"Power is an integral part of our work as organizers and activists. Whether we are confronting corporate executives or elected officials, school boards or landlords, we are dealing with issues of power –– who has it, what kind and how they use it — all the time. And yet it is a difficult concept to describe. Power has multiple sources. It plays a role in shaping most social relationships and in determining who gets to decide important social, economic and environmental questions. Often we can see power at work in very direct and obvious ways. At the same time, power operates in less obvious and even hidden ways, through cultural norms, ideas and practices that perpetuate existing power relations and that discourage questions

about, or challenges to, those power relations."

 

From: http://grassrootspolicy.org