Power

Foucault Studies, No. 14, Sept. 2012, p. 98-114
http://rauli.cbs.dk/index.php/foucault-studies/article/view/3894/4239

«Considérations sur le marxisme, la phénoménologie et le pouvoir»
Cités, No. 52, Déc. 2012, p. 103-126
http://www.puf.com/Revues:Cit%C3%A9s_2012_-_N%C2%B0_52
http://www.cairn.info/revue-cites-2012--p-101.htm

This is an interview with Michel Foucault by Colin Gordon and Paul Patton conducted at Foucault's Paris apartment in April 1978 and published in the original French and in English translation in 2012. There is an introductory note by Alain Beaulieu who arranged the authorised publication, and a note on the background to the interview by Colin Gordon.

Investigations into the political economy of globalization usually concentrate upon three related developments—the expansion of international trade and the growth in transnational production, including the rise of transnational corporations;  the creation of a world-wide market for finance and credit;  and finally, the development of regimes and institutions of global economic governance.  By comparison, the role and significance of labour and labourers tends to be neglected in most studies. Yet, from its very inception, the process of globalization has been marked by the different methods of organizing work and organizing the activity of workers themselves.

This volume goes some way in restoring labour to a proper place in the globalization literature. The title 'Globalizing Labour' has a dual meaning. On the one hand it refers to increasing connectedness of workers and work as the globalization of integrated trade, financial and production systems merges economic activity from around the world. Labour is globalizing in the sense that it is connected to world-wide production and exchange structures. On the other hand, the title refers to the activities of workers themselves as their political and economic activities influence broader globalization structures. Labour is globalizing in the sense that workers are themselves building organizational links between different communities and are engaging global power structures whether they be globalizing corporations or international organizations. This volume introduces the subject of labour and globalization by examining four elements of the relationship. Firstly, the historical relationship between labour and globalization is briefly reviewed. Secondly, the condition of various forms of labour since the end of the Cold War is surveyed. Thirdly, the issue of labour, the state and regulation of globalizing corporations is highlighted. The volume concludes with some thoughts on key issues facing global labour in the twenty-first century.

Nigeria is a country faced with great challenges in the power sector. This is as a result of inadequate administrative and technical efforts in handling issues in this sector. Aforetime, the country has solely depended on grid electricity generation which has proven to be unstable for several decades. These and others, has made it imperative to introduce the use of renewable energy in addressing some of the electricity challenges facing the country. The sources of renewable energy which could serve as an alternative source of power include wind, solar, and biogas. These can also be combined together as an entity to form a hybrid renewable energy source. In this paper, a solar tree was designed and constructed to provide an alternative supply of electricity to farm settlements in Nigeria. This is achieved by generating electricity from a single or multiple number of solar panels connected with a charge controller, a battery bank for storage and an inverter circuit to supply electrical power. Depending on the electrical load demand and the applications coverage area, the solar tree rating and specification can be a single-phase or three-phase AC output.

This article explores the non-emergence of a global governance regime for cyberweapons. Cyberweapons are malicious software entities deployed to cause harm to adversaries' computer networks and systems. They threaten the integrity and functionality of digital systems that enable global circuits of communication and exchange, with significant potential impacts on social, economic and political order. Using a power-analytical approach, this article identifies four areas in which power works to constrain regime formation: the productive power of NATO's Tallinn Manual Process; the structural power of US involvement in cyberweapons markets; the institutional power of Internet technologies; and diplomatic claims to sovereignty that mask the operations of compulsory power. These work together to prevent a unified global approach to the regulation of cyberweapons. The article concludes that there are substantial obstacles to effective cyberweapons governance but that these should not prevent ongoing efforts to tackle this important and ubiquitous security issue.

