Reading and Notetaking
PIA EXERCISE SHEET 5
Due before 12 noon on Monday, 19 October (Week 5) and for use in your seminar that day.
As your CW2 (worth 20% of your final module mark) is due on Wednesday 21st October, there is only a
Reading Task on this sheet and no Skills Task. This means that this Exercise Sheet is worth only 5 points
toward your Learning Portfolio. The Reading task is also relatively short, so you should be able to complete
it in less time than usual.
If you are not up to date with your work and you cannot do everything, then remember to prioritise your
work on CW2. Even if you do not complete the Exercise Sheet this week, you can still attend the seminar
and do your best to participate and learn from it. If you do not complete an Exercise Sheet, you will only be
losing 5-10 points off the Learning Portfolio. With a possible 100 points for the Learning Portfolio, this is
really not the end of the world! (In other words, try to see this work in perspective if you are feeling extra
stressed, and focus of the work that is more heavily weighted first).
In general, be aware that you can always submit any Exercise Sheet late on the grounds that it may get
counted later on if you have (at any point in the term):
a) a disability and a reasonable adjustments form (which you get from Disability Services)
b) official mitigating circumstances (through a mitigating circumstances application)
c) not used all three of your free chances to submit work late without mitigating circumstances
(which all students on the module have).
Finally, as is stated in the Module Handbook, there are no classes and no exercise sheet in Week 6. This
means that between completing your CW2 and the end of Week 6, you will have time to catch up with
anything you may have missed.
Reading and Notetaking Task (4)
Important: If any of the links here don’t work for you, please look the titles up in a Library search. (For
example, the first source here will be found if you do a simple search, using the terms: Swartz, Recasting
Power). Links to the sources are also on the PIA Reading list and you should be able to gain access there.
Sometimes you might have to choose “Institutional Login” or “Shibboleth” and look up the “UK
Federation” group and then find University of Westminster. This takes you to our login page. However, if
you sign into the University library page and search from there, you are less likely to have to take extra
steps to get through the additional gateways. If you have trouble finding resources you can try Ask a
Librarian.
1. Find the following sources:
David Swartz, 2007, “Recasting Power in its Third Dimension. Review of Lukes, Power: A Radical View,
Second Edition”, Theory and Society, 36(1): 103-109. You will only need to read pages 103-106 to answer
the questions below.
Note that the above is a book review of the second edition of Steven Lukes’s famous and highly influential
1974 book, Power: A Radical View. In 2005, Lukes expanded and updated his definition of power. The link
here is to the second edition of the book. Find the 2005 edition of this book, too. Read the section entitled
“The Concept of Power”, on pages 69-74.
When interpreting the review, it might be helpful to use Keith Dowding, 2011, Encyclopedia of Power,
Sage, but this is optional. You may also use other parts of Lukes’s book which elaborate on his
explanations. Specific pages and entries are listed below where relevant. These pages are optional reading.
2. Based on your readings, answer the following questions
Make sure to write in your own words. Try you’re best to put your answers in words that make sense to
you.
1. What, according to Swartz’s review (and according to Lukes himself), are the three
dimensions of power? To help you answer this, you can also consult these parts of Lukes’s
own book: the first paragraph of the Introduction (on p.1), the last paragraph on p.15, and
the last paragraph on p.28. You might also find the tables on p.29 useful. But reading these
passages of Lukes is optional.
2. Try to come up with at least one example for each of the three types of power. These can be
historical or contemporary, but they should be examples from real life political events.
3. The reviewer (Swartz) describes how Lukes addresses the hazards of seeing power in too
limited a way. Explain the five ways Lukes’s tells us to broaden earlier definitions of power.
(Hint: you can look up “exercise fallacy” in the Encyclopedia of Power to help with the first
one).
4. On page 105 of the Review, the reviewer (Swartz) points out that a relationship of power in
which one person or group has power over another, is a relationship in which the “interests
of subordinates are distorted”. What do you think is meant by this statement? (Hint: Start
by figuring out what is meant by “interests” and “distorted”). In what ways might the
interests of of subordinates be distorted by a power relationship?
5. From where do people’s “interests” arise, according to the Review?
6. Thinking of power defined as domination (whether obvious or hidden)… Can you spot any
particular instances of how power is exercised over you in YOUR life? Give three examples
of power structures that are part of your everyday life. Below are some possible examples.
