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This chapter addresses a theme that social sciences and philosophy have identified as central to the problem of knowledge and society, but lies underdeveloped in discourses of power and resistance. This theme reflects the hitherto camouflaged role of values in theoretical projects which developed notions of resistance. Whilst rationalist attempts to canonize solutions to social problems obscured local struggles and identities, postmodern and poststructuralist solutions to the problem of power fragmented the field of resistance's social compass embracing a form of cultural parochialism. Although insights gained by these approaches cannot be nullified, the limits to their proposals can hardly remain undisputed. What I intend to argue is that a possible channel of illuminating the discourse on resistance needs to rethink the problem of how values shape practices and theoretical models of resistance. The principal aim, therefore, is to highlight common concerns amongst theoretical schools which integrate the role of values in discourses of resistance and to rethink normative coalitions in the face of growing risks and contingencies that characterize the global situation today. In drawing affinities between diverse theoretical strands, this chapter does not gloss over deviations amongst their standpoints, which can often affect decisively the final position endorsed. The point argued is that, despite these differences, the ethical core in those theories remains fundamentally the same, and the deviations can be understood properly, if placed at the required level of abstraction.

DOI: 10.1057/9780230298040_2

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