As we end our discussion of power, we look more practically at how power manifests in our everyday lives and how we might think about resistance to injustice within this understanding. We think through how social change practitioners engage with, mobilize, and build power in their efforts to build a better world. Having explored a number of theories of power, we look at how these theories might be part of a toolbox that advocates of a more just world can engage with to be more effective. Our guest scholar for this final conversation about power is Dr. Claire Cahen, Assistant Professor of Urban & Environmental Policy at Occidental College.

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Dr. Claire Cahen is an Assistant Professor of Urban & Environmental Policy at Occidental College. She received her B.A. from Pomona College and her Ph.D. in Earth and Environmental Sciences from the Graduate Center at the City University of New York. Her research centers on urban austerity, community development, labor, and racial justice and has been published in journals such as Race, Ethnicity and the City, Antipode, Labor Relations, and Housing Studies.

Here are a few pieces that might serve as an introduction to Dr. Cahen's research:

Cahen, C. (2023). After zombies: Notes on labor union and municipal renewal. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 41(4), 707-725.

Cahen, C., Schneider, J., & Saegert, S. (2019). Victories from Insurgency: Re‐Negotiating Housing, Community Control, and Citizenship at the Margins. Antipode, 51(5), 1416-1435.

Cahen, C. (2023). Anticolonial realism: The defensive governing strategy of a Black city in white space. Journal of Race, Ethnicity and the City, 1-23.

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The Social Science for Public Good Podcast is a project of the Virginia Tech Institute for Policy and Governance and VT Publishing intended to make social science theories accessible and available to individuals and organizations seeking to promote social change.

We continue to explore the concept of power by asking how neoliberalism might be both informing our understanding of power and changing how it manifests. Combining a number of insights from previous guests, we wade into the myriad ways power manifests in our neoliberal world and why we need to consider the many different kinds of power both distinctly and collectively. We were honored to be led in this conversation by Dr. Wendy Brown, UPS Foundation Professor, School of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study.

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Dr. Wendy Brown is a political theorist who works across the history of political thought, political economy, Continental philosophy, cultural theory, and critical legal theory. Brown investigates the subterranean powers shaping contemporary Euroatlantic polities, with particular attention to the political identities, subjectivities, and expressions they spawn. She is the author or co-author of a dozen books, including States of Injury: Power and Freedom in Late Modernity; Regulating Aversion: Tolerance in the Age of Identity and Empire; Walled States, Waning Sovereignty; Undoing the Demos: Neoliberalism’s Stealth Revolution; and In the Ruins of Neoliberalism: The Rise of Antidemocratic Politics in the West. Across her work, Brown aims to illuminate powers unique to our era and the predicaments they generate for democratic thought and practice.

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While it would be impossible to cite all of her influential work on power here, the publications below provide a useful starting point for her scholarship:

Brown, W. (2020). States of injury: Power and freedom in late modernity. Princeton University Press.

Brown, W. (2015). Undoing the demos: Neoliberalism's stealth revolution. Mit Press.

Brown, W. (2006). American nightmare: Neoliberalism, neoconservatism, and de-democratization. Political theory, 34(6), 690-714.

Brown, W. (2003). Neo-liberalism and the end of liberal democracy. Theory & event, 7(1).

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The Social Science for Public Good Podcast is a project of the Virginia Tech Institute for Policy and Governance and VT Publishing intended to make social science theories accessible and available to individuals and organizations seeking to promote social change.

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This week, we delve into how the influential theorist Michel Foucault challenged and changed our conceptions of power. We also begin to plumb how a feminist understanding of power can help inform our efforts to perpetuate social change. Our guest scholar for this conversation is Dr. Amy Allen, Distinguished Professor of Philosophy and Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Penn State University, who helps us deepen our understanding of the inescapability and essential neutrality of power.

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Dr. Amy Allen is the Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs and Advancement and Distinguished Professor of Philosophy and Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Penn State University. Her work engages with 20th-century Continental Philosophy, Critical Theory, Feminist Theory, and Social and Political Theory. She completed her PhD in philosophy at Northwestern University. Before joining Penn State, she taught philosophy at Grinnell College, Dartmouth College, and the University of Edinburgh.

