Culture/power/history: A Reader in Contemporary Social TheoryNicholas B. Dirks, Geoff Eley, Sherry B. Ortner Princeton University Press, 1994 - 621 pages The intellectual radicalism of the 1960s spawned a new set of questions about the role and nature of "the political" in social life, questions that have since revolutionized nearly every field of thought, from literary criticism through anthropology to the philosophy of science. Michel Foucault in particular made us aware that whatever our functionally defined "roles" in society, we are constantly negotiating questions of authority and the control of the definitions of reality. Such insights have led theorists to challenge concepts that have long formed the very underpinnings of their disciplines. By exploring some of the most debated of these concepts--"culture," "power," and "history"--this reader offers an enriching perspective on social theory in the contemporary moment. |
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... claims to being " comprehensive , " for there is no " ground " to be covered in the usual sense , no clearly delimited field to survey . The book brings together some influences and exemplifications , drawn mainly from the haphazardly ...
... investigation . Finally , a central aspect of the concept of culture has been the claim of relative coherence and internal consistency — a " system of symbols , " a " struc- ture of relations . " But an intriguing line of III.
... claim to represent " the people . " Such move- ments often themselves become removed from everyday experience , their members coming to see popular behavior as something to be educated , im- proved , disciplined . At the same time , the ...
... claims to autonomy . This is not to say that Foucault ignores the state , only perhaps that he appreciates how misleading its obviousness can be . Indeed , Foucault reads the sinuous and subtle operations of power back into the state ...
... claims , practice theory is nothing less than a theory of history ( thick history ? ) , a theory " of how social beings , with their diverse motives and their diverse intentions , make and transform the world in which they live ...
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Culture/power/history: A Reader in Contemporary Social Theory Nicholas B. Dirks,Geoff Eley No preview available - 1994 |