Anarchist Studies, Volume 2, 2003 No.1

" This paper argues that power (and the power of the state) is fundamentally concerned with persuasion and that this is interwoven with the production of amenable identities. In considering the techniques by which such identities are set in place, Actor-Network Theory is drawn upon. This perspective is related to such familiar treatments of power as those embodied in Gramsci’s notion of hegemony, Lukes’s three dimensional view and Sharp’s voluntaristic formulation. The following section illustrates the processes of persuasion and identity-construction by looking at how scientists and their spokespersons attempt to attribute a particular sort of identity to ordinary people. This endeavour is tied in with an attempt to legitimate science-in-general and incorporates particular versions of the citizen, democracy and the state. Finally, I will consider some of the implications of the Actor-Network perspective for general anarchist theory and practice."