An Introduction to Power, Multidirectionality and Contingency : Political Struggles Over Representation, Decision-Making and Technology
Abstrakt
This special issue, focusing on different case studies and drawing from different examples, addresses issues of political struggle, contextualized by multidirectionality and contingency. Using different starting and entry points (based, inter alia, on journalism studies, organizational communication, game studies, discourse theory, visual communication), the collection of articles included in this special issue sheds light on the logics of political struggle.
In particular, this special issue allows reflecting on the distinction between struggles over and struggles through, very much in line with Plekhanov's distinction between the means and aims of political struggle, and his argumentation for the alignment of both in socialist strategy. The articles in this special issue demonstrate that struggle can, on the one hand, be associated with conscious acts of re/appropriation or dominance over specific issues, discourses, positions (struggle over), but, on the other hand, also with the means, tactics, strategies through which struggles are waged (struggle through).
Furthermore, the special issue also allows showing that there are different - albeit interconnected - fields over which political struggles are waged, and that there are different mechanisms through which political struggles are organized. The collection offers a snap-shot of the complexity of political struggles, the fields over which the struggles are waged, and the mechanisms that are used to wage these struggles.
Even if many other fields and mechanisms can be distinguished, this special issue hopefully provides an already rich overview of the different fields and mechanisms that play a role in political struggles. Moreover, and even more importantly, this special issue shows the omnipresence and variety of political struggle in contemporary society, and the relevance of this concept for the study of social phenomena in the 21st century.