ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates how poststructural approaches contribute to and challenge notions of power developed within the context of feminist theories and political economy. It traces the theoretical shift as a way to explore broader theoretical movements, debates, and convergences that have taken place in social theory across disciplines. The chapter outlines major contributions of systemic theories of power, introducing basic features of poststructuralist approaches, and offering critiques of poststructuralism that have emerged. Focusing particularly on the work of Michel Foucault, it discusses in greater depth alternative notions of power developed in his interpretive analytics and explores how discourse-centered approaches can strengthen political analysis. Poststructural analytics, as expressed in Foucault's work, have lead the author to reconceptualize power in the content of his research and also to rigorously and self-consciously examine power relations within the process of research and representation itself.
