Synopsis
"Both a comprehensive historical and theoretical overview of the
concept of
power, and a substantive and original contribution to debates in that
literature. . .Clegg has succeeded remarkably well on both counts.
First,
his book is a wide-ranging and nuanced overview and critique of
theories of
power stretching from Hobbes to Foucault. Second, Clegg spends the
last
third of the book presenting an alternative conception of power that
is both
theoretically sophisticated and powerfully insightful. Clegg provides
insightful and evocative critiques of many of the standard debates on
power,
although his reading of Gidden′s structuration theory should be of
particular
interest to communication scholars."
--Communication Theory
"This book can be read in a variety of ways. The early chapters will
serve
very well as a more-than-just-a-textbook guide to the existing
paradigms of
power analysis, while the later sections sketch out an extremely
stimulating
agenda for further work. . . .Clegg has done an excellent job in
bringing out
the relevance of recent French work on power. . . ."
--The Sociological Review
"This important book reopens the debate about power in modern society.
The
book starts where Steven Lukes and Anthony Giddens left the
controversy
several years ago, but Clegg redirects the debate, by
reconceptualizing power
as an organizational phenomenon. Organization provides the "framework
of
power," and without knowledge of this framework power cannot be
adequately
conceptualized. As such, this book invigorates both the debates on
power and
the entire field of organizational studies."
--Gary G. Hamilton, University of California, Davis
"I have read the manuscript and find it most impressive. Using the
giants of
the past--Hobbes and Machiavelli--as a starting point, Clegg presents
an
integrated framework with the giants of the present--Giddens and Luke.
In the
process, Clegg makes some important original contributions to the
development
and use of concepts related to power."
--Richard H. Hall, SUNY, Albany
"An ambitious book, spanning the theoretical issues of sociology from
the most micro to the most macro dimensions of analysis. Clegg′s work
is on
the frontier of current thinking in the social sciences."
--Randall Collins, University of California, Riverside
"This is just what I was looking for: a thorough, balanced, and above
all,
readable account of the central concept of politics which takes us
from
Hobbes through all the major writers to Foucault. It is an admirable
clear
statement of the classics, and an attempt to go beyond them. It will
immediately go in the ′essential reading′ part of my graduate and
undergraduate course lists."
--Ken Newton, University of Essex
"Provides a wealth of information about the modern approaches to power
on a
theoretical plane. It is well written and extremely well documented
and
provides a very useful guideline to the development of modern thinking
in
this area."
--The Alternative Newsletter: Newsletter of the Section of
Alternative Dispute Resolution Association of American Law Schools
"The book not only provides an interesting and readable discussion of
major
texts on power in social theory, but also it provides an interesting
framework for the analysis of power that deserves further attention."
--Accounting Auditing and Accountability
"This book should be of substantial interest to communication
scholars. "
--Quarterly Journal of Speech
"Should be widely adopted as a teaching text: no alternative is so
up-to-
date, or so adept in identifying and interpreting recent developments.
This
is a book which has put itself at the service of the literature, and
as an
analysis of the literature, rather than of what the literature itself
purports to analyse, it must be considered a success."
--Sociology
What are the different frameworks for understanding power which have
been
developed within the social sciences? In particular, how has classical
sociological literature as well as the literature of the last decade
discussed the variety of approaches to power? In Frameworks of Power,
Clegg
provides a comprehensive account of the different approaches to
understanding power and, in the process, presents a fresh synthesis.
This innovative overview opens with the classic literature on power as
expressed by Machiavelli and Hobbes. Clegg then addresses more recent
analyses. Included are the works of American political and social
theorists,
such as Robert Dahl, Peter Bacharach, Morton Baratz, and Talcott
Parsons; the
British sociologists, Steven Luke, Anthony Giddens and Michael Mann;
the
German critical theorist, J_rgen Habermas; and the increasingly
important
contributions of the French school, Michel Foucault, Bruno Latour and
Michel
Callon.
Out of this discussion emerges a new model of "circuits of power,"
drawing on
important recent advances in the sociology of science and the
sociology of
organizations. This approach is then applied to key questions of
comparative
historical sociology: the emergence of the modern state in Western
Europe.
The first to incorporate diverse frameworks for the analysis of power
in a
single volume, Frameworks of Power will be essential reading for
scholars
in the fields of sociology, political science, and organizational
studies.
About the Author
Stewart Clegg is Professor at the University of Sydney in the School of Project Management and the John Grill Institute for Project Leadership and an Emeritus Professor of the University of Technology Sydney.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
