Power in Focus

Abstract

Nursing, the remedial therapies and social work are structured around several aspects of power. Power is to be seen not only in the formal hierarchies which have concerned orthodox analyses, but also in the way those hierarchies themselves are cross-cut by occupational and professional boundaries, relationships between professionals and service users and in structures of racism and of gender. These aspects of power do not simply overlap; they interlock, so that to grasp the full picture of the caring professions it is not possible to perceive any one aspect in isolation. The work which people undertake, whether or not they are professionally qualified, the hierarchical positions they occupy and so on are all linked, and all these factors are related to whether the person is black or white, female or male. The separate examination of each aspect in the preceding discussion has been a matter of emphasis and concentration and not an attempt to construct separate areas of analysis.