Of Words and Things

Abstract

■ This article responds to Williams' recent critique within this journal of a Foucault-inspired perspective on resistance, espoused by myself and others, that seeks to collapse the distinction between power and resistance. Drawing on ethnographic research with alternative globalization activists in France, Williams observes that his informants tend to describe their activities as a self-conscious attempt to gain `autonomy' from something they explicitly label `power' and thus contests my view of resistance as itself a function of power. I suggest, however, that Williams' critique argues past my analysis, for it fails to recognize the conceptual and epistemological differences involved in competing definitions of the term `power' and ignores the fact that my position was primarily intended to draw attention to the important issue of the origin of resistance, efforts largely neglected by research to date, Williams' included.