Power

 
Structure/Agency debate
How sociologists attempt to understand the relative balance between society's influence on the
individual (structure) and the individual's freedom to act or shape society (agency)
 
Key theoretical concepts
 Functionalism
 Class and capital
 Medicalisation
 Feminist and gender theories
 Symbolic interaction
 Surveillance and discourse
 Risk
All ways of thinking about power and structure/agency
 
Class and capital
Key sociologists (among others):
 Karl Marx 1818-1883
 Pierre Bourdieu 1930-2002
 
Marx: key concepts
 Class
 Capitalism
 Alienation
 
Marx: Class (upper, middle, lower)
Bourgeoisie- owners of means of production (upper class)
Proletariat- labour force (working class)
 
Marx: Capitalism
 Capitalism is the primary mode of production ($$$)
 Pursuit of profit
 Exploitative
 Distribution of resources is unequal
 Marx believed capitalism would be overthrown
 
Marx: Alienation
 Alienation results from capitalism
 Workers are alienated from:
o Labour power
o Products of labour
o One another;
o Species essence
 
Marx and Health - discussion points
 Capitalism and alienation create ill health
 Health and economic status (class)
 Are linked
o Poorer people = poorer health
 Ill health as a result of capitalist social structure is inequitable
  Profit motive dictates delivery of care
 Illnesses are medicalised for profit
 Medicine is an institution of social control
 
 
Bourdieu: key concepts
 Capital
o Economic
o Cultural
o Social
o Symbolic
 Field
 Habitus
 
Bourdieu: capital
For Bourdieu capital is made up of not just economic resources, but also social, cultural and symbolic
resources
 
Power = negotiated/exchanged
 
 Power is negotiated through ongoing struggle
 Structure and agency are intertwined not opposing
 Advantage and disadvantage are relative and contextual
 
Bourdieu: Field
 A sphere of life or realm of society
 Can be micro or macro e.g.
o Lecture theatre
o Coffee shop
o Paramedic practice
o Biomedicine
o Education
 
Bourdieu: Habitus
 Embedded, internalised ' ways of knowing' enabling us to understand and 'practice' in the
fields we move in and between
 Understanding the 'rules of the field' (doxa)
 Product of significant periods spent within that social world drawing on capital