She has served in a number of prominent positions such as sitting on the executive committee of the eastern division of the American Philosophical Association. She has been an executive co-director of the Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy, a co-editor-in-chief of Constellations: An International Journal of Critical and Democratic Theory, and editor of the series New Directions in Critical Theory published by Columbia University Press.

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While her full catalog of articles and books is far too long to list here, the publications below provide a useful introduction to his scholarship addressing the topic of power:

Allen, A. (2018). The power of feminist theory. Routledge.

Allen, A. (2007). The politics of our selves: Power, autonomy, and gender in contemporary critical theory. Columbia University Press.

Allen, A. (1998). Rethinking power. Hypatia, 13(1), 21-40.

Allen, A. (2002). Power, subjectivity, and agency: Between Arendt and Foucault. International journal of philosophical studies, 10(2), 131-149.

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The Social Science for Public Good Podcast is a project of the Virginia Tech Institute for Policy and Governance and VT Publishing intended to make social science theories accessible and available to individuals and organizations seeking to promote social change.

Music: Purple-planet.com

In this episode, we introduce two new conceptualizations of power. First, we look at the urban regime framework, which suggests that groups (regimes) come together to govern collaboratively around collective interests. Second, we discuss democratic understandings of power, which suggests that power should be shared and distributed. Dr. Max Stephens, Professor of Public and International Affairs at Virginia Tech, joins us for the conversation and walks us through these complex theories.

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Max Stephenson, Jr. currently serves as a Professor of Public and International Affairs and the Director of the Institute for Policy and Governance at Virginia Tech. His research and teaching interests include civil society and democratic theory, social change processes, international development, human rights and refugees and peacebuilding. He is the author or editor of thirteen books or monographs and more than 80 refereed articles and book chapters. He has also authored more than 400 commentaries addressing U.S. and international politics.

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Dr. Stephenson has written widely on how power and agency interact. You can read more of his thoughts here on Soundings.

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The Social Science for Public Good Podcast is a project of the ⁠Virginia Tech Institute for Policy and Governance⁠ and ⁠VT Publishing⁠ intended to make social science theories accessible and available to individuals and organizations seeking to promote social change.

Music: Purple-planet.com

In this episode, we start to add nuance to our understanding of power by investigating the three dimensions of power, as identified by Dr. Steven Lukes. Dr. Lukes, Professor Emeritus of Sociology at New York University, joins us for the conversation and walks us through his understanding of decision-making power, agenda-setting power, and ideological power. He encourages us to look more deeply into how pervasive and nuanced power can be.

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Dr. Steven Lukes is the author of numerous books and articles about political and social theory. Currently, he is a professor emeritus of sociology at New York University. He was formerly a fellow in politics and sociology at Balliol College, Oxford. He was then, in turn, a professor of political and social theory at the European University Institute, Florence, of  moral philosophy at the University of Siena and of sociology at the London School of Economics.

His interests include political sociology, focusing on the study of power; political theory and philosophy; Marxism and other socialist traditions; philosophy of the social sciences; the history of ideas, in particular the political thought of Condorcet; political humour and satire; and, most recently, the sociology of morals, his current preoccupation.

Lukes’s best-known, still controversial academic theory is his so-called ‘radical’ view of power. It can be simply stated. It claims there are three dimensions of power. The first is overt power, typically exhibited in the presence of conflict in decision-making situations, where power consists in winning, that is prevailing over another or others. The second is covert power, consisting in control over what gets decided, by ignoring or deflecting existing grievances. And the third is the power to shape desires and beliefs, thereby averting both conflict and grievances. It is the most hidden from view—the least accessible to observation by social actors and observers alike. It can be at work, despite apparent consensus between the powerful and the powerless.

He is a member of the editorial board of the European Journal of Sociology and a fellow of the British Academy.

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Dr. Lukes has written widely on power from a number of perspectives, but these publications provide a useful introduction to his scholarship addressing the topic:

Lukes, S. (2021). Power: A radical view. Bloomsbury Publishing.

Lukes, S. (Ed.). (1986). Power (Vol. 2). NYU Press.

Lukes, S. (2005). Power and the Battle for Hearts and Minds. Millennium, 33(3), 477-493.

Lukes, S. (2006). Individualism. ECPr Press.

