Table Of ContentPOWER
AND EVERYDAY
PRACTICES
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POWER
AND EVERYDAY
PRACTICES
edited by
Deborah Brock
York University
Rebecca Raby
Brock University
Mark P. Thomas
York University
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Power and Everyday Practices
by Deborah Brock, Rebecca Raby, and Mark P. Thomas
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■ CONTENTS
Preface vii
PART ONE: Setting the Stage 1
1. Unpacking the Centre, Deborah Brock, Rebecca Raby, and Mark P. Thomas 2
2. Thinking About Power: Exploring Theories of Domination and Governance,
Deborah Brock, York University 11
3. Assembling Our Tool Kit: Interrogating Representations and Discourses,
Andrea M. Noack, Ryerson University 33
PART TWO: The Centre, Normalization, and Power 57
Introduction
Deborah Brock
4. Bodies, Genders, Sexualities: Counting Past Two, Zoë Newman,
York University 61
5. Whiteness: Normalization and the Everyday Practice of Power, Cynthia
Levine-Rasky, Queen’s University 86
6. Class, State, and Power: Unpacking Social Relations in Contemporary Capitalism,
Mark P. Thomas, York University 110
7. Age: Decentring Adulthood, Rebecca Raby, Brock University 133
PART THREE: Everyday Images and Practices 157
Introduction
Rebecca Raby
8. Science as Culture, Aryn Martin, York University 161
9. The Culture of Therapy: Psychocentrism in Everyday Life, Heidi Rimke, University
of Winnipeg, and Deborah Brock, York University 182
10. Going Shopping: The Politics of Everyday Consumption, Dennis Soron,
Brock University 203
11. Financial Fitness: The Political and Cultural Economy of Finance, Mary Beth Raddon,
Brock University 223
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vi Contents
PART FOUR: Thinking Global: “The West and the Rest” 247
Introduction
Mark P. Thomas
12. The Imaginary Indian: Unpacking the Romance of Domination, Margot Francis,
Brock University 252
13. Coffee and Commodity Fetishism, Gavin Fridell, Trent University 277
14. Tourism: Globalization and the Commodifi cation of Culture, Rebecca Raby, Brock
University, and Joan Philips, Policy Studies Institute, U.K. 299
15. Nation States, Borders, Citizenship, and the Making of “National” Difference,
Nandita Sharma, University of Hawaii, Manoa 321
Contributors 343
Glossary 347
Index 375
NEL
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Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
■ PREFACE
We are pleased to present you—both students and colleagues—with this fi rst edition of
Power and Everyday Practices. We have prepared an unconventional textbook: one that takes
up sociological theory and methods in the context of everyday objects and practices.
One objective of this text is to enrich students’ appreciation of the uses of theory
for exploring the everyday world. However, this text is intended to complement, rather
than replace, courses in sociological theory. We do not present the range of theoretical
approaches available through the study of sociology. Rather, we demonstrate the simul-
taneous relevance of two major—and often competing—streams of inquiry, which are
generally known as materialism and poststructuralism. A second objective is to “trouble”
normative assumptions about the everyday world; to question the seemingly taken for
granted, commonsense social relations that shape our lives. We ask students to explore not
only why questions, but also how questions; to make visible not only why things are as they
are, but how they have come to be historically, socially, and culturally organized. A third
objective of this text is to enhance their ability to be critical consumers of information, and
to explore the links between the production of knowledge and the circulation of power in
contemporary Western societies.
The themes, topics, and organization of this text owe much to an undergraduate
foundations course in sociology at York University in Toronto. Social Organization/Social
Order was designed to take students who had succeeded in their Introduction to Sociology
course to the next level of analytic complexity and critical thinking. In this course we turn
the analytic lens toward sites of privilege and the production of power. So, for example,
rather than focusing on particular groups as objects of empirical investigation (such as
the impact of racism on people of colour, the marginalization of gay, lesbian, and trans-
gendered people, or the problems of the poor), we interrogate the centrality of whiteness,
heterosexuality, and consumption practices in contemporary Western societies. Students
think about how that cup of coffee they are drinking was produced, how their own deeply
personal efforts for self-improvement are connected to a particular therapeutic ethos that
characterizes our time and place, and why so many people will now list “shopping” as one
of their favourite activities. We have been consistently pleased with the high level of enthu-
siasm for this course among students and teaching assistants, and we thought it a worth-
while endeavour to make the thematic and substantive approach of this course more widely
available. To this end, we have managed to recruit an impressive collection of scholars who
are similarly enthusiastic about the project, and keen to contribute their expertise.
NEL vii
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viii Preface
FEATURES OF THE TEXT
There are four major parts to Power and Everyday Practices:
(cid:129) Part I introduces students to the thematic, theoretical, and methodological
approaches of the textbook.
(cid:129) Part II is organized to deepen students’ comprehension of some key thematic
concepts of the book: the centre, normalization, and power. Appreciation of these
concepts is gained through an exploration of bodies, genders, and sexualities;
whiteness; social class, the state, and power; and age relations.
(cid:129) Part III shifts the analytic lens to a selection of everyday images and practices. Here
students engage with the meanings of scientifi c knowledge, the pervasiveness of
therapeutic culture, consumption practices, and the logic of fi nance for Western
industrialized societies.
(cid:129) Part IV broadens the scope of analysis still further in order to make links between
everyday images and practices in the West and global relations of power. Here stu-
dents will examine the social construction of the “Indian” in the West, the power
relations embedded in a cup of coffee, and the signifi cance of tourism and the
tourist experience both for local and global economies and for tourists themselves.
Finally, students will engage with a critical analysis of nation states, citizenship and
borders.
Each chapter concludes with a series of exercises and questions that will assist stu-
dents with their review and comprehension of the material. Some of these exercises and
questions are designed for students to undertake on their own, and some are designed for
groups. Accompanying each chapter is a bibliography of sources that were important in
its construction.
Throughout the text, key concepts are shown in bold text. Typically those concepts
are defi ned at fi rst mention. Also, each defi nition is found in the Glossary at the end of the
book. Keep in mind, however, that the defi nitions are abbreviated versions of the explana-
tions provided by our authors, and that they are not a substitute for the fuller explanation
and analyses to be found in the chapters themselves. Some authors may take up the same
concept in a somewhat different way, so it is important to understand the meaning and
context for concepts in relation to specifi c chapters and issues.
ONLINE RESOURCES
www.powerandeverydaypractices.nelson.com
This book’s supporting website contains resources that complement the text. Students and
instructors can link directly to relevant sites associated with each of the book’s chapters,
and they can also access the Glossary online.
NEL
Copyright 2011 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
