Liberate yourself by understanding and mastering power dynamics
All social relations are laden with power. Getting out from under dominant power relations and mastering power dynamics is perhaps the most essential skill for change agents across all sectors seeking to ignite positive change in the world.
This concise action manual explores major concepts of power, with a focus on the dynamics of domination and liberation, and presents methods for shifting power relations and enacting freedom. The Power Manual:
- Clearly distills the major theories of power from post-modern and feminist theory to business management and developmental psychology, and beyond
- Examines key ways that power is deployed and transformed in society
- Presents a new theory of power based on enactment-the bringing of something to life through one's actions
- Explains how to refuse powerless identities and enact powerful ones
- Helps readers choose egalitarian interactions over domination
- Demonstrates mastering the process of power expansion
- Features workshop games and group activities for identifying and shifting power relations.
This accessible action manual is ideal for change agents, leaders, and activists across all nonprofit and business sectors aiming to understand, master, and shift power relations.
Table of Contents:
Introduction
Section One
POWER + IDENTITY | Refusing Powerless Identities
Power + Identity Intro
1 | Effective Interactions
Supremacist Power and Liberator Power
2 | Interaction Patterns
Patterns of Domination and Patterns of Resistance
3 | Transmission of Affect
Life-affirming and Life-draining Affects
4 | The Sources of Power Relations
Developmental Stages and Mind Forms
5 | Powerless and Powerful Identities
Hegemony and Supreme Power
Section Two
POWER + CHOICE | Triggering Choice
Power + Choice Intro
6 | Decision and Choice
The Efficient Unconscious and the Effort of Intention
7 | The Social Aspects of Choice
Participation in Decision Making
8 | Supreme ChoiceMastery
Over Inner Experience
Section Three
POWER + THRESHOLDS | Creating the Self
Power + Thresholds Intro
9 | Rites of Passage
Self Formation in Liminal Space
10 | Theater as Interaction and Identity Creation
High Status and Low Status Characters
Section Four
POWER + GAMES | Playing with Power
Power + Games Intro
11 | The Purpose of Play
Play As Evolution
12 | The Structure of Games
Ordering Interactions
13 | The Party Game
Sign Reading
14 | The Stand, Sit, Kneel Game
Deconstruction
15 | The Tongue Twister Game
Reconstruction
16 | The Meisner Game
Reconstruction
17 | The Yes, But/Yes, And Game
Sign Reading, Deconstruction
18 | The Circle Game
Reconstruction
19 | The Lane Game
Reconstruction
20 | The Body Language Game
Sign Reading
21 | The Switching Game
Reconstruction
22 | The Status Master Game
Sign Reading, Deconstruction, Reconstruction
23 | The Scene Study Game
Deconstruction
24 | The Character Study Game
Reconstruction
References
Index
About the Author
A Note about the Publisher
About the Author :
Cyndi Suarez, the leading nonprofit journal. She lives in Boston, MA.
