Power Resources in Theory and Practice: Where to Go from Here

As we approach the end of another decade, it feels appropriate to pause and consider how the power resources approach (PRA) has evolved alongside labour's real-life evolution as a strategic actor across a range of economic, institutional and societal contexts. Just as the actual strategies and actions of workers have grown more sophisticated over time, so too has the PRA become more sophisticated, as scholars continue to refine the concepts comprising this influential theoretical framework (Schmalz, Ludwig and Webster this issue). One of the PRA's great strengths is its emphasis on labour's agency, countering outmoded portrayals of workers and unions as passive victims of structural forces (Bieler, this issue). Another strength of the PRA is its utility for causal analysis, being broad enough to facilitate useful comparisons across multiple cases yet specific enough to explain why an individual case had the outcome it did. Most important is its practical utility: By defining distinct power resources -such as associational, structural, institutional and societal power -and illustrating how they play out through empirical examples -PRA scholars provide guidance to union leaders and labour activists that is specific enough to steer strategic action on a case-by-case basis yet broad enough to prevent reinvention of the wheel for each new dispute.