Work through the following activity on your own or with a partner – but write your own detailed and thoughtful responses in your folder. Numbered questions are the ones you need to write a response to in your folder.
How do you define ‘power’?
Spend a few minutes putting down on paper your own thoughts on a definition of power:
- How would you define power in your own words?
- What factors or resources contribute to a person’s level of power? Make a list of things that can give a person power.
- Make a list of 3-5 people that you think are amongst the most powerful in the world.
World’s Most Powerful – according to Forbes Magazine
Forbes Magazine is a highly respected and successful business magazine. It’s probably best known for publishing annual “top 100” lists of the world’s most wealthy, most powerful, etc.
- Read this article on: The World’s Most Powerful People (don’t be distracted by the ads and links here and there – focus on the main text through to the end).
- What 4 “dimensions” did Forbes use to compile its list of the world’s most powerful people?
- Do you agree that these 4 dimensions are important for ranking a person’s level of power?
- Choose to browse the list of either World’s Most Powerful People or World’s Most Powerful Celebrities.
- Do you agree with the order rankings decided upon by Forbes? What’s their reasoning for putting Lady Gaga above Oprah on the celebrities list?
- Pick a single person from one list or the other and read their profile. In your folder summarise the information, especially the “assets” that contribute to their power status and details about what sort of power they have, and over whom. Does it describe what they’ve done with their power?
More on the Most Powerful Celebrities List here.
The Good, the Bad and the Monstrous 