Power and Knowledge

Author(s):  
Raphaela Stadler

This chapter discusses the links between knowledge and power and aims to demonstrate that, to “manage knowledge implies use of power, in terms of the ability of an organisation to achieve a collective sense of ‘what to do next’ and to exercise authority over the behaviour and communication patterns of internal and external agents – thereby influencing such things as who will interact with whom, on what basis, and to what purpose” (Clegg & Ray, 2003: 23). Power, knowledge, and the ‘rules of the game’ within an organisation (its political system, organisational culture, how things are done) are therefore intertwined; one cannot simply exist without the other. Clegg and Ray (2003: 23) go on to say, “the interaction of power and rules – to enable and constrain legitimate individual and collective actions – simultaneously shapes those actions. Rules shape actions that, in turn, have consequences for the evolution of rules and their interpretation in context.”

2009 ◽  
pp. 73-121
Author(s):  
Annick Magnier

- This work compares two important recent Italian spatial planning movements: the physical planning reform and the territorial strategic planning diffusion. While the former has generated some legal institutional moments and a new juridical reference system, the second has bred a community of different knowledge and informal collective actions that seem disparate in their output. Moreover, these two cultural movements appear as originated by different knowledge: town planning and jurisprudence for the former and social and administration sciences such as economics and, in particular, sociology for the second. There are many advantages deriving from strategic planning, anyway they are darkened by some adaptation problems due to the organization nature. The author aims, in this work, to consolidate the useful tie between intellectual system on one side and administrative and political system on the other side, to give strategic planning the possibility to make its most.


Author(s):  
Anatolii Petrovich Mykolaiets

It is noted that from the standpoint of sociology, “management — a function of organized systems of various nature — (technical, biological, social), which ensures the preservation of their structure, maintaining a certain state or transfer to another state, in accordance with the objective laws of the existence of this system, which implemented by a program or deliberately set aside”. Management is carried out through the influence of one subsystem-controlling, on the other-controlled, on the processes taking place in it with the help of information signals or administrative actions. It is proved that self-government allows all members of society or a separate association to fully express their will and interests, overcome alienation, effectively combat bureaucracy, and promote public self-realization of the individual. At the same time, wide direct participation in the management of insufficiently competent participants who are not responsible for their decisions, contradicts the social division of labor, reduces the effectiveness of management, complicates the rationalization of production. This can lead to the dominance of short-term interests over promising interests. Therefore, it is always important for society to find the optimal measure of a combination of self-management and professional management. It is determined that social representation acts, on the one hand, as the most important intermediary between the state and the population, the protection of social interests in a politically heterogeneous environment. On the other hand, it ensures the operation of a mechanism for correcting the political system, which makes it possible to correct previously adopted decisions in a legitimate way, without resorting to violence. It is proved that the system of social representation influences the most important political relations, promotes social integration, that is, the inclusion of various social groups and public associations in the political system. It is proposed to use the term “self-government” in relation to several levels of people’s association: the whole community — public self-government or self-government of the people, to individual regions or communities — local, to production management — production self-government. Traditionally, self-government is seen as an alternative to public administration. Ideology and practice of selfgovernment originate from the primitive, communal-tribal democracy. It is established that, in practice, centralization has become a “natural form of government”. In its pure form, centralization does not recognize the autonomy of places and even local life. It is characteristic of authoritarian regimes, but it is also widely used by democratic regimes, where they believe that political freedoms should be fixed only at the national level. It is determined that since the state has achieved certain sizes, it is impossible to abandon the admission of the existence of local authorities. Thus, deconcentration appears as one of the forms of centralization and as a cure for the excesses of the latter. Deconcentration assumes the presence of local bodies, which depend on the government functionally and in the order of subordination of their officials. The dependency of officials means that the leadership of local authorities is appointed by the central government and may be displaced.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Dylan Taylor

<p>Surveys of the situation and prospects of the contemporary Left over the past three decades have frequently underscored themes of fragmentation, decline, even terminal demise. This thesis explores the question of the contemporary Left through interviews conducted with participants in New Zealand social movements. The general theoretical literature around the Left and social movements has consistently highlighted a number of social changes and challenges facing the Left today: the split between old and new Lefts following the rise of the new social movements; economic transformation (for instance, post-Fordism), and changes in class composition; the rise of neo-liberalism, and the dislocating effects of globalization; intellectual challenges, such as the demise of Marxism and the rise of post-modern philosophy; challenges to the state, and the arrival of a "post-political" condition. Analysis of the New Zealand literature around the Left and social movements shows congruent arguments and themes, as well as suggesting Antipodean specificities. To examine these contentions, a series of interviews were conducted with participants in "Left" social movements. These interviews suggest both congruence with some of the arguments in the literature and complexities that do not confirm these generalizations. In particular, the suggestion that a third phase of the Left is emerging, characterized by the joining of culturalist and materialist emphases, appears somewhat confirmed. In addition, a number of the challenges signalled in the literature were singled out by interviewees as pressing - for instance, neo-liberalism and the mediatisation of politics. With respect to the modes of action of social movements connected to the Left, there was here too some confirmation of themes from the literature - for instance, the importance of networking. On the other hand, the widespread theme of the wholesale decline of collective actions was put into question by those interviewed. While no definitive conclusions can be drawn from such a study, the interviews suggest the Left may be entering a period of renewal.</p>


Author(s):  
Michael A. Bailey ◽  
Forrest Maltzman

Justices have considerable latitude to pursue either their personal preferences or their personal visions of the law. The danger is that the Court gets so far out of line from the rest of the political system that we see fundamental institutional showdowns that threaten the independence of the judiciary, such as the Court-packing controversy in the 1930s. If the elected branches influence justices, however, they can keep the Court in check, thereby attenuating such risks. This chapter tests whether the Court systematically yields to the elected branches. In particular, it examines whether individual justices vote differently when the constraints imposed by the executive and legislative branches are likely to be at their strongest. It focuses on the two versions in the literature: one in which the Court is constrained only on statutory cases and the other in which the constraint extends to all cases, including constitutional cases.


