How deep is incumbency? A ‘configuring fields’ approach to redistributing and reorienting power in socio-material change

This paper examines a variety of theories bearing on ‘socio-material incumbency’ and explores methodological implications. The aim is to develop a systematic general approach, which builds on strengths and mitigates weaknesses in prevailing analytical frameworks. A particular priority lies in avoidance of self-acknowledged tendencies in existing theory to ‘reify’ central notions like ‘the regime’. Such pictures may overstate the tractability of...