In our literature review we recognised the importance of power dynamics in shaping participation. We referred in particular to John Gaventa’s power cube, a framework for analysing the levels, spaces and forms of power, and their interrelationship.

The Participation, Power and Social Change team at the Institute of Development Studies (where John Gaventa works) has recently launched a new website – powercube.net – to help people think about power relations within organisations and beyond. It explains how the power cube can be use to analyse and understand power but also provides information on a range of other approaches to power and a very rich collection of resources (case studies, handouts, papers, videos etc).

“The animating ideal of this report is that people should have power over their everyday lives, and the power to shape the society in which they live. But power is unevenly distributed.” The Power Gap. An index of everyday power in Britain, by Daniel Leighton. Demos, London December 2009. ISBN 978-1-906693-29-9. Downloadable from www.demos.co.uk.

Demos has published this report to contribute to the debate about power and powerlessness in the UK. It is intended to provide an initial framework for measuring and mapping power and powerlessness, to enable others to do their own investigations, and to challenge the defnitions and indicators of power Demos are proposing. The report includes ‘power maps’ of the UK with scores for each political constituency in the UK.

The Pathways project will be using the ‘power maps’ to provide an additional dimension to the area profiles that are now being drafted for the three case study areas (in Leeds, Suffolk and Enfield).