Author(s):  
Hesham Mesbah

This chapter explores how national anthems of African and non-African Arab nations reflect a collective national identity. The national anthems of 22 Arab countries were analyzed using the textual thematic analysis to identify the common attributes of national identity in these anthems and the variance in referring to political entities, national symbols, and natural artifacts according to the political system (republic vs. monarchy) in the country. The analysis shows five thematic components of the national identity presented by those anthems, with an emphasis on the themes of religion and local political leaders in the anthems of monarchies. On the other hand, republics base their identity on religion, history, and nation-related natural and national artifacts. The anthems of the republics show a higher level of complexity (thematic richness) and more tendency to use emotionally charged, forceful language, in contrast to the anthems of the monarchies.


2020 ◽  
pp. 216-247
Author(s):  
Jonathan Hopkin

This chapter examines the evolution of anti-system politics in Italy. The Italian case has all the familiar ingredients of an anti-system revolt: a severe economic crisis, high levels of inequality, and an unresponsive and discredited political system. However, the form anti-system politics took differed from the rest of the South in intriguing ways. Italy differed from Greece, Spain, and Portugal in lacking a strong anti-austerity movement that could have acted as a focal point for a left alternative. The other exception of the Italian case is the strength of the anti-system Right. Italy experienced a sharp rise in migration, as well as having to manage the refugee crisis in the Mediterranean. Migration may have mobilized some voters, but the failings of the established parties to address a serious economic crisis offers a powerful explanation of the collapse of Italy’s party system, just as it did in the early 1990s.


2018 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 119-134
Author(s):  
Rajkumar Pokhrel

Naxalbari is a small village in West Bengal, India, where a section of the Communist Party of India (CPM) led by Kanu Sanyal,and Jangal Santhal initiated a violent uprising in 1967. On 18 May 1967, the Siliguri Kishan Sabha, of which Jangal was the president, declared their support for the movement initiated by Kanu Sanyal and readiness to adopt armed struggle to redistribute land to the landless. But before it, as a consequence of the debate in international communist movement, Indian communist Party split and a faction choose the path of Mao Thought to go ahead. The party was led by Charu Majumdar, Kanu Sanyal and Jangal Santhal revolted against the existing political system. The uprising was started from Naxalbari village by using the policy of “annihilation of class enemy”. It is known as Naxalbari Revolt. But the neither could gain achievement nor run for long last. Top leader of the party, Charu Majumdar, was arrested and killed. After his murder, the party split into more than one dozen factions. On the other side, in Nepal, the neighboring district Jhapa came into influence of Naxalbari Revolt and the youth communists of Jhapa started the revolt using the same path of Naxalbari. Jhapa Revolt also runs for only 30 months. Both the movements became failure to achieve the aim. But due to the differences of ruling structure, existing political system, and geo political condition between two countries, the revolt of India split into several divisions and the movement of Nepal, even being unsuccessful to achieve the aim achieved to unify the divided movement. The impact of Naxalbari movement in India seems remain still now in some parts of India but in Nepal, Jhapa revolt has become a history. Whatsoever, both revolts have left impact in both countries till now.


2013 ◽  
Vol 734-737 ◽  
pp. 3348-3351 ◽  
Author(s):  
Milos Čambál ◽  
Dagmar Cagáňová ◽  
Daynier Rolando Delgado Sobrino ◽  
Peter Košťál

Organisational culture is nowadays considered one of the key factors of industrial enterprise performance optimization. It is the appropriate organisational culture that enables human resources to activate the other resources of an enterprise and so optimize their utilization. At the same time, it is obvious that one of the conditions for success is understanding the value and importance of human resources that are crucial for success of an enterprise itself. For this reason, it is very important to pay attention to development of industrial enterprise culture. However, creating of enterprise culture cannot be a single activity. There should be a continual systematic process including application of complex training programmes for the employees.


1985 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 97-115 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Williams

Realignment theory is a recent but flourishing sub-branch of the study of American political parties. Over the last thirty years, the original suggestions of its inventor, V. O. Key, have been elaborated and refined in several directions and through several phases, gradually being modified to take variations in historical circumstances more carefully into account. Problems of the same kind often occur, and are likely to prove even less manageable, when efforts are made to apply the theory to another political system and culture as authors from both countries (and from neither) have in recent years tried, more or less explicitly, to use it to explain developments in the British party system. Some techniques travel quite well, and some useful insights can be obtained by looking afresh at familiar patterns in the light of similar experiences elsewhere. But the differences between the two nations and states preclude any rigorous attempt to apply a theory derived from the history of one country with a view to explaining the experiences of the other.


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