Culture/power/history: A Reader in Contemporary Social TheoryNicholas B. Dirks, Geoff Eley, Sherry B. Ortner 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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... the parties , whatever else they may do , are constantly negotiating questions of power , authority , and the control of the definitions of reality . Second , there is the sense that everyday life and 4 INTRODUCTION .
... reality . " History . One of the most obvious changes in the field of anthropology in recent years is the extent to which the field has been moving in a historical direction . Only slightly less obviously , history has become ...
... realities , but are themselves products of cul- tural assumptions . Moreover , there is a growing tendency to move culture out of the realm of the exotic custom , the festival , the ritual , and the like and into the center of the ...
... reality whatsoever . Thus we try to high- light efforts to understand the ways in which the subject is culturally and historically constructed in different times and places , as a being with a partic- ular kind of affective organization ...
... reality of the subject entirely ( the early poststructuralist move ) or by moving into a strong constructionist posi- tion . But once again , Alcoff points out , the problem of the acting subject immediately rears its head : " And here ...
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Culture/power/history: A Reader in Contemporary Social Theory Nicholas B. Dirks,Geoff Eley No preview available - 1994 |