Week 14 Discussion — Who Holds Power at Work and in Town? — Traditional alternative (no AI)
Instructors: publish this instead of the adaptive version if you prefer, and unpublish or delete the adaptive one.
Hook
Union membership fell from 20.1% of U.S. wage and salary workers in 1983 to 10.0% in 2025, and more of the work around you now arrives through an app. People read those changes very differently: as freedom, as lost power, or as a little of both. This week gave you the tools to weigh them: power versus authority, the pluralist and power-elite models, the employee versus the independent contractor, and Marx's alienation.
Your discussion question — choose Option A or Option B; they carry the same weight and the same rubric, and you say which you picked.
Option A: A decision was made in a place you know — a city or town council vote, a campus rule, a workplace policy, or a neighborhood association choice. Take a position: does the way that decision was made fit the pluralist model (power shared among many competing groups), the power-elite model (a small, interlocking elite holding decisive power), or a mix you can defend? Give your evidence, say whether the people who followed the decision saw it as legitimate authority or as power alone, and name the strongest point the other model would make.
Option B: Pick an app-based or gig job you know well, from your own work or from someone you know — delivery, rides, tutoring, dog walking, or another. Take a position: is that arrangement better described as a flexible independent contract that frees the worker, or as work organized in the way Marx called alienation? Say whether the worker is an employee or an independent contractor and how you can tell, apply at least two of Marx's four parts of alienation, and name the strongest point the other side would make.
There is no single right answer. The pluralist and power-elite models each have evidence on their side, and defenders of gig work and its critics both point to real features of the same jobs, so either option can be argued well in more than one direction. Pick one you actually care about, and tell us your reasoning. You never have to share private details about your own job or pay, and this discussion is about how power and work are organized, not about any party or candidate.
Expectations
Activity format: one initial post followed by two substantive peer replies. Plan on about 45 minutes across the two deadlines; your instructor sets both due dates in Canvas.
Your initial post — by the first due date (early in the module week):
- Say which option you chose.
- For Option A, name the decision and the model you think fits it; for Option B, name the job and say whether the worker is an employee or an independent contractor.
- State your position in one clear sentence and give your reason.
- Use at least two of this week's terms (economy, primary sector, secondary sector, tertiary sector, post-industrial economy, capitalism, socialism, mixed economy, automation, gig economy, employee, independent contractor, power, authority, traditional authority, charismatic authority, rational-legal authority, state, government, political participation, pluralist model, power-elite model, labor union, union membership rate, wage and salary workers) correctly.
- Name one thing that complicates your position: for Option A, the strongest point the other model makes; for Option B, the strongest point the other side makes about the job.
- Length: roughly 150–250 words if written. You may instead record your post as audio or video (about two minutes) and attach a transcript; both forms are scored by the same rubric.
Your replies — by the second due date (the end of the module week):
- Reply substantively to at least two classmates.
- A substantive reply does more than agree: ask whether a poster is treating power as authority, state the model or side the poster set aside at its full strength, or ask how the poster can tell an employee from an independent contractor. "Nice point!" on its own does not count.
What a strong post looks like:
I chose Option B. A friend delivers groceries through an app, uses her own car, and is paid per order under a contract, so she is an independent contractor, not an employee. Two parts of alienation fit: the app sets her route and pace, and she rarely meets other drivers. But the other side has a real point: she picks her own hours around her classes, and she says that freedom is why she took the job.
Notice how it sorts the worker by the arrangement, applies the concept to how the work is organized, and gives the other side its strongest point. That is the bar.
Participation rubric
This discussion is worth 10 points. The three criteria below look at your initial post and your peer replies.
| Criterion | Strong | Developing | Missing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Quality of the initial post (4 pts) | A clear position on a real decision or a real job, supported by a reason or example tied to how power or work is organized | A position is present, but it is asserted without a reason or the example stays vague | Missing, off-topic, or no reasoning about power or work |
| Use of course concepts (3 pts) | Uses this week's terms precisely, keeping power apart from authority, sorting employee from contractor by the arrangement, and reading any union rate as a rate of workers | Uses a term loosely or with a small error | No course terms, or used incorrectly |
| Engagement with peers (3 pts) | Two or more substantive replies that extend or challenge a classmate's reasoning | One substantive reply, or replies that only agree | No replies, or "I agree" with nothing added |
Post early if you can — the best threads happen when people have time to reply before the second due date.
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