Toffler is a “futurist” and I think he’s sometimes too sloppy. But some times he had some real insights.

What did you find most useful from your undergrad days, if I may ask.

Collins is my favourite living sociologist — I think he qualifies as “great”. If you have access to a university library and you like the one I reccomend reading all his stuff. In particular, don’t skip “the Credential society”, it’s old and out of date (75) but it’s still very useful.

I’ve read and greatly enjoyed Weber, Csikszentmihalyi, Lakoff, and Chomsky. But Collins, Goffman, Toffler, and Castiglione are all new to me — time to make a trip over to Amazon.com! This is one of the reasons I totally love FDL in particular and the progressive blogosphere in general. I like starting the conversation on line but then moving deeper into the actual texts and becoming conversant in them myself. You don’t get this level of insight from traditional media!

This is incredibly helpful! Thank you so much!!!

In general, I would say if you take care of people’s Maslowian needs, you’ll have power. Maslow was a bit too western to fully emphasize how much physical security matters and I would take the top two positions and replace them largely with “meaninng and a story line”, but the basic idea is sound.

Hi Ian:

This is good stuff!

Would you please supply us with some sources — books for further reading, links, etc. Are you mostly inspired by Weber and if so what texts? What other writers are informing your thinking on this topic?

These questions of the sociology of power are all around us these days — and it’d be great if we could all get conversant and deeply informed ASAP.

A good simple introduction to Weber is Randall Collin’s “Max Weber, a Skeleton Key”.

I also recommend Collins “Conflict Sociology”, it’s big, it’s a bit out of date, but this stuff doesn’t go out of style that quickly.

“Macrohistory: Essays in Sociology of the Long Run” by Collins has some essays that speak directly to the question of when states form and break apart (prestige is big).

And, on the Collins side, “Sociological Insights: An Introduction to Nonobvious Sociology” is something I always reccomend.

(There’s so much Collins because when writing intro texts he is the clearest writer I have ever found in Soc.)

A good basic cultural anthropology textbook would be wise as well (no reccomendations, it’s been a long time since I took anthro).

Strangley enough, Alvin Toffler’s “Power Shift” had, in the first few chapters, a good basic introduction to different types of power.

This piece from Salon speaks to my thesis that you need to deal with the people who have control over violence.

The works of Erving Goffman in general apply. He wrote a lot of books and the connection isn’t obvious, so I’m not sure what to reccomend — perhaps either a reader or a summary book (pick the shortest one).

For writing on meaning, I’d start with Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.

Chomsky’s Manufacturing Consent is still worth reading.

The Prince, by Machiavelli is a good book to read.

Another book I reccomend, though you probably won’t enjoy reading it much, is Castiglione’s The Courtier. (Which seems to have had no new translation for 5 centuries, making it painful to read.)

“Metaphors We Live By” by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson is also worth reading (skip the later stuff, read the original Lakoff)

There’s no one book that I can point you at, if it exists, I don’t know of it.

As people are socialized they learn to play roles. Part of power is about controlling what roles others play, and making them switch into roles that are useful to you.

To do this you have to supply storylines and meaning; you need to supply an in-group for them and you need to take care of basic needs (very basic).

What people want more than anything is to feel like they belong to something bigger than them and to be able to fit their lives into a story arc.

I meant RBG!

It ain’t the first, or likely the last, time it’s happened. The old saw…”just don’t call me late for dinner” works just fine for me.

Thanks for noticing.

RFK Action Front @ 85

Hi Ian:

This is good stuff!

Would you please supply us with some sources — books for further reading, links, etc. Are you mostly inspired by Weber and if so what texts? What other writers are informing your thinking on this topic?

These questions of the sociology of power are all around us these days — and it’d be great if we could all get conversant and deeply informed ASAP.

Sorry to not directly answer your questions…but gotta say I liked checking out some of your earlier writings.

Thanks RGB!!

Hi Ian:

This is good stuff!

Would you please supply us with some sources — books for further reading, links, etc. Are you mostly inspired by Weber and if so what texts? What other writers are informing your thinking on this topic?

These questions of the sociology of power are all around us these days — and it’d be great if we could all get conversant and deeply informed ASAP.

Sorry to not directly answer your questions…but gotta say I liked checking out some of your earlier writings.

This is good stuff!

Would you please supply us with some sources — books for further reading, links, etc. Are you mostly inspired by Weber and if so what texts? What other writers are informing your thinking on this topic?

These questions of the sociology of power are all around us these days — and it’d be great if we could all get conversant and deeply informed ASAP.