Understanding power

About this book

Understanding Power: An Imperative for Human Services expands the perspective on the operation of power in the work of all human services providers. As a first reader on how power operates, this resource provides a base on which to build a more in-depth, detailed conceptualization as training or work progresses. The chapters in the book address the following: multilevel, bidirectional, recursive operation of power; effects of privilege, power, holding and subordination, and nonprivilege to empower and to disempower; and enhancing, transforming, constraining, and undermining people's functioning. This resource offers an opportunity to work toward building a metaview from which to address how power operates when it is just and to discover its potential for healing and helping people to find, discover, reclaim, or enhance their own power; to correct moral dissonance (particularly for power holders/the privileged); to help people liberate themselves from debilitating negative self-esteem and disempowering, entrapping social roles; and to develop people's ability to exercise power justly and effectively. -- from back cover.