When they vote in January’s primaries, leftists in France must choose entre la peste et la cholera. On 21 May 2002, millions of French people watched with surprise, anger, or disgust as the face of Jean-Marie Le Pen appeared on … Continue reading “What Is the French Left to Do?”
I write not with the expertise of a political scientist or demographer, those emperors of data and partisan, capital ‘P’ politics whose new clothes—AKA ‘big data’-informed poll predictions—have only just been revealed to some (not others) as ruse. I write … Continue reading “Ballot Box as Klan Hood and the Rest of Us in the Wake of the Election of Donald Trump as 45th US President”
On July 6, 2016, St. Anthony police shot Philando Castile during a traffic stop. The police thought his “wide-set nose” matched that of a robbery suspect. For Mr. Castile, this was the forty-sixth and last such stop he would endure … Continue reading “Antigone in St. Paul, Minnesota”
We asked Gus Stadler to recommend some Woody Guthrie songs. He did not fail us. ALL YOU FASCISTS BOUND TO LOSE THE JOLLY BANKER THIS LAND IS OUR LAND (with private property verse) BETTER WORLD A-COMIN’
Nine days after Donald Trump is elected president of the United States, Social Text Online is relaunched. The timing couldn’t be better. Or worse. What to say in times like these, and so soon? Or even, how to phrase the … Continue reading “From the Web Editor”
Work Reviewed: Lorey, Isabell: State of Insecurity: Government of the