Abstract

Whatever the domain in question, the vocabulary of contemporary research cannot nelp but make clear that the major concern is the study of relations of power, domination or authority—terms that, by the way, are often used for one another. Thus, each issue of the journal edited by Pierre Bourdieu, Actes de la recherche en sciences sociales, gives an example of a different method of examining the mechanisms of domination. Is this interest in the phenomenon of power the sign of a return of political analysis to a focal position? Nothing could be less certain.

Look at the way the contemporary intellectual motor functions. One begins from the hypothesis of a super power (grand pouvoir)—the essence of power—which is taken as diffracting itself into multiple regions of the social sphere, taking on the most diverse forms, be they institutional or not.