EDITORIAL

摘要

This issue of the journal opens with an article, by Gledhill, which constitutes a statement of the 'state of the art' in political anthropology. This is followed by an article, by Clegg, which examines the 'foundations' of power in organizations. These articles constitute critical engagement with, and review of, the state of power research in their respective disciplines. Both articles engage the specialist in debate on the constitution of power research in an area while, simultaneously, providing the less specialist researcher with a set of guiding principles and directions to orient them. It is intended that these are the first of a number of critical reviews of disciplines that, over time, will cover all the social science disciplines. While of a slightly different register than the rest, the themes that emerge in these articles find resonance in the other articles and reviews. These include ground-breaking research on the social practices of power, the creation of power in everyday life, and the key theoretical debates on the nature of power and domination from both Enlightenment and, so-called, post-modern perspectives, which emerge as contested categories.