, and curiosity? Whatever characteristics you came up with, they are a result of social and cultural teachings: you have learned to admire those qualities in a person. A person who has those qualities then would have cultural capital: they would have intangible social resources they can use to hold sway and influence over others. In the same way that a person could use financial capital to influence outcomes in other people, so too can people use cultural capital to do the same (for what it's worth, money is also cultural capital, since it derives its value from how much we as a group value it).

You must intuitively understand the nature of cultural capital since that is why you are here! You are reading this book because you are taking a class because you know that knowledge is a source of power. Ideally, you would be here for the intrinsic value of the knowledge itself. However in a practical sense, having a college degree is a symbol of intelligence, intellect, perseverance, collaboration, and many other intangible but valuable characteristics. Demonstrating that you have these characteristics is cultural capital: it is a well you can tap into when you need a little more leverage or sway in a social situation (perhaps, say, a job application?).

Example \(\PageIndex{2}\)

Example 2:

• My children are 2 grades apart, and when they started attending the same elementary school, I started to get involved in the Parent Teacher Association (PTA) to stay informed and lend a voice to decision-making at the school regarding budgeting and activities. The PTA was made up of a strong group of parents who had been involved in the school in various capacities for several years. However, after one year of regularly attending PTA meetings, the members of the PTA had asked if I would like to be PTA president. As a college educated white man, I was seen to have leadership qualities and qualifications associated with my cultural status. I was being imbued with power in large part to my perceived cultural capital.

Thus far we have been using secondary identity characteristics (characteristics that are somewhat consistent but relatively fluid) to explore the nature of cultural capital, but Example \(\PageIndex{2}\) brings in race and gender as well. The same system of cultural capital applies to primary identity categories. Primary identity categories are those that remain relatively fixed throughout our lives: if they change, they do not change easily or often. But these relatively fixed identities are also imbued with socially constructed cultural value. A patriarchal society will value masculine traits more than feminine traits, and men will be acculturated to exhibit masculine traits far more than women will, which is why in a patriarchal society you will see far more men in powerful leadership positions than women. Due to centuries of imperialism and colonization from western Europeans, most of the world will view whiteness as valuable, and we can see this not only in instances of outright white supremacy, but also racial profiling and implicit bias, and even colorism (the phenomenon of communities of color valuing lighter pigmentation of skin even within their own racial groups). Similar stratification occurs across every primary identity category. Even though these identities are often immutable and unchangeable, because they are given cultural value they can also be source of cultural value, and therefore cultural capital, and therefore sources of power.