Abolishing structural domination: US Reconstruction and the double bind of emancipation

Abstract

What does it take to abolish structural domination? If domination is structural, then it can only be eliminated by the transformation or abolition of structures. For this to happen, agents advantaged by existing structures will often have to be brought under a form of power that lays beyond their control. Defeating domination therefore seems to require the embrace of dominating power. I call this dilemma the double bind of emancipation. To illustrate, I turn to debates regarding land confiscation during the Reconstruction era in the United States (1865–1877). Confiscation was intended to destroy the material bases of planter power and guarantee formerly enslaved people economic independence. But it would also entail subjecting planters to uncontrolled power. To address the double bind, I argue emancipation must be guided by a social theory of domination. Emancipation from structural domination requires identifying and eliminating the conditions that reproduce domination over time.