Social Construction of Power: Research Proposal

Introduction

The social construction of power refers to the conceptualization of power in the society in alignment with the sociology knowledge. The social construction of power is based on the realities that are developed from our experiences and interactions with other people. Power is an essential universal element that exists in social relationships, and it refers to the ability to act on one's will without resistance (Nisic & Plavsic, 2017). The society is made by people who act on their own, and society projects its reality through subjective conceptualization, which varies from one individual to another (Van Dijk, 2013). Power is based on the dialectical relationship between objective and subjective reality. The social construction of power further emphasizes that every idea in the world has subjective meaning (Dreher, 2016). The social construction assesses the interactions of individuals within the society and their immediate social environment, which leads to the creation of meaning to things which is instrumental towards creating reality (Dreher, 2016). The social construction of power depends significantly on the society and the knowledge that has been established in the brain. For instance, society can give meaning to money, long-distance relationships, and even the meaning of money. The social construction of power has gone through changes due to the emergence of the internet (Fulk & Connie Yuan, 2017). The advent of social media has changed how social power is constructed and exists.

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Research Questions

What are the implications of the internet and social media on the social construction of power?

What are the new features that have emerged in the social construction of power and their implications on power dynamics?

What are the subjective and objective dimensions of the new features of the social construction of power?

Research Objectives and Statement of Problems

1. The research seeks to establish the new features of social power construction and the overall impact of the internet society in moderating the new features of the social construction of power and its subjective and objective dynamism.
2. The research will be instrumental in establishing the key new features of social power construction that have emerged due to the growth of the internet society.
3. The emergence of the internet society has changed how society establishes subjective and objective elements of the social construction of power.

Literature Review

According to Davie (2017), sociology is defined as the study of the social composition of communities around the world. The development of technology oversaw the reorganization of societies as well as the conventional relational ways of interaction. The development of classes gave rise to social, political, and economic power, which has gone on to define its construction within the society (Lim, 2014). According to Cragun (2016), sociology covers several human life facets and human social life experience. Castells (2016) observes that the construction of power within the society is foundational relationships because of such power has the responsibility of constructing and shaping the norms and institutions of social life. Power is practiced by the art of coercion, which might imply a monopoly of violence, whether legitimate or not, by the state. It thus means that the meaning of power is constructed in the minds of the people within the society, defined by the human activities within societal institutions. This study is relevant because it describes research done by Castells, to establish the power relationships and its construction within societies.

This view is supported by another study done by Gehl and Bakardjieva (2016) to determine the construction of power within societies. The authors used relevant existing studies to establish power construction in the minds of the people within societies. They used a cross-cultural study approach to study society and embraced grounded theory to strategize on theory building. The study established that theoretical constructs should only be used as research tools because they are crucial in the discovery that a utilitarian approach is still a work in progress. The authors, therefore, concluded that little trust should be bestowed on theoretical constructs that come from the margins of a cultural and institutional boundary. The authors did not collect primary data, and as such, this study lacks the generalization and representation of other power construction situations within the society. However, these studies are still relevant as they define sociology and explain how power construction happens within the institutions that exist in society today.

Paul, Aithal, and Bhuimali (2017) argue that the internet is a network of networks that connect millions across the world using a global system, which applies several protocols. Sheppard (2014) carried out a study to examine the effects of internet use on Australian citizens' voluntary participation in political activities. This study applied the civic voluntarism model of political participation, to study the Australian citizens' behavior during political events. The study hypothesized that internet use was a factor of an individual's free time, money, civic skills, recruitment and engagements, and time spent using the internet. Sheppard established that since voting is compulsory in Australia, there were positive effects on the people, government, and institutional stability.

A study by Al-Zahrani (2015) aimed at understanding the art of digital citizenship. The study examined factors affecting involvement in the virtual societies of the internet among students studying in higher levels of education. The study used 174 university students as participants in a quantitative approach using questionnaires. The authors assumed that the students usually have self-respect for other online users, computer knowledge, right internet attitude, and digital citizenship. The study revealed that students or people with computer skills are more involved in the internet than those who do not. Additionally, those who like researching or carrying out online studies were found to be more involved. Therefore, these studies are relevant as they describe different aspects of internet society.

Significance of the Study

This study will be instrumental in establishing the new features of the social construction of power that has emerged due to the development of social media and internet communities. The study will create a new understanding of the subjective and objective elements of the construction of power in modern society.

