Steven Lukes
“To maintain and transmit a value system, human beings are punched, bullied, sent to gaol, thrown into concentration camps, cajoled, bribed, made into heroes… and sometimes even taught sociology”
Steven Lukes is a British political and social theorist. He held positions at Oxford, the London School of Economics, the University of Siena, and the European University before retiring as a professor at New York University in 2021. His contributions to the field have been widely recognised, including his election as a Fellow of the British Academy and the award of an honorary Doctor of Letters from the University of East Anglia.
Lukes is best known for his influential work Power: A Radical View, in which he argues that power operates through three dimensions: decision-making, agenda-setting, and ideological power. His broader academic interests include individualism, moral conflict, rationality, relativism, and the sociology of Durkheim.
“Steven Lukes stirred up an intellectual firestorm.” – Michael Walzer