Rethinking Power and Domination

Abstract

Beginning with the idea that all socio-symbolic orders are marked by a radical contingency that becomes visible in moments of crisis or dislocation, the previous chapter developed a dynamic model of structure and agency to explore the change and sustenance of social practices and systems. Such a model is predicated on the idea that the paradox of structure and agency constitutes an insurmountable fissure at the heart of social reality that cannot be bypassed or transcended in any rational fashion. Nonetheless, by unpicking and reworking the notions of structure, agency, and affect in the existing traditions of theory from a poststructuralist point of view, I put forward a loose grammar of concepts and logics that can enable us to describe, explain, and critically evaluate problematized social phenomena.