Methodology

Research Design

According to Caruth (2013), a research design is a tool for answering the research question or testing the research hypothesis. This study will use a mixed research design of quantitative and qualitative research design. The mixed research method is more suited for this research by providing a contradicting evaluation of qualitative and quantitative findings. It ensures that the findings are founded on the experiences of the participants, which is an effective avenue to foster scholarly interaction (Leavy, 2017). Lambert and Lambert (2012) held that a qualitative approach is a systematic approach used to describe the experiences and situations to give them meaning.

Sampled Population

The target population for the study included social media managers and sociologists. The total target population for the study will be 20 respondents.

Instruments of Data Collection

This study used both secondary and primary data. Questionnaires survey is a form of research whose quality goes by what the respondent says questionnaire can be used for both descriptive and explanatory study (Payne, Janzen, Earl, Deathe, & Viana, 2017). The surveys will contain simple questions that systematically will seek to find out the new features of the social construction of power through social media.

Secondary Data

Secondary data will be collected through books, journals, newspapers, magazines, and any other relevant and available written materials.

References

Al-Zahrani, A. (2015). Toward Digital Citizenship: Examining Factors Affecting Participation and Involvement in the Internet Society among Higher Education Students. International Education Studies, 8(12), 203-217. Retrieved from https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1083923

Caruth, G. D. (2013). Demystifying mixed methods research design: A review of the literature. Online Submission, 3(2), 112-122. Retrieved from https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED544121

Castells, M. (2016). Sociology of power: My intellectual journey. Annual Review of Sociology, 42, 1-19. Retrieved from https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev-soc-081715-074158

Cragun, R. (2016). Introduction to Sociology Cragun. Retrieved from http://cool4ed.calstate.edu/handle/10211.3/180381

Davie, G. (2017). Sociology of religion. The Blackwell companion to the study of religion, 171-191. Retrieved from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/9781405168748.ch8

Dreher, J. (2016). The social construction of power: Reflections beyond Berger/Luckmann and Bourdieu. Cultural Sociology, 10(1), 53-68. Retrieved from https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1749975515615623

Fulk, J., & Connie Yuan, Y. (2017). The social construction of communication technology. The international encyclopedia of organizational communication, 1-19. Retrieved from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/9781118955567.wbieoc190

Gehl, R. W., & Bakardjieva, M. (Eds.). (2016). Socialbots and their friends: Digital media and the automation of sociality. Taylor & Francis. Retrieved from https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=ujklDwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=Gehl,+R.+W.,+%26+Bakardjieva,+M.+(Eds.).+(2016).+Socialbots+and+their+friends:+Digital+media+and+the+automation+of+sociality.+Taylor+%26+Francis.+&ots=PDGxhtTLGh&sig=UM7lpR4ZZk_4jyWTtAnBTGZ4EO0

Lambert, V. A., & Lambert, C. E. (2012). Qualitative descriptive research: An acceptable design. Pacific Rim International Journal of Nursing Research, 16(4), 255-256. Retrieved from https://www.tci-thaijo.org/index.php/PRIJNR/article/download/5805/5064

Leavy, P. (2017). Research design: Quantitative, qualitative, mixed methods, arts-based, and community-based participatory research approaches. Guilford Publications. Retrieved from https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=hxyDDgAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=Leavy,+P.+(2017).+Research+design:+Quantitative,+qualitative,+mixed+methods,+arts-based,+and+community-based+participatory+research+approaches.+Guilford+Publications.+&ots=T4bV0Uk8k7&sig=qD3fE8o_GhhDvBpzywQsYrszG98

Lim, M. (2014). Informational terrains of identity and political power: the Internet in Indonesia. Antropologi Indonesia. Retrieved from http://www.ijil.ui.ac.id/index.php/jai/article/viewArticle/3497

Nisic, V., & Plavsic, D. (2017). The role of media in the construction of social reality. SOCIOLOSKI DISKURS, 4(7). Retrieved from https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/5a13/0264da645c5e31dc0ebf5c82bba698f5ebe0.pdf

Paul, P., Aithal, P. S., & Bhuimali, A. (2017). Internet Society: The pioneers in the internet and network science for building digital society and Information Age. A Case Study. International Journal on Recent Researches in Science, Engineering, and Technology, 5(7), 11-18. Retrieved from https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3008761

Payne, M., Janzen, S., Earl, E., Deathe, B., & Viana, R. (2017). Feasibility testing of smart tablet questionnaires compared to paper questionnaires in an amputee rehabilitation clinic. Prosthetics and orthotics international, 41(4), 420-425. Ret...