International Community Power Structures

Social Forces ◽  
1971 ◽  
Vol 49 (3) ◽  
pp. 513
Author(s):  
Joel Smith ◽  
Delbert C. Miller
Keyword(s):  
International Community ◽  
Power Structures ◽  
Community Power ◽  
Community Power Structures

Community Power, Power Studies and the Sociology of Knowledge

1970 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 204-218 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Curtis ◽  
John Petras
Keyword(s):  
Sociology Of Knowledge ◽  
Science Literature ◽  
Power Structures ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
Community Power ◽  
Knowledge Perspective ◽  
Methodological Approaches ◽  
Power Studies ◽  
Community Power Structures

American social scientists have long been interested in community power structures, but most methodological and substantive developments in this area of research have occurred only in the past fifteen years or so. The published social science literature bearing on this topic now includes well over six hundred items written primarily by political scientists and sociologists. There have been over eighty systematic attempts to present an overall, composite description of the structure of power in particular communities; this research will be our central concern in this paper. These studies are accompanied in the literature by hundreds of critiques of methodological approaches, attempts at conceptual refinement, studies of narrower facets of community political processes, and reviews and commentaries on particular studies. The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to consider the field of community power from a sociology of knowledge perspective by extending the discussion in an earlier research note, and secondly, to point to some procedural guides that seem appropriate for use in further research in this and other areas characterized by "chronic controversies."

Power Structure and its Communication Behavior in San José, Costa Rica

1967 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 236-247 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harold T. Edwards
Keyword(s):  
Power Structure ◽  
Standard Technique ◽  
Local Area ◽  
Communication Behavior ◽  
Power Structures ◽  
San Jose ◽  
Community Power ◽  
Power Studies ◽  
Community Power Structures ◽  
Problem Solving Process

The word “community” has been defined as a “structuring of elements and dimensions to solve problems which must be or can be solved within the local area.” This problem-solving process by which the community is directed, segmented, and formed into a structure has been the basis of many community power studies. Floyd Hunter was among the first to study this process, employing what has been termed the reputational method of community study. This method is now considered a standard technique for determining community power structures. It consists of a series of interviews with selected community knowledgeables who are asked to name the most influential individuals in the area. This is followed by a second round of interviews with those influentials who received the highest number of “votes” or mentions from the knowledgeables, asking them for a similar listing in order to rank the group of influentials according to their power in the community.

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