Identity, interests, and political subjectivity
pp. 225-264
in: , Poststructuralism and after, Berlin, Springer, 2013Abstract
Chapters 5 and 6 put forward a poststructuralist critique and reconstruction of the structure-agency problematic and spelled out its implications for the understanding of affect, power, and domination. Chapter 5 questioned and then radicalized those perspectives that have sought to transcend the privileging of either structure or agency, and I set out an alternative nexus of theoretical categories and logics that can speak more perspicuously to the problem. Central to this reworking is the idea that this perplexing issue cannot be resolved in a purely theoretical or rational fashion, because the problem exists in social reality. Structure-agency is the site of an ineradicable torsion and paradox in social relations that has to be negotiated in different ways depending on the overall goal of the inquiry or the kinds of practical questions we confront. Of course, theoretical therapies can be elaborated that can help us to better characterize, criticize, and evaluate particular empirical phenomena. What is more, I believe that the partial therapies and conceptual strategies that I adumbrated in Chapter 6 on structure, agency, and power enable us to address other issues in social theory. Of particular importance in this regard are questions about identity and subjectivization, and their connection to other notions such as interests, agency, recognition, and justice.