PANEL 7 / CONCEPTUALIZING AND RESISTING POWER: DOMINATION, STRUCTURE AND AGENCY
CONVENORS: SOFIA ALEXANDRATOS, ELENA ICARDI and INES ZAMPAGLIONE
All inquiries about the panel should be sent to [email protected], [email protected] and [email protected].
Nowadays sexism, racism, economic inequalities and the environmental crisis – all cross-cultural elements of contemporary societies – are acknowledged as pathological phenomena resulting from social relationships of power. Despite the social and institutional attempts to temper gender and class inequalities, racism, and climate change, the persistence and reproduction of these social pathologies show that power is a complex phenomenon, which needs to be clarified and disentangled in its levels and dimensions.
Traditionally, the concept of power has been mainly intended in intersubjective terms, namely, as the oppression by one social group of the needs, capacities, interests, and values of other groups. Nevertheless, critical theory and contemporary accounts of political philosophy, such as neo-republicanism, have been enriching this traditional conception. Accordingly, a great effort has been made to unveil the structural dimension of domination and, on the other hand, to identify a continuity between the individual, intersubjective, and structural mechanisms of power. Disclosing transformative perspectives and acknowledging the possibility of social subjects’ emancipatory potential require, therefore, a multi-layered account of power. Such an account should investigate, firstly, the different levels of reproduction of relationships of domination in non-dualistic terms, dismissing both agentless conceptions of power reproduction and unilaterally agent-relative interpretations of power exercise. Secondly, it should account for the productive and enabling effects of power at both individual, intersubjective, and structural levels.
This panel aims to investigate the multilayered dimensions of power in order to problematize the (re)production of social oppression and domination as well as to disclose transformative perspectives on human society. By putting political and social philosophy in dialogue, it wants to gather theoretical perspectives capable of reconciling how power operates oppressively both intersubjectively and in cultural and economic terms - determining one’s susceptibility to marginalization and exploitation - but can also enable contestation, transformation, and resistance. We welcome proposals related (but not limited) to the following topics:
We welcome submissions from scholars engaging with non-Western traditions/conceptions of power. Submissions from members of the academia belonging to minorities groups are encouraged.
All inquiries about the panel should be sent to [email protected], [email protected] and [email protected].
Nowadays sexism, racism, economic inequalities and the environmental crisis – all cross-cultural elements of contemporary societies – are acknowledged as pathological phenomena resulting from social relationships of power. Despite the social and institutional attempts to temper gender and class inequalities, racism, and climate change, the persistence and reproduction of these social pathologies show that power is a complex phenomenon, which needs to be clarified and disentangled in its levels and dimensions.
Traditionally, the concept of power has been mainly intended in intersubjective terms, namely, as the oppression by one social group of the needs, capacities, interests, and values of other groups. Nevertheless, critical theory and contemporary accounts of political philosophy, such as neo-republicanism, have been enriching this traditional conception. Accordingly, a great effort has been made to unveil the structural dimension of domination and, on the other hand, to identify a continuity between the individual, intersubjective, and structural mechanisms of power. Disclosing transformative perspectives and acknowledging the possibility of social subjects’ emancipatory potential require, therefore, a multi-layered account of power. Such an account should investigate, firstly, the different levels of reproduction of relationships of domination in non-dualistic terms, dismissing both agentless conceptions of power reproduction and unilaterally agent-relative interpretations of power exercise. Secondly, it should account for the productive and enabling effects of power at both individual, intersubjective, and structural levels.
This panel aims to investigate the multilayered dimensions of power in order to problematize the (re)production of social oppression and domination as well as to disclose transformative perspectives on human society. By putting political and social philosophy in dialogue, it wants to gather theoretical perspectives capable of reconciling how power operates oppressively both intersubjectively and in cultural and economic terms - determining one’s susceptibility to marginalization and exploitation - but can also enable contestation, transformation, and resistance. We welcome proposals related (but not limited) to the following topics:
- Structural and non-structural account of domination
- The relation between power and responsibility in the context of structural injustice/domination
- Impersonal and agentless domination
- Structural power and individual agency
- Power in intersectional frameworks
- Power and resistance, from individual to collective struggles
- The relations between structural and interactional power
We welcome submissions from scholars engaging with non-Western traditions/conceptions of power. Submissions from members of the academia belonging to minorities groups are encouraged.
