Front cover image for The forms of power : from domination to transformation

The forms of power : from domination to transformation

Examining the ways in which philosophers from Plato onwards have used the concept of power, this work develops a field theory of power that rejects many of the reigning assumptions made about power. Incorporating the insights of feminist theorists, it argues that power has a positive as well as a negative role to play in social relations.
Print Book, English, 1990
Temple University Press, Philadelphia, 1990
x, 253 pages ; 24 cm
9780877226482, 9780877229056, 0877226482, 0877229058
20132562
Acknowledgments Introduction 1. The Problematics of Power Essentially Contested Concepts * The Meanings of "Power" * Analyzing Power-Over * Conclusion 2. The Consensual Model of Power The Ascendancy of Power * Situating Arendt's View * The Plausibility of the Consensual Model * Power and Violence * Conclusion 3. The Power Debate Ontology and Power Theory * The Power Debate * The Basis of the Power Debate * Conclusion 4. Power-Over us Constraint The Ontology of a Social Field * Terminological Remarks * The Attribution of Power-Over as a Discursive Practice * The Ontology of Human Agency * The Definition of Power-Over * Power and Freedom * Conclusion 5. The Articulation of Power Force * Coercive Power * The Productivity of Coercion * Influence and Its Forms * Manipulation * The Typology of Power 6. Structures of Domination Analyzing "Domination" * Lordship and Bondage: Hegel on Domination * Marx and the Hegelian Conception * The Logic of "Good": Nietzsche on Domination * Toward a Theory of Domination * Appendix: Foucault on Domination 7. Situated Social Power Grading and the Student-Teacher Relationship * Advantages of the Situated Conception * The Concept of a Social Alignment * Some Consequences for Social Theory * Conclusion 8. Toward a Dynamic Conception of Social Power Power and Temporality * Constraints on the Dominant Agent * The Power of the Subordinate Agent * Alternative Alignments and Social Change * The Power of a Teacher Reconsidered * Conclusion 9. Transformative Power Mothering and Male Domination * Reevaluating Mothering * Transformative Power and Social Theory * Criticisms of the Feminist Theorists of Power * Conclusion 10. Transformative Power and Social Domination Understanding Socrates * The Problematics of Transformative Power * The Superposition of Power Relationships * Power in Plurality Notes Bibliography of Works Cited Index