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Privileging and Affecting Agency

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Privilege, Agency and Affect

Abstract

In a welcome move away from the ‘romance of resistance’, as Lila Abu-Lughod (1990) termed the urge many scholars feel to study the oppressed and their efforts to resist their own subjugation, the contributors to this volume have chosen to study the privileged and the workings of their power. In particular, writers have pointed to the important interconnections among privilege, affect and agency. In the brief remarks that follow, I will comment on each of these three concepts in turn, as I believe that one of our most essential, if difficult, tasks as scholars is to define our key terms. While there is some variation in how the contributors to this volume use and link the concepts of privilege, affect and agency, these comments will, I hope, help readers situate these contributions in a larger body of theoretical scholarship. Following the discussions about each of the three terms, I will raise a few final questions for readers to ponder in reference to the volume’s chapters.

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Authors
  1. Laura M. Ahearn
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© 2013 Laura M. Ahearn

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Ahearn, L.M. (2013). Privileging and Affecting Agency. In: Privilege, Agency and Affect. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137292636_14

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