Resistance From Within: Power and Defiance in Montesquieu’sPersian Letters

Abstract

Montesquieu reflects on the intricacies of government, social customs, and identity in his epistolary novel titled Persian Letters (1721). For many of these topics, Montesquieu addresses the themes of power and agency, mainly in the context of despotism as symbolized by a seraglio in the book. This article uses the explanatory research method through a case analysis of “power” in the Persian Letters to facilitate a nuanced, gendered understanding of “power” as a concept. The case analysis incorporates and applies feminist perspectives on power, as well as a theoretical framework and empirical observations from Scott’s Weapons of the Weak (1985), to define and operationalize “despotic power” and “defiant power.”

Systems Approach to Address Human Resource Issues: A Case in a Commercial Livestock Farm in Southern Nigeria

“…They also draw the human resource managers’ attention to the need to modify the traditional bureaucratic organizational structure to allow flexibility to yield innovation to address operational challenges (Grint, 2005; Imhonopi et al, 2019; Laursen & Foss, 2003). Training will equip these staff with the power to act promptly in the organization’s right directions and become committed, with minimal supervision in the long run (Sanders, 2020).…”