Abstract I develop the concept of linkages in Social Positioning Theory (SPT). As external non-normative relations between components, linkages shape the ways of acting and organising in communities beyond the positional rights and obligations of components constituted by internal normative relations. Furthermore, I build on the recently formulated concept of the multicomponent to elaborate the role of linkages in facilitating or obstructing position candidacies and occupancies, and thus the (re-)composition of the multicomponent. Linkages offer Social Positioning Theory an ontological basis to integrate ‘material’ power-over relations, which further supports explanations of the pursuit of (positional) powers and associated discrimination.
Manuel Heckel (Mon,) studied this question.