Domination of Domination Idea: “The Will to Power” in Contemporary Social Theory. Part I.

Abstract

The core idea of this article is that in contemporary sociological and, more generally, social theories the concept of power, and especially in such its variety as domination, plays a key role. Moreover, there is a kind of seizure of the conceptual space in theoretical sociology by power and domination concepts. These latter concepts today claim to be the main explanatory principle of all social life. The author qualifies this theoretical position as a kind of "power determinism" and "power reductionism". This trend can be traced in general theory, as well as in different particular fields of sociology. Conceptual expansion of power and domination may also be seen in the fact that concepts close to them ("force", "violence", "oppression", "coercion", "hegemony", etc.), as well as their antonyms (such as "subordination", "obedience", "subordination", "dependence", "resistance", "disagreement", etc.) are becoming increasingly important. These categories occupy an important place in a number of the most popular social theories of our time (P. Bourdieu, E. Laclau, S. Mouffe, J. Agamben, J. Butler and many others). But it was Foucault who played the main role in substantiating omnipotent and ubiquitous presence of power in social life. He tried to implement Nietzsche's call to turn sociology into a doctrine of power. The author analyzes the nature and intellectual origins of these ideas.