Domination

Abstract One of the most important and enduring issues of modern sociology has been the concern with domination, the condition in which one social actor has power over another, the ability to get the other, usually a subordinate, to act in ways that she might not have otherwise chosen – and may actually be contrary to her desires or best interests. The nature of domination in the globalized world has been a crucial question ever since Marx first noted how the rapid spread of capitalism transformed both nature and societies. The courses of rivers were changed, national and cultural barriers to capitalism were broken down. Marxism has always been a critique of capitalist economic domination, how the bourgeoisie, the owners of private property, secure and maintain domination over the proletariat through control of wages, ideology and ultimately force. Various neo‐Marxisms, from critical theory to structural Marxism as critiques of domination, have examined the ways culture, consciousness, and subjectivity have been used to shape understandings, values and insinuate domination within the person to secure “willing” assent to the political‐economic domination by the few. For Weber, domination and its legitimacy, e.g., traditional, rational‐legal (bureaucratic), and charismatic authority were central concerns. Simmel charted the many different kinds and dynamics of superordination and subordination, e.g., the power of a person, group or principle, over another person. Although domination is clearly evident in the organization of the economy and governance, it is present in families, organizations, indeed in most groups with a hierarchical structure.