The Architecture of Power
Influencing the systems that influence people
Power rarely appears where decisions are made. It flows through beliefs, institutions, and agendas long before anyone argues or votes. The Architecture of Power reveals how influence moves through social structures, shaping who leads, who follows, and what feels inevitable. Once you can see it, change becomes possible.
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About
About the Book
Why do unwanted outcomes keep returning even after people, policies, or priorities change? The Architecture of Power gives readers a practical way to see the arrangements that make such outcomes durable and to identify where they may be changed.
The book is written for professionals who carry responsibility without decisive formal authority: architects, engineers, product and project leaders, internal change agents, and others who must influence systems they cannot command.
The title expresses the book's central perspective: power has an architecture. Outcomes are shaped not only by individuals but by arrangements of people, institutions, beliefs, objects, and material resources. Whether deliberately designed or gradually formed, these arrangements contain recurring elements and relationships that can be examined, mapped, and redesigned.
Part I introduces the Power Loop, a model of how power arrangements reproduce outcomes, and the Power Canvas, a diagnostic tool for mapping them. Its three application modes (Landscape Mapping, Phenomenon Tracing, and Conflict Analysis) help readers diagnose an arrangement and, where useful, identify candidate points of structural intervention without treating diagnosis as an action plan.
Part II begins from that diagnosis. It presents dozens of tactics for reshaping power landscapes from different positions, accounting for the access and constraints associated with each position.
Disclaimer
This edition contains Part I only, following the “publish early, publish often” approach.
Part II is currently in progress and is scheduled for release in October or November 2026.
You’ll be notified automatically when the updated edition becomes available. All updates are included at no additional cost.
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Author
About the Author
Yevgen Nebesov is a systems architect based in Bruchsal, Germany. He works at the intersection of software architecture and organizational dynamics, bringing a political perspective into a traditionally technical discipline. His work focuses on how power operates in sociotechnical systems—through artifacts, structures, and processes rather than personalities. He writes and speaks about the architecture of power and how it can be understood and engaged.
Beyond his consultancy work, Yevgen is involved in non-profit initiatives that cultivate technical communities in his region, including the organization of IT meetups and tech conferences.
Contents
Table of Contents
About the Book
Preface
- First: The Gap Between Knowledge and Action
- Second: The Limits of Authority
- Third: The Persistence of Institutions
Chapter 0. Introduction
- When Good Work Is Not Enough
- Three Misconceptions About Power
- Part I: The Architecture of Power
- Part II: Engaging Power
Chapter 1. What Is Power?
- One Word, Many Phenomena
- Power Without a Single Essence
- When Power Enters the Explanation
- Changing the Landscape
- The Landscape of Power
Chapter 2. Actants: How Things Carry Power
- How Actants Acquire Force
- Five Ways Actants Carry Power
- Same Actant, Different Work
- Historical Breakout: The Enuma Elish
- Conclusion
Chapter 3. The Power Loop
- The Six Domains
- Eight Relationships
- Different Tempos
- How the Loop Produces Visible Outcomes
- Agency Without Formal Authority
- Conclusion
Chapter 4. Beliefs: Stabilized Meaning
- How Beliefs Divide a Conflict
- Ontological Beliefs: What Exists?
- Epistemic Beliefs: What Is Accepted as True?
- Social Order Beliefs: What Is Proper?
- Teleological Beliefs: What Are We Moving Toward?
- Identity Beliefs: Who Are We?
- How Belief Architectures Reinforce and Change
- Beliefs in the Power Loop
- Conclusion
Chapter 5. Institutions: Stabilized Behavior
- How an Arrangement Becomes Institutional
- Roles: Who May Act
- Rules: What Is Permitted or Required
- Rituals: What Recurs
- How Institutions Hold
- What Carries an Institution
- Conclusion
Chapter 6. Agendas: Stabilized Attention
- The Four Dimensions of an Agenda
- What Shapes an Agenda
- Agendas and Actants
- When Agenda Power Is at Work
- Conclusion
Chapter 7. Decisions: Stabilized Commitment
- What Makes a Choice a Decision
- The Anatomy of a Decision
- Decision Substance
- Decision Infrastructure
- When the Dimensions Do Not Align
- How Decisions Are Pre-Shaped
- Decisions and Actants
- When No New Commitment Emerges
- Conclusion
Chapter 8. Events: Stabilized Visibility
- Occurrence and Registration
- Temporality
- Events and Actants
- The Politics of Registration
- From Decisions to Events
- Conclusion
Chapter 9. Narratives: Stabilized Interpretation
- What Makes an Account a Narrative
- How Narratives Take Shape
- Narratives and Beliefs
- The Five Jobs
- Narrative Force and Evidentiary Support
- Narratives and Actants
- Conclusion
Chapter 10. Mapping Power: The Power Canvas
- When the Power Canvas Is Useful
- Framing the Inquiry
- Three Power Canvas Application Modes
- Building a Selective Map
- The Six Domains at a Glance
- From Map to Diagnosis
- Appendix: Full Power Canvas Questionnaire
Chapter 11. Landscape Mapping: The World of Luxury
- Introduction
- Specifying the Inquiry
- Beliefs: Making Difference Real
- Institutions: Making Distinction Repeatable
- Agendas: Organizing the Field’s Attention
- Material and Economic Limits
- Reading the Canvas
- Conclusion
Chapter 12. Phenomenon Tracing: The Kellers’ Recurring Evening Conflict
- Frame the Inquiry
- Events: The Evening That Keeps Returning
- Decisions: A Renegotiation Disguised as a Rule
- Agendas and Institutions: Why the Wider Question Arrives Too Late
- Narratives: How Tonight Prepares Tomorrow
- Synthesis: Reading the Kellers’ Power Canvas
- Conclusion
Chapter 13. Conflict Analysis: The School Street in the Car-First City
- Introduction
- Specifying the Inquiry
- Beliefs: Two Different Streets
- Institutions: The Asymmetry Behind the Conflict
- Agendas: What the City Is Built to Notice
- Decisions: Where the Conflict Appears to Live
- Events: One Incident or an Accumulation
- Narratives: The Fight Over Realism and Responsibility
- Reading the Canvas
- Conclusion
Part I Conclusion. Power Has an Architecture
- The Power Loop
- The Power Canvas
- From Diagnosis to Intervention
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