One of the great challenges we face today is coming to grips with "forces of power/' in both theoretical and methodological terms, in a way that prepares us for action—action that is not totally subject to existing forces. The literature has some excellent theoretical accounts of power, but these say little about what we should do. Most often they are abstract and out of reach of all but a select few. In this book, however, we have a clear-cut account of power, ideology, and control that paves the way for practic- minded people to make a genuine attempt at tackling issues of power on both organizational and societal levels. John C. Oliga suggests a division between what he calls "objectivist," "subjectivist," and "relational" perspectives. With objectivism, he refers to theories that focus on power as capacities located in social structures. These tend to be either synergistic (e.g., Parsonian collective) or conflictual (e.g., Marxian conflictual view) theoretical orientations. With subjectivism he discusses theories that focus on power possessed by agents. With rela tional approaches he places theories that conceive power as a property of interaction among social forces.

Is Marxism a reflection of the conceptual system it fights against, rather than a truly comprehensive approach to human history? Drawing on recent work in anthropology, history, and philosophy, Donald Donham confronts this problem in analyzing a radically different social order: the former Maale kingdom of southern Ethiopia. Unlike capitalist societies, wherein inequality is organized by contracts between "free" individuals, in Maale powerful men were thought to "beget" others through control of biological fertility and material fortune. Donham scrutinizes this unusual system of domination in order to sharpen issues in social and cultural theory. He concludes that the interpretation of symbols and analysis of historical contingency should be crucial steps in any Marxists investigation. The result is a provocative and original re-reading of the Marxist tradition, and a spirited defense of its continued vitality and relevance. "Every once in a while there appears a book that . . . opens up new ways of inquiring into the ways of the world. Donald Donham has written such a book. The style is quiet and judicious, but the effect is stunning. . . . In putting inherited partisan approaches to the test of explaining the realities of Maale society and culture, Donham enriches anthropology and imparts new vigor to the analytical Marxian traditions. History, Power, Ideology embodies a major accomplishment."—From the Foreword

In a systematic survey of the manifestations and meaning of Black Power in America, John McCartney analyzes the ideology of the Black Power Movement in the 1960s and places it in the context of both African-American and Western political thought. He demonstrates, though an exploration of historic antecedents, how the Black Power versus black mainstream competition of the sixties was not unique in American history. Tracing the evolution of black social and political movements from the 18th century to the present, the author focuses on the ideas and actions of the leaders of each major approach. Starting with the colonization efforts of the Pan-Negro Nationalist movement in the 18th century, McCartney contrasts the work of Bishop Turner with the opposing integrationist views of Frederick Douglass and his followers. McCartney examines the politics of accommodation espoused by Booker T. Washington; W.E.B. Du Bois's opposition to this apolitical stance; the formation of the NAACP, the Urban League, and other integrationist organizations; and Marcus Garvey's reawakening of the separatist ideal in the early 20th century. Focusing on the intense legal activity of the NAACP from the 1930s to the 1960s, McCartney gives extensive treatment to the moral and political leadership of Martin Luther King, Jr., and his challenge from the Black Power Movement in 1966.

In this reassessment of New Deal policymaking, Rhonda Levine argues that the major constraints upon and catalysts for FDR's policies were rooted in class conflict. Countering neo-Marxist and state-centred theories, which focus on administrative and bureaucratic structures, she contends that too little attention has been paid to the effect of class struggle.

Routledge English Language Introductions cover core areas of language study and are one-stop resources for students. Assuming no prior knowledge, books in the series offer an accessible overview of the subject, with activities, study questions, sample analyses, commentaries, and key readings – all in the same volume. The innovative and flexible ‘two-dimensional’ structure is built around four sections – introduction, development, exploration, and extension – that offer self-contained stages for study. Each topic can also be read across these sections, enabling the reader to gradually build on the knowledge gained. Now in its fourth edition, this best-selling textbook: Covers the core areas of the subject: speech acts, the cooperative principle, relevance theory, corpus pragmatics, politeness theory, and critical discourse analysis Has updated and new sections on intercultural and cross-cultural pragmatics, critical discourse analysis and the pragmatics of power, second language pragmatic competence development, impoliteness, post-truth discourse, vague language, pragmatic markers, formulaic sequences, and online corpus tools Draws on a wealth of texts in a variety of languages, including political TV interviews, newspaper articles, extracts from classic novels and plays, recent international films, humorous narratives, and exchanges on email, messaging, Facebook, Twitter, and WhatsApp Provides recent readings from leading scholars in the discipline, including Jonathan Culpeper, Lynne Flowerdew, and César Félix-Brasdefer Is accompanied by eResources featuring extra material and activities. Written by two experienced teachers and researchers, this accessible textbook is an essential resource for all students of English language and linguistics.

Government, Policy, and Ideology analyzes the transformation of the university systems of England and Japan from the early 1980s, with particular reference to the changing modalities of university autonomy and the power relationships between central authorities, the universities, and the market. The analysis compares the various policy positions of the relevant stakeholders in the two countries, highlighting the ideologies of neo-liberalism, university autonomy, and new managerialism. These ideologies coexist in both the English and the Japanese university systems. However, the interpretations of these ideologies made by stakeholders, the patterns of the interrelations between them, and their contextualization as elements in the policy and stance of each stakeholder differ between England and Japan. The book argues that convergence between the English and Japanese university systems is, to a large extent, explained in the transformation of the university system in England during the 1980s, and the continuity of the Ministerial jurisdictional mechanism in Japan.

The notion of technological power is fast becoming an object of both academic and policy discourses. Within such discourses one can observe several different senses of power being employed, especially when viewed from a multi-disciplinary angle. This demonstrates the need for the creation of a cross-disciplinary and integrative framework for identifying and clarifying different conceptions of the relations between technology and power. In this respect, the book aims to offer an empirically-informed philosophical framework for understanding the technological construction of power, which allows for a differentiated vocabulary for describing various senses of technological power, while bridging together social and political theory, critical studies of technology, philosophy and ethics of technology. In addition, the framework presented in this book aims to contribute to better critical and ethical evaluation of technologies and their powers. Any adequate ethics or critique of technology must be based on a better, clearer, and more nuanced and differentiated understanding of the many ways in which technology can be described as ‘powerful’.

While traditional in its coverage of the major research traditions that have developed over the past 100 years, Organizational Communication is the first textbook in the field that is written from a critical perspective while providing a comprehensive survey of theory and research in organizational communication. Extensively updated and incorporating relevant current events, the Second Edition familiarizes students with the field of organizational communication—historically, conceptually, and practically—and challenges them to critically reflect on their common sense understandings of work and organizations, preparing them for participation in 21st-century organizational settings. Linking theory with practice, Dennis K. Mumby and new co-author Timothy R. Kuhn skillfully explore the significant role played by organizations and corporations in constructing our identities.