Editing Power (social and political) (section)

=== Counterpower ===
{{Main|Dual power}}
The term 'counter-power' (sometimes written 'counterpower') is used in a range of situations to describe the countervailing force that can be utilised by the oppressed to counterbalance or erode the power of elites. A general definition has been provided by the anthropologist David Graeber as 'a collection of social institutions set in opposition to the state and capital: from self-governing communities to radical labor unions to popular militias'.<ref name="David Graeber">{{cite book|last=Graeber|first=David|title=Fragments of an anarchist anthropology|year=2004|publisher=Prickly Paradigm Press|location=Chicago|isbn=978-0-9728196-4-0|page=24|edition= 2nd pr.}} The examples given (self-governing communities, radical labour unions, popular militias) reflect the Idea/Economics/Physical taxonomy</ref> Graeber also notes that counter-power can also be referred to as 'anti-power' and 'when institutions [of counter-power] maintain themselves in the face of the state, this is usually referred to as a 'dual power' situation'.<ref name="David Graeber"/> [[Tim Gee]], in his 2011 book ''Counterpower: Making Change Happen'',<ref name="gee">{{cite book|last=Gee|first=Tim|title=Counter power : making change happen|date=2011|publisher=World Changing|location=Oxford|isbn=978-1780260327}}</ref> put forward the theory that those disempowered by governments' and elite groups' power can use ''counterpower'' to counter this.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Newton|first=Mark|title=Counterpower: Making Change Happen (book review)|journal=The Ecologist|date=17 November 2011|url=http://www.theecologist.org/reviews/books/1135297/counterpower_making_change_happen.html|access-date=8 January 2016|archive-date=7 February 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230207202614/http://www.theecologist.org/reviews/books/1135297/counterpower_making_change_happen.html|url-status=live}}</ref> In Gee's model, ''counterpower'' is split into three categories: ''idea counterpower'', ''economic counterpower'', and ''physical counterpower''.<ref name="gee" />

Although the term has come to prominence through its use by participants in the global justice/[[anti-globalization movement]] of the 1990s onwards,<ref>{{cite journal|issue=360|date=September 2003|journal=New Internationalist|first=Graeme|last=Chesters|title=Ideas about power: Representation and counterpower|url=http://newint.org/features/2003/09/01/theories-of-power/|quote=Counterpower is the shadow realm of alternatives, a hall of mirrors held up to the dominant logic of capitalism – and it is growing.|access-date=16 October 2014|archive-date=22 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230422013921/https://newint.org/features/2003/09/01/theories-of-power|url-status=live}}</ref> the word has been used for at least 60 years; for instance, [[Martin Buber]]'s 1949 book 'Paths in Utopia' includes the line 'Power abdicates only under the stress of counter-power'.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Buber|first1=Martin|title=Paths in Utopia|date=1996|publisher=Syracuse University Press|location=Syracuse, NY|isbn=978-0815604211|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=MXGSnCcRaUwC&pg=PA104 104]|edition= Reprint|orig-year=1949}}</ref><ref name=Gee2011Introduction>{{cite book|last=Gee|first=Tim|chapter=Introduction|title=Counter Power Making Change Happen|date=2011|chapter-url=http://www.newint.org/books/politics/2011/09/20/reviews%2C%20introduction%20%26%20contents.pdf|isbn=978-1-78026-032-7|location=Oxford|publisher=New Internationalist|access-date=16 October 2014|archive-date=17 November 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151117213728/http://newint.org/books/politics/2011/09/20/reviews%2C%20introduction%20%26%20contents.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref>{{Rp|13}}