The Social Science for Public Good Podcast is a project of the Virginia Tech Institute for Policy and Governance and VT Publishing intended to make social science theories accessible and available to individuals and organizations seeking to promote social change.

Music: Purple-planet.com

In this episode, we start our exploration of power. We seek to introduce the concept and begin to frame how individuals interested in social change might start to think about power in their own work. To explore how power operates in our world, we look at how revolutionary movements of the past have both confronted and utilized power. Our guest scholar for this conversation is Dr. Michael Hardt, Professor of Literature at Duke University.

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Michael Hardt's writings explore the new forms of domination in the contemporary world as well as the social movements and other forces of liberation that resist them. In the Empire trilogy -- Empire (2000), Multitude (2004), and Commonwealth (2009) -- he and Antonio Negri investigate the political, legal, economic, and social aspects of globalization. They also study the political and economic alternatives that could lead to a more democratic world. Their pamphlet Declaration (2012) attempts to articulate the significance of the encampments and occupations that began in 2011, from Tahrir Square to Zuccotti Park, and to recognize the primary challenges faced by emerging democratic social movements today.

His new book, The Subversive Seventies, focuses on how the revolutionary movements of the 1970s confronted and sought to change power structures. While his work on power is extensive, the publications below provide a useful introduction to his scholarship addressing the topic:

Hardt, M. (2023). The subversive seventies. Oxford University Press. 

Hardt, M., & Negri, A. (2000). Empire. Harvard University Press.

The Social Science for Public Good Podcast is a project of the Virginia Tech Institute for Policy and Governance and VT Publishing intended to make social science theories accessible and available to individuals and organizations seeking to promote social change.

Music: Purple-planet.com

We finish our exploration of trust theory in this episode with a conversation about what the future of trust research might look like and how we might think about applying these theorizations in our daily lives. Our guest scholar is Dr. Joe Hamm, Associate Professor of Criminal Justice and Environmental Science at Michigan State University.

Joe's program of research lies at the nexus of governance and the public, where he investigates what trust is, how best to appropriately measure it, and its connection to "outcomes" like cooperation and compliance. Joe works closely with a variety of governance organizations, including police agencies, court systems, natural resource authorities, public health departments, and a variety of other state and federal entities, with the overarching goal of contributing to a cross-boundary social science of trust.

Joe serves as Graduate Program Director for the MSU Environmental Science and Policy Program; Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Trust Research; and on the editorial boards of Psychology, Public Policy, and Law and Law and Human Behavior.

Professor Hamm's portfolio of work on trust is large and varied, but these publications provide a useful introduction to his scholarship addressing the topic:

Hamm, J. A., Trinkner, R., & Carr, J. D. (2017). Fair process, trust, and cooperation: Moving toward an integrated framework of police legitimacy. Criminal justice and behavior, 44(9), 1183-1212.

Hamm, J. A., Smidt, C., & Mayer, R. C. (2019). Understanding the psychological nature and mechanisms of political trust. PloS one, 14(5), e0215835.

PytlikZillig, L. M., Hamm, J. A., Shockley, E., Herian, M. N., Neal, T. M., Kimbrough, C. D., ... & Bornstein, B. H. (2016). The dimensionality of trust-relevant constructs in four institutional domains: Results from confirmatory factor analyses. Journal of Trust Research, 6(2), 111-150.
 

The Social Science for Public Good Podcast is a project of the Virginia Tech Institute for Policy and Governance and VT Publishing intended to make social science theories accessible and available to individuals and organizations seeking to promote social change.

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In this episode, we continue our exploration of trust theory with a conversation about how we should understand political trust and trustworthiness. We look at how we might understand trust in this specific context. Our guest scholar is Dr. Margaret Levi, Professor of Political Science, Stanford University

Dr. Levi is also Senior Fellow, Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, the former Sara Miller McCune Director and current Faculty Fellow of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS), Senior Fellow of the Woods Institute, and co-director of Ethics, Society and Technology at Stanford University. Additionally, she is Jere L. Bacharach Professor Emerita of International Studies in the Department of Political Science at the University of Washington. She held the Chair in Politics, United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney, 2009-13. At the University of Washington she was director of the CHAOS (Comparative Historical Analysis of Organizations and States) Center and formerly the Harry Bridges Chair and Director of the Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies.

