Patterns of Power website resources

The Patterns of Power website resources include access to books, pattern descriptions and a blog

The PatternsofPower objective is to enable the powerful to be held to account by providing clarification, resources and comment on the uses and abuses of power. It aims to do this by recognising patterns in the ways in which individuals, organisations, and governments exert power over each other – and giving examples of what can happen. These patterns constantly recur – so it is helpful to identify them, especially where power has been used to the disadvantage of some of the population. A more detailed description of how this concept works can be found in the Introduction to the books.

The PatternsofPower books, which list the Pattern Descriptions, clarify how power is used. The books are described, and can be obtained, here. They are available in paperback and electronic formats, enabling readers to explore the subject offline, but the latest version of the (evolving) text is also held on this website.

They can be read sequentially, starting from the Preface.

Individual pattern descriptions can be reached by navigating hierarchically from the Contents Listing.

A specific topic can be accessed via the Alphabetical Index.

Major sources can be checked by looking at the site’s Bibliography.

The Pattern Descriptions are hierarchically numbered. They include numerous links to Internet sources, to enhance their usefulness as reference material, and these have mostly been chosen for durability and trustworthiness.

The reference material is updated and maintained in accordance with information management policies, to give an audit trail.

The PatternsofPower blog and its associated social-networking services comment on issues and current events, to evaluate the performance of those who wield power. Its posts sometimes link directly to specific pattern descriptions and vice-versa. PC users can see the latest posts on the right-hand side of the screen, and users of mobile phones and tablets can see them listed at the bottom of each page on this website.

Using the Patterns of Power website resources

To gain a broad understanding of how power is used, the subject is best approached a layer at a time. Each of the chapters which describes a dimension of power has an overview segment at the beginning, for example, and many of the pattern descriptions have been subdivided – but the website has links to enable readers to bypass the detail on a first reading. And the Overview edition of the book is less than 1/6 of the length of the full edition.

A specific issue might benefit from being approached from several different viewpoints. The Patterns menu on this website provides an analysis hierarchy, to help people to drill down to find which sections are likely to be relevant. Many topics of interest are likely to be among those classified as major issues towards the end of each chapter.

To find the relevant section, the Alphabetical Index has been constructed to provide a list of topics and people of interest, with links to the relevant pattern descriptions. The most relevant are shown in bold. Some topics are so broad – such as human rights, for example – that they have separate index pages of their own, listing several different ways of looking at them.

Comments on the books, and on the PatternsofPower website resources, will enable them to be refined – to increase their usefulness. Email templates are at Contact us.

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