Manuel Castells y la cuestión del poder como capacidad: Investigaciones sistemáticas, 1967-1982

Abstract

In this article we propose a specific approximation to the way in which the concepts of power and capacity are linked in Manuel Castells’ explicit definitions of power in his texts during his Marxist period, corresponding to the years 1967 – 1982. Throughout the article, we will attempt to discover the main theoretical operations, conceptual change movements, as well as the conceptions of power that the Catalan sociologist brings into play from this specific relation. This piece of work reveals the appropriation strategy Castells displays in relation to Poulantzas’ concept of power. This piece of work is in line with current efforts to revalue social theory and power, and the tendency in social science towards the recovery of the question of power as a key concept in general interpretation and as a renewed strategy of disciplinary articulation.