Levi is the author or coauthor of numerous articles and six books, including Of Rule and Revenue (University of California Press, 1988); Consent, Dissent, and Patriotism (Cambridge University Press, 1997); Analytic Narratives (Princeton University Press, 1998); Cooperation Without Trust? (Russell Sage, 2005), In the Interest of Others (Princeton, 2013), and A Moral Political Economy (Cambridge, 2021). She explores how organizations and governments provoke member willingness to act beyond material interest.

Professor Levi has written extensively on trust, but these publications provide a useful introduction to her scholarship addressing the topic:

Levi, M., & Stoker, L. (2000). Political trust and trustworthiness. Annual review of political science, 3(1), 475-507.

Levi, M. (2022). Trustworthy Government: The Obligations of Government & the Responsibilities of the Governed. Daedalus, 151(4), 215–233.
 

The Social Science for Public Good Podcast is a project of the Virginia Tech Institute for Policy and Governance and VT Publishing intended to make social science theories accessible and available to individuals and organizations seeking to promote social change.

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We continue our exploration of trust theory in this episode with a conversation about what constitutes a violation of trust and how trust might be repaired following such a violation. Our guest scholar is Dr. Edward Tomlinson, Professor of Management in the Chambers College of Business & Economics at West Virginia University.

Dr. Tomlinson's research is widespread but includes examinations of...

-Building and Repairing Trust in Professional Work Relationships
-Negotiation Strategies and Skills
-Compensation System Design and Administration
-Avoiding Deviant Workplace Behavior

His publications have appeared in several of the most prestigious management journals, including Academy of Management Review, Journal of Applied Psychology, and Journal of Management. He co-edited (with Ron Burke and Cary Cooper) a book entitled, Crime and corruption in organizations: Why it happens and what to do about it. He also has a forthcoming book entitled, Developing and managing a total compensation system.

Professor Tomlinson's portfolio of work on trust is large and varied, but these publications provide a useful introduction to his scholarship addressing the topic:

Tomlinson, E. C., & Mryer, R. C. (2009). The role of causal attribution dimensions in trust repair. Academy of management review, 34(1), 85-104.

Tomlinson, E. C., Dineen, B. R., & Lewicki, R. J. (2004). The road to reconciliation: Antecedents of victim willingness to reconcile following a broken promise. Journal of management, 30(2), 165-187.

Tomlinson, E. C., & Lewicki, R. J. (2006). Managing distrust in intractable conflicts. Conflict Resolution Quarterly, 24(2), 219-228.Chicago
 

The Social Science for Public Good Podcast is a project of the Virginia Tech Institute for Policy and Governance and VT Publishing intended to make social science theories accessible and available to individuals and organizations seeking to promote social change.

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We continue our exploration of trust theory in this episode with a conversation about the different types of trust and how they might interact with one another to form a trust ecology. Our guest scholar is Dr. Marc Stern, Professor in the Department of Forest Resources and Environmental

Dr. Stern's research focuses on human behavior within the contexts of environmental conflicts, natural resources planning and management, and environmental education and communication. He has published over 100 peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, and reports, and has won multiple research and teaching awards. His most recent book, Social Science Theory for Environmental Sustainability: A Practical Guide, published by Oxford University Press, translates social science theory and knowledge for everyday use by people interested in working on environmental problems. He teaches undergraduate courses in Environmental Education and Interpretation and graduate courses in Social Science Research Methods and Sustainability.

Working with several colleagues, he has developed a typology of trust in the context of natural resource management and has suggested a trust ecology framework for how these types interact and buffer one another.

Professor Stern's portfolio of work on trust and collaborative governance is large and varied, but these publications provide a useful introduction to his scholarship addressing the topic:

Stern, M. J., & Coleman, K. J. (2015). The multidimensionality of trust: Applications in collaborative natural resource management. Society & Natural Resources, 28(2), 117-132.

Stern, M. J., & Baird, T. D. (2015). Trust ecology and the resilience of natural resource management institutions. Ecology and Society, 20(2).
 

The Social Science for Public Good Podcast is a project of the Virginia Tech Institute for Policy and Governance and VT Publishing intended to make social science theories accessible and available to individuals and organizations seeking to promote social change.

Music: Purple-planet.com