Introduction

This introductory chapter locates the argument of this book within the broader context of the long-standing debates on the relationship between politics and scholarship, or between power and knowledge. It clarifies the non-exclusively oppositional, shifting, and context-dependent relationship between politics and scholarship that the book seeks to develop, juxtaposing it to the widely held “liberal view” of this relationship. The “liberal view” posits the conflicting or contradictory positions accorded to the scholarly and the political. This is a belief that is commonly shared, both in academia and in society more broadly. This chapter argues that this liberal view is only one of several possibilities, but given its hegemonic position, it serves as a major obstacle to the effort to render transparent the power of scholars and scholarship. This chapter also maps out the approaches to power–knowledge analytics to demonstrate the need to factor in the power of scholars and scholarship, and creates, in the process, a pathway to pushing the logic of power–knowledge relations. Finally, it lays out the plan of the book by summarizing the key points discussed in each subsequent chapter.