The Power Paradox

In drawing attention to the question of power, Anna Bennett shows that this has important consequences for our social existence and indeed for the manner in which we understand ourselves as subjects capable of resisting dangerous political relations. This research is valuable in showing how even discourses claiming to resist state power formations endorse a repressive view of power. The latter - ironically - limits how resistance can be conceived.-Mahmut Mutman, professor in the Department of Cinema and Television, director of the M.A. Program in Cultural Studies, Istanbul Sehir University Anna Bennett offers a creative and defensible intervention into an expanding debate that has been generated by sociological work on power.-George Pavlich, professor of law and sociology, University of Alberta, Canada

The Power Paradox reveals how mainstream views of power restrict the conceptual insights needed to resolve conflict. Bennett identifies fascinating contradictions within discourses of power and relational dynamics, acknowledging the enduring quandary of power struggles: we are all implicated within them.The Power Paradox: A Toolkit for Analyzing Conflict and Extremism reveals how mainstream views of power restrict the conceptual insights needed to resolve conflict. Anna Bennett insightfully explores Michel Foucault’s work on power and discourse in order to advance conceptual and contextual tools for understanding power dynamics. Through an examination of a range of extremist, terrorist, and counter-terrorist rhetoric, as well as various theories of power, Bennett analyzes the widespread problems associated with assuming that power is only repressive and competitive. This limited view reinforces — often unwittingly — divisive dynamics and stubborn polemics, which serve to continue conflict. By offering a comprehensive and constructive view of power struggles, The Power Paradox argues that power is a relational dynamic. Bennett identifies fascinating contradictions within discourses of power and relational dynamics, acknowledging the enduring quandary of power struggles: we are all implicated within them.