Power can very rarely be understood in a single location, without looking at the inter-relationships between how power operates in other locations and at other levels. And increasingly there are connections that can be tracked from the very local to the international level.  

One of our major challenges is to be able to show the connections, whether we are starting from a household or community level or whether our starting point is international (in designing a multi-country programme or campaign).  

At the most simple level, whatever your starting point, it is helpful to be able to track, on the particular issue that concerns you, some examples of how power relations operate at different levels. Start at the level you are working and then try to fill in examples both down to the household level and up to the international level. You may want to add other levels where appropriate:

• Intra-household
• Community / neighbourhood
• Municipality / local government
• District / department / province
• National
• Sub-regional / regional
• International

Resources

• Finding the Spaces for Change: A Power Analysis, J Gaventa, IDS Bulletin 37:6, November 2006.
• Ven Klassen and Miller 2002 “A new weave of power, people & politics: the action guide for advocacy and citizen participation”
• People’s Action in Practice, ActionAid, 2012
• www.reflect-action.org - Reflect website.
• www.policy-powertools.org - International Institute of Environment and Development website.
• www.powercube.net – Powerpack: Understanding Power for social change, Institute of Development Studies.
• Introduction to Spaces for Change by Andrea Cornwall and Vera Schattan P. Coelho.
• ActionAid’s Framework for Gender Equality (p. 72-73 AAI Gender & RBA Resource Kit)
• Power- Elite Capture and Hidden Influence, ActionAid, 2012
• Communication & Power, ActionAid, 2003.
• Critical Webs of Power and Change by Jennifer Chapman and Antonella Mancini, ActionAid 2005.