Theory #4

Power is an idea that changes based on your social class. Throughout this paper, I will compare two theorists’ ideas on power and how they differ. Power subjects people to the knowledge they obtain, through social stamina and manipulation. This paper will share ideas and help them come to light.
Foucault thought that power was as important as the knowledge one possesses and is submerged entirely in power; though he says that knowledge doesn’t necessarily give one power. One of Foucault’s ideas about power was the prison. They designed it in a sort of octagon shape and had a huge glass guard tower in the center of it. The idea was to see whether the idea of having the guards watching them 24-7 from that tower would keep them in line. The inmates thought the guards were actually watching them all day long when in all reality there was almost never a guard in there. Their behavior became less violent and more integrated just based on that thought.
Power changes knowledge and how we perceive the world around us. The power struggle is real in all parts of life, as is the manipulation. We all manipulate the system to see what parts of life can be changed. The thing about manipulation is that they don’t know that they are being dominated by a person or a social situation. Manipulation and power combined are corrupting the idea of assimilation of individual people. Foucault also talks about episteme. Is there a change in knowledge today? Are power and knowledge equal? In some social classes, I would argue that power and knowledge are equal and extremely intertwined in the structure of things. Labeling creates our identities in our chosen class. The label others put on us, eventually internalize and we allow it to become us. Our knowledge...

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...as a different idea of what power is, what wealth is and where the line is drawn between them. It’s the idea of moral regulation versus social integration. Marx found a very distinct line drawn between classes and therefore with power too. Weber argued that there a cultural aspect to prestige and Marx didn’t. The cultural aspect of Capitalism changed how people viewed power and knowledge. Foucault argued that power and knowledge were the only two things that determined you. Bourdieu argues that your taste determines the amount of power a person has. As different as all of these ideas are, they all have one thing in common, power. The idea that people do obtain different levels of power and that the control society has over a person influences it greatly.

Works Cited

Seidman, Steven. Contested Knowledge: Social Theory Today. Malden, MA: Blackwell Pub., 2008 Print.