
The Circular Structure of Power
Politics, Identity, Community
Torben Bech Dyrberg(Author)
Verso Books (Publisher)
Published on 17. June 1997
Book
Hardback
306 pages
978-1-85984-846-3 (ISBN)
Article exhausted; check for reprint
Description
Few concepts in social theory have been used so extravagantly in recent years as the notion of power. Yet despite its inflated presence, the term is still unclear and undertheorized. In The Circular Structure of Power, Torben Dyrberg rises to the challenge of conceptualizing power through a philosophical examination of its uses in contemporary social theory.
Drawing on the insights of Michel Foucoult, Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe, Dyrberg brings this continental tradition into a creative dialogue with the Anglo-American tradition represented by figures such as Steven Lukes, William Connolly, Peter Bachrach and Morton Baratz. Moreover, Dyrberg moves from such abstract considerations to their implications for political and democratic theory through an examination of the work of thinkers as diverse as Robert Dahl, John Rawls, Juergen Habermas and Nicos Poulantzas. Simultaneously engaging with and defying many of the dominant definitions of power, Torben Dyrberg destabilizes and undermines the conventional distinctions and polarities through which power is usually understood. The new perspective offered to us by this investigation is one which goes beyond the assumption that power can be based on and derived from either agency or structure, as if these categories themselves were not somehow constituted by power.
Drawing on the insights of Michel Foucoult, Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe, Dyrberg brings this continental tradition into a creative dialogue with the Anglo-American tradition represented by figures such as Steven Lukes, William Connolly, Peter Bachrach and Morton Baratz. Moreover, Dyrberg moves from such abstract considerations to their implications for political and democratic theory through an examination of the work of thinkers as diverse as Robert Dahl, John Rawls, Juergen Habermas and Nicos Poulantzas. Simultaneously engaging with and defying many of the dominant definitions of power, Torben Dyrberg destabilizes and undermines the conventional distinctions and polarities through which power is usually understood. The new perspective offered to us by this investigation is one which goes beyond the assumption that power can be based on and derived from either agency or structure, as if these categories themselves were not somehow constituted by power.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 224 mm
Width: 145 mm
Thickness: 25 mm
Weight
513 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-85984-846-3 (9781859848463)
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Book
06/1997
Verso Books
€28.00
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Persons
Torben Bech Dyrberg received his doctorate at Essex University and is currently a lecturer at Roskilde University, Denmark.