Objectives The aim of this article is to recognize and understand how certain discourses and practices carried out by health professionals and sonographers shape the emotional experiences of women who aborted with medication in two provinces of Cuyo, Argentina. Method The research was carried out with a qualitative design through a biographical method and thematic life-stories that emphasize the experience with medical abortion in conditions where abortion is legally and socially restricted. For this research, 18 in-depth interviews were conducted and analysed with women who underwent at least one voluntary pharmacological abortion made in a clandestine way between 2010 and 2019 and who registered interactions with professionals. The interviews were conducted between 2016 and 2019. Results Criminalizing, disciplinary and/or normativizing discourses implemented through direct and indirect actions affected the configuration of women's emotional experiences. The emotional effects o...

The social model of disability has demonstrated political success for disabled people in society. At the same time, it has been labelled an outdated ideology in need of further development. While the social model of disability has been used successfully for political activism, it has simultaneously created conflict and tensions in disability studies, sociology and the sociology of the body. This article sheds light on the confusion surrounding the social model of disability by discussing the historical emergence of its different forms. It then proceeds to analyse and evaluate key criticisms of the social model of disability. The article then goes on to explore the relevance of different forms of power to the current discourse on disability before proceeding to explore in depth what might be gained from the approach of one particular theorist on power; Hannah Arendt. It suggests that there may be merit in drawing on Arendt and illustrates some of the benefits of a more nuanced idea o...

The Economist (UK) invited me to participate in their periodic online debate series with World Bank economist, Wolfgang Fengler, about the need for industrialization in Africa. The 3-part series was posted online during March 12 – 22, 2013. Readers votes determine the winner.

Despite considerable awareness about various forms and meanings of participative decision-making (PDM) in different parts of the world, there is less agreement on the causes of variation in PDM. This article argues that among other exogenous (e.g. sociopolitical, legal, historical) forces, the sociocultural context plays an important role in the observed differences among PDM approaches and practices across nations. Similarly, subcultures and organizational cultures may influence PDM within nations. Two cultural dimensions: individualism-collectivism and power distance, are linked with four widespread employee participation approaches: face-to-face PDM, collective PDM, pseudo-PDM, and paternalistic PDM. The attributes of each PDM form, including the cultural determinants, underlying beliefs, the types of decisions made, and the relationship between a specified form and other PDM meanings (e.g. self-managing teams) are elaborated.

Presently, due to emergence of new generation of wireless telecommunication networks, some appropriate capacity and coverage have been provided for end-users by new hybrid terrestrial-satellite networks, consisting of two or more satellites in different orbits and terrestrial equipment. Today, due to the lack of spectral resources, a method, such as cognitive radio is used to allow for coexistence of spectrum between different nodes. Therefore, in this paper, spectral coexistence method between two satellites was applied over a common region based on cognition link to manage energy efficiency. Also, for mitigating interferences between satellites in downlink channel, the Stackelberg game was exploited. According to simulation results, the proposed algorithm for a primary satellite system with a main node had more energy efficiency compared to the other algorithms, such as sequential convex approximation (SCA)-based precoding, multi-beam interference mitigation (MBIM), and zero-forcing (ZF)-based precoding.

Since 1990, there has been an ongoing collaboration among the authors in the three laboratories to (1) prepare alloys of the AB(sub 5) and AB(sub 2) types, using arc-melting/annealing and mechanical alloying/annealing techniques; (2) examine their physico-chemical characteristics (morphology, composition); (3) determine the hydrogen absorption/desorption behavior (pressure-composition isotherms as a function of temperature); and (4) evaluate their performance characteristics as hydride electrodes (charge/discharge, capacity retention, cycle life, high rate capability). The work carried out on representative AB(sub 5) and AB(sub 2) type modified alloys (by partial substitution or with small additives of other elements) is presented. The purpose of the modification was to optimize the thermodynamics and kinetics of the hydriding/dehydriding reactions and enhance the stabilities of the alloys for the desired battery applications. The results of our collaboration, to date, demonstrate that (1) alloys prepared by arc melting/annealing and mechanical alloying/annealing techniques exhibit similar morphology, composition and hydriding/dehydriding characteristics; (2) alloys with the appropriate small amounts of substituent or additive elements: (1) retain the single phase structure, (2) improve the hydriding/dehydriding reactions for the battery applications, and (3) enhance the stability in the battery environment; and (3) the AB(sub 2) type alloys exhibit higher energy densities than the AB(sub 5) type alloys but the state-of-the-art, commercialized batteries are predominantly manufactured using Ab(sub 5) type alloys.

