The York Research Database

The article explores some specific consequences of 'crisis of legitimation' for relations of power. Drawing together sociological concerns over power/knowledge with anthropological understandings about the place of materials in the ordering of relations, the article analyses how authority is legitimated in the context of multiple possibilities for interpretation and conduct. The site of exploration is an ethnography of multi-disciplinary work in a British hospital trust. Developing the notion of 'extension' the article describes how hospital consultants align social practices and cultural materials to (re)accomplish asymmetrical power relations. The article revisits Lyotard's (1984) ideas about 'strong moves' and ends by arguing for greater sociological attention to the place of materials in the ordering of relations.