Quest(ion)s of Anarchist Power: Rethinking Power-To, Power-Over, and Power-With in the Radical Democratic Praxis of Consensus Decision-Making

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dc.contributor.advisorWood, Lesley Julia
dc.creatorHayter, John Matthew Kneale
dc.date.accessioned2017-07-27T13:33:18Z
dc.date.available2017-07-27T13:33:18Z
dc.date.copyright2017-01-11
dc.date.issued2017-07-27
dc.date.updated2017-07-27T13:33:18Z
dc.degree.disciplineSocial & Political Thought
dc.degree.levelDoctoral
dc.degree.namePhD - Doctor of Philosophy
dc.description.abstractIn this dissertation I investigate the theory and practice of power in social movement organizations that use consensus decision-making, a form of deliberation that espouses radically democratic and anarchist political ideals. Over the past several decades consensus decision-making has grown popular in anarchist-inspired North American social movements. From the environmental direct action alliances of the 1970s to the recent Occupy Wall Street movements of 2011-2012, the consensus process has often been idolized as the most radically democratic and anarchist method of decision-making, considered as a way to remove or eradicate power from group deliberation. Contrary to this popular discourse, I will argue that we can think more usefully about consensus decision-making as a specific tool of power rather than a general ideal against power, but only if we understand power more carefully as an essentially neutral concept of collective interaction which can never be removed from any human social relations. In todays North American anarchist and radical democratic discourses the meaning of power is commonly divided into three separate concepts: power-to, power-over, and power-with. These three concepts are treated as distinct and opposed phenomena, based on a dichotomous theoretical opposition between the freedom of individual agency and the constraint of social structure. My contention is that power-to, power-over, and power-with should actually be understood as interrelated concepts concerning the dynamics of human collective action systems. Thinking of power as a concept that describes the dynamics of collective action systems, I ask a double question: What can the theory of power teach us about consensus decision-making? And, how can we study consensus decision-making as a way to elucidate the theory of power? Addressing how this double question can help to build a more careful analysis of power in consensus decision-making, I aim ultimately to contribute to the social theory of power as well as to the praxis of anarchist and radical democratic organization.
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10315/33507
dc.language.isoen
dc.rightsAuthor owns copyright, except where explicitly noted. Please contact the author directly with licensing requests.
dc.subjectPhilosophy
dc.subject.keywordsPower
dc.subject.keywordsPower-to
dc.subject.keywordsPower-over
dc.subject.keywordsPower-with
dc.subject.keywordsAnarchism
dc.subject.keywordsAnarchist
dc.subject.keywordsAuthority
dc.subject.keywordsControl
dc.subject.keywordsPrivilege
dc.subject.keywordsSubjectification
dc.subject.keywordsDomination
dc.subject.keywordsConsensus
dc.subject.keywordsConsensus decision-making
dc.subject.keywordsConsensus decision making
dc.subject.keywordsDemocracy
dc.subject.keywordsDecision making
dc.subject.keywordsDecision-making
dc.subject.keywordsSocial movements
dc.subject.keywordsDirect action
dc.subject.keywordsParallel institutions
dc.subject.keywordsPraxis
dc.subject.keywordsConduct
dc.subject.keywordsAgency
dc.subject.keywordsSystems theory
dc.subject.keywordsPoststructuralism
dc.subject.keywordsPoststructuralist
dc.subject.keywordsCollective action
dc.subject.keywordsStructure
dc.subject.keywordsOrganization
dc.subject.keywordsEgalitarian
dc.subject.keywordsSolidarity
dc.subject.keywordsPrefigurative
dc.subject.keywordsPrefigurative politics
dc.subject.keywordsContentious politics
dc.subject.keywordsDual power
dc.subject.keywordsRadical democracy
dc.subject.keywordsInsurgent democracy
dc.subject.keywordsDeliberative democracy
dc.subject.keywordsAnarchist democracy
dc.subject.keywordsParticipatory democracy
dc.subject.keywordsNew social movements
dc.subject.keywordsClamshell
dc.subject.keywordsDirect action movement
dc.subject.keywordsMovement for a new society
dc.subject.keywordsFood Not Bombs
dc.subject.keywordsOccupy Wall Street
dc.subject.keywordsOccupy
dc.subject.keywordsAlter globalization movement
dc.subject.keywordsAnti-globalization movement
dc.titleQuest(ion)s of Anarchist Power: Rethinking Power-To, Power-Over, and Power-With in the Radical Democratic Praxis of Consensus Decision-Making
dc.typeElectronic Thesis or Dissertation

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