power

Power is the capacity of actors to mobilize agency, resources, and discourses, as well as to utilize or shape institutions to achieve a goal. Power can be both constraining and enabling, and the capacity of one actor can inhibit the capacity of another actor. Power in the context of human-nature relationships can be manifested in multiple and non-exclusive ways through discourses and social structures. Discursive power is the power to use discourses or knowledge production to shape worldviews, identities, and values. Related to discursive power is the power to frame how issues are understood, communicated, and discussed (framing power). Structural power is the result of historically-specific socio-cultural, political, and economic systems that reproduce social positions and/or hierarchies among social groups. Structural power relations determine, for example, who has the power to make rules regarding access, use, and responsibilities about nature/NCP, and who is excluded from this process (rule-making power); as well who has the formal or informal rights regarding nature/NCP which in turn determines the use of these assets and whose values are emphasized (operational power).