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  • E-2014f Political Ontology-Preprint

    Rights statement: This is the peer reviewed version of the following article:Jessop, B. (2014), Towards a political ontology of state power. The British Journal of Sociology, 65: 481-486. doi:10.1111/1468-4446.12087 which has been published in final form at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1468-4446.12087 This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance With Wiley Terms and Conditions for self-archiving.

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Towards a political ontology of state power: A comment on Colin Hay's article

Research output: Contribution to Journal/MagazineJournal articlepeer-review

Published
<mark>Journal publication date</mark>09/2014
<mark>Journal</mark>British Journal of Sociology
Issue number3
Volume65
Number of pages6
Pages (from-to)481-486
Publication StatusPublished
<mark>Original language</mark>English

Abstract

This article offers some critical realist, strategic-relational comments on Colin Hay's proposal to treat the state as an 'as-if-real' concept. The critique first develops an alternative account of ontology, which is more suited to analyses of the state and state power; it then distinguishes the 'intransitive' properties of the real world as an object of investigation from the 'transitive' features of its scientific investigation and thereby provides a clearer understanding of what is at stake in 'as-if-realism'; and it ends with the suggestion that a concern with the modalities of state power rather than with the state per se offers a more fruitful approach to the genuine issues raised in Hay's article and in his earlier strategic-relational contributions to political analysis.

Bibliographic note

This is the peer reviewed version of the following article:Jessop, B. (2014), Towards a political ontology of state power. The British Journal of Sociology, 65: 481-486. doi:10.1111/1468-4446.12087 which has been published in final form at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1468-4446.12087 This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance With Wiley Terms and Conditions for self-archiving.