Based on church and state records from the burgh of Aberdeen, this study explores the deeper social meaning behind petty crime during the Reformation. Falconer argues that an analysis of both criminal behaviour and law enforcement provides a unique view into the workings of an early modern urban Scottish community. Examining the motivation behind these acts of violence reveals power struggles, social and familial hierarchies and the concept of belonging.

On définit trois manières d’être usager du système de soins, trois rôles typiques. On insiste notamment sur le rôle d’usager bien portant, c'est-à-dire de « malade potentiel permanent » et sur le rôle d’usager « payeur permanent » qui est massivement occulté. Chaque type de rôle pose des questions spécifiques concernant la « représentativité » des représentants dans les instances de participation. On classe ces représentants en deux catégories « porte parole » et « stratège » qui fonctionnent de manières radicalement différentes. Enfin, on se demande comment se forme une opinion publique sur le système de soin.

The distinctive contribution of sociological social psychology can be referred to as sociological miniaturism, a way of interpreting social processes and institutions that is microsociological more than it is psychological. We argue that social psychology of this variety permits the examination of large-scale social issues by means of investigation of small-scale social situations. The power of this approach to social life is that it permits recognition of the dense texture of everyday life, permits sociologists to understand more fully a substantive domain, and permits interpretive control. In the chapter we provide examples of this approach from two quite distinct theoretical orientations: symbolic interactionism and social exchange theory. We discuss the ways in which the study of two substantive topics, social power and collective identity, using these perspectives can be informed by closer collaboration between theorists within sociological social psychology. In the end it is o...

A novel sulfonated diamine monomer, 1,4-bis(4-aminophenoxy)-naphthyl-2,7-disulfonic acid (BAPNDS), was synthesized. A series of sulfonated polyimide copolymers were prepared from BAPNDS, 1,4,5,8-naphthalenetetracarboxylic dianhydride (NTDA) and nonsulfonated diamine 4,4′-diaminodiphenyl ether (ODA). Flexible, transparent, and mechanically strong membranes were obtained. The membranes displayed slightly anisotropic membrane swelling. The dimensional change in thickness direction was larger than that in planar. The novel SPI membranes showed higher conductivity, which was comparable or even higher than Nafion 117. Membranes exhibited methanol permeability from 0.24 × 10−6 to 0.80 × 10−6 cm2/s at room temperature, which was much lower than that of Nafion (2 × 10−6 cm2/s). The copolymers were thermally stable up to 340 °C. These preliminary results have proved its potential availability as proton-exchange membrane for PEMFCs or DMFCs.

This study is both a qualitative and a quantitative approach of the nonlinear vibrations of the mechanical elastic systems with polynomial damping. It gives the physical and mathematical modelling and numerical simulation of the dynamics of one degree of freedom mechanical systems and shows the diagrams of the curves of different characteristics (amplitude, displacement, power) function of the polynomial coefficients of damping. It also shows the variation of the same characteristics function of the frequency of the harmonic force of excitation. The numerical simulation has done with the data of real technological equipment: an industrial conveyor driven by inertial vibrator which has tested in site by the specialists of The Research Centre of Machines, Mechanic and Technological Equipments - MECMET.

The aim of this article is to measure the power of the members of french universities boards of directors, power such as mentioned by the law relative to the liberties and the responsabilities of universities (in french, the ?LRU? law). We use tools from the cooperative game theory, and particularly the power index of Banzhaf. We show that the number of the representatives of a given group, for instance the professors or the students, and the power, are concepts the relationships of which are sometimes surprising. We provide examples where the real power of decision does not necessarily belong to the groups we thought of intuitively.