Bob Jessop: States and State Power: A Strategic-Relational Approach

Organized by / organizacija: Centre for labour studies (Centar za radničke studije - CRS, radnickistudiji.org) Seminar: "Capital, the State and European Integration" net.culture club MaMa, Preradovićeva 18, Zagreb, 18.10.2014., 15.30h Moderator: Mislav Žitko Bob Jessop: States and State Power: A Strategic-Relational Approach State theorists have usually attempted to theorize the state but this is a misleading focus that risks treating the state as a simple instrument or machine, a reified apparatus that is primarily a source of constraint on political action, or a more or less rational subject that exercises power. Such positions have been criticized from many alternative theoretical positions as well as proven unhelpful in empirical analyses. One important line of criticism, developed in a range of theoretical perspectives (e.g., Marx, Gramsci, Poulantzas, Foucault, Latour), is to refocus the analysis on the modalities of the exercise of state power considered as a complex social relation. I develop the implications of this strategic-relational perspective and consider its relevance to the transformation of state power in the present phase of imperialism. --- Bob Jessop is a Professor of Sociology at Lancaster University, UK. --- http://radnickistudiji.org/?p=266 Programme of Centre for labour studies is supported by Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung Southeast Europe.