1. POWER

2. DEFINITION Power has the capacity to change things … it is a means of constraining people and reducing their freedom, or increasing the freedom of action of the agents who possess it … it can either be restrictive or enabling … Giddens, A, 1993, Sociology

3. DEFINING POWERFUL Having much power or strength Politically or socially influential

4. DEFINING POWERLESS Powerless 1. Without power or strength 2. Wholly unable All definitions are from the Australian Oxford Dictionary, 1999.

5. TYPES OF POWER Personal Power Institutional or Structural Power Social Power

6. PERSONAL POWER Personal Power is the power a person feels when they make decisions and choices such as to take or not to take action. Personal Power is the power a person has when they know what they want and they know what they need to do to get what they want.

7. INSTITUTIONAL POWER Institutional / Structural Power is inherent in the practices and meanings of institutions such as the law, marriage, language, family, political system and so on. Institutional / Structural Power can also be expressed by active discrimination, omission, silence and the enforcement of ideologies.

8. SOCIAL POWER Social power is the power dynamics displayed in the day to day relations between people in social situations. This power can be derived from things such as educational background, positions of authority, status, gender, sexual orientation, race and so on.

9. KNOWLEDGE IS POWER There is an old saying that knowledge is power. Without knowledge and understanding you cannot have power because you can’t understand the dynamics, the structures or yourself. Gaining knowledge (and then gaining power) is called Empowerment.

10. EMPOWERMENT Empowerment is having personal power. It is understanding the situation. It is about using your personal power to take actions.