We are still considering the roots of power. Power originates from a number of sources, especially at the interactional level, which is what we are most concerned about in this chapter. In our last section we saw the power of charisma and the power of expert systems (rational/legal), and we saw the importance of deference and demeanor rituals for created power differences. Your textbook reading for this section talks about class position and organization as power. We will focus on class position as well. Does money equate to power? Remember, money and power really are two different things. (The mere fact that I felt like I had to remind us of that fact indicates that we usually equate them.) Money is simply a medium of exchange. We invented money so that we could facilitate economic exchanges.

At one time we just used barter. I would exchange my cow for your ten bales of hay. And you would trade that cow for two barrels of beer. And then you could take those two barrels and trade them for three pigs, which is what you were after in the first place. But as you can see, barter is a big pain in the butt! You wanted the pigs all along, but because the pig guy wanted beer and not your hay, you had to figure a path through which you could get the beer. Barter is very time consuming, so we invented money. Now you can sell your hay for money and buy whatever you want! So, money wasn't intended to equate to power-the ability to make people do what you want. But because of what money is, it has become the universal value and almost all-powerful.

In addition to the textbook we also have an on-line reading that explores capitalism and domination (the exercise of power), especially how capitalism helped create racism and sexism.

This section of your textbook also addresses organizational power. But we're going to consider another more subtle form of power: culture. We usually don't think of culture as power, but it is. Remember what power is: the ability to get people to do things they otherwise would not do. And now think about culture-think about potentially life-threatening eating disorders like anorexia nervosa, bulimia, and binge eating. These problems can potentially affect people from age 5 to 60. But 90 percent of those affected are adolescent and young adult women. Why do you think that is? Most of the explanations concerning these disorders focus on the cultural ideals of femininity as portrayed in magazines, movies and on television. If that explanation is correct, and I believe it is, then it is a clear case of culture exercising power over individuals. But there are some other examples as well, and we are going to explore two of those in our on-line readings. The reading by Cecilia Ridgeway shows how culture is used in organizational settings. So we have an overlap of culture and organization, and we have a case of cultural categories being used by others. Our second reading is an example of how culture is used by people against themselves to control their own behavior and own understandings of self.