Elaborate on your own examples, and explain how power is exercised over you and anyone
else around you. Explain how you know these forms of power exist. Reflect on whether they
are visible or more hidden.
i. Power relations within a group of people that you are part of (e.g. family, society,
circle of friends, student cohort, resident of your house or street, a religious
congregation, etc.) How is power evident?
ii. Power (visible or not) that operates in a building or physical structure that you have
visited: e.g. a university building, an underground station, a museum or library, your
home, a supermarket.
iii. Power relations embedded in the features of your personal identity: e.g. sex and
gender, class, race, ethnicity, sexuality, religion, nationality, and other categories of
identity that sociologists, political scientists, and census-takers like to put us in…
These categories might also be willingly taken on by us so that we see them as part
of our identity. Reflect on how much choice you have in these aspects of your
identity.
How to Submit your Work
This week’s submission method is a bit different because you have more choices about how to submit it.
You will still submit to Turnitin. However, we encourage you to handwrite your notes and answers and to
take a photo of all your pages in one shot with a smart phone and then upload the file to Turnitin. Makes
sure it is in focus so it can be enlarged and read. Handwriting has the advantage of helping you to process
the material more thoroughly. We would therefore like you to try it.
However, if you find it hard to handwrite (for whatever reason), or you are not able to photograph your
notes with a smart phone, then you are free to type your notes up as you did previously.
Inside the document, whether hand written or typed, include your name, student number, seminar tutor’s
name, and the section headings from this sheet so we can easily see which questions you are answering.
Please save the file as: “Your Full Name, Exercise Sheet 5”. Submit your work by 12:00 noon on Monday,
October 19th through the appropriate Turnitin submission portal in the Week 4 Folder on Bb.
*You will find the essential readings on the Module Reading List under Learning Resources. When accessing
the books, you may be taken to a page giving you a range of access points. Choose “Shibboleth”, then enter
our university name. You should then be able to sign in with your usual Westminster login details. If you
encounter problems finding or accessing a source at any point, remember to Ask a Librarian!
Ongoing module info you are expected to know:
• Read the Module Handbook and get to know the Bb site, especially the Week-by-Week Folders.
• Read this ENTIRE Exercise Sheet and open all of the materials as early as possible, before asking
questions. Do not assume you already know how to submit the work as this has changed a bit.
• Leave sufficient time to complete the Exercise Sheet tasks (reading, thinking, notetaking, processing the
material, reflecting on the material, and answering questions!). It may well take longer than you think.
• Leave sufficient time to deal with the technology (finding, accessing and downloading resources, using
Turnitin etc). Please download everything you need as soon as possible, even if you will not read the
material until later. This gives you time to get help from the appropriate staff member if you have
access issues. Do not expect answers to questions on a weekend or last thing on a Friday.
o Problems using Bb or other online systems within the university? Spend time learning to use
them by visiting the Bb help pages and the Bb Institution Page (see under Sources of
Support on the PIA Bb site)
o Problems accessing or downloading reading materials? see* below and also Ask a Librarian
– library help pages
o Problems understanding module instructions? Ask the Module Leader via the Discussion
Board.
o Problems with understanding your reading or lecture material? Do your best to complete
your exercise sheet anyway. Then, ask your seminar tutor to clarify things in the seminar.
Ask the Module Leader on the PIA Discussion Board (you can start a new thread). If having
trouble regularly, see your seminar tutor or the Module Leader during their office hours
AND consider getting help from your Personal Tutor, Learning Support or Disability Support
if appropriate (see Sources of Support on the PIA Bb site).
• If you haven’t completed Exercise Sheet 1 yet, you can still do this now without penalty. This does not
count as one of your three free lates. If you completed it and sent it to your seminar tutor before
knowing who your personal tutor was, please make sure to send it to your personal tutor now (with the
covering letter) and copy this to Bridget.
• If you haven’t completed Exercise Sheets 2,3, or 4, you can still do this as you may get credit if you have
one of the circumstances described at the top of this Exercise Sheet.
• Watch the lectures on Power in the Week 4 Folder and make structured notes for your own use (not for
this Exercise Sheet). (The lectures will appear by early Wednesday afternoon this week)
• Catch up with any of the previous Lectures that you haven’t seen yet. Makes structured notes for your
own use.