Power (sociology)

Much of the recent sociological debate on power revolves around the issue of the constraining and/or enabling nature of power. The most comprehensive account of power can be found in Steven Lukes  where he discusses the three dimensions of power.Thus, power can be seen as various forms of constraint on human action, but also as that which makes action possible, although in a limited scope. Much of this debate is related to the works of the French philosopher Michel Foucault (1926-1984), who, following the Italian political philosopher Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527), sees power as "a complex strategic situation in a given society [social setting]". Being deeply structural, his concept involves both constraint and enablement. For a purely enabling (and voluntaristic) concept of power see the works of Anthony Giddens.
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