Soctec2 Power Relations

SOCTEC 2 Science, Technology and Society 2 Master Lecture: Dr. Robert Javier, Department of Psychology, W602 D LSU-­‐M Key Concept Points for Understanding: Topic 3: Science, Technology and the Human Person and Communities: Impacts of Science and Technology to the Human Personhood, Social Institutions and Practices and Power relations Power and power relations in society o Power could be defined as the capacity to do something. A person has power when s/he can achieve something, and that something could either be bad or good, right or wrong. All persons have potential power, in that all have the capacity to do/achieve something. A person can convert potential power into actual power, and this is a function of the context within which such person exists. Such context could be characterized by variables within which the person is differentiated and acquires his/her identity. Some of these variables are those in which the person is born into (ascribe), and others are those in which the person become through social processes of learning and achieving (acquired). These variables influence people’s capacity to convert potential power into actual power, and become basis for the emergence of power differentials. Class, gender