The Power Manual How to Master Complex Power Dynamics

The Power Manual explores major concepts of power, with a focus on the dynamics of domination and liberation. The first part weaves together leading thinking on power and looks at how it is deployed and transformed in society. The back end provides practical workshop exercises for learning how to shift power relations.

Liberate yourself by understanding and mastering power dynamics

"A comprehensive operations manual for…quite literally enacting our way to freedom."— GIBRAN RIVERA, Master Facilitator

"This book is masterful. …The handbook every person who considers themselves working to bring about a more just and compassionate world should read and carry with them throughout their journey."— CEASAR McDOWELL, Professor of the Practice of Civic Design, MIT

"An accessible yet deep exploration into the complexity of power, as well as guide to group exercises for unleashing our collective power."— PENN LOH, Senior Lecturer and Director of Community Practice, Tufts University

ALL SOCIAL RELATIONS are laden with power. Getting out from under dominant power relations and mastering power dynamics is perhaps the most essential skill for change agents across all sectors seeking to ignite positive change in the world. This concise action manual explores major concepts of power, with a focus on the dynamics of domination and liberation, and presents methods for shifting power relations and enacting freedom. The Power Manual:

• Clearly distills the major theories of power from post-modern and feminist theory to business management and developmental psychology, and beyond
• Examines key ways that power is deployed and transformed in society
• Presents a new theory of power based on enactment — the bringing of something to life through one’s actions
• Explains how to refuse powerless identities and enact powerful ones
• Helps readers choose egalitarian interactions over domination
• Demonstrates mastering the process of power expansion
• Features workshop games and group activities for identifying and shifting power relations.

This accessible action manual is ideal for change agents, leaders, and activists across all nonprofit and business sectors aiming to understand, master, and shift power relations.

"Think you know all about power? Think again! …Gives practical guidance for cultivating individual consciousness and building social power."— CYNTHIA SILVA PARKER, Senior Associate, Interaction Institute for Social Change

CYNDI SUAREZ works with leaders in nonprofit organizations, philanthropy, and social movements, including most recently the Movement for Black Lives and Dreamers. She has an MS in Nonprofit Management from Southern New Hampshire University, and studied Feminist Theory at the New School for Social Research. Suarez is Senior Editor at Nonprofit Quarterly, the leading nonprofit journal. She lives in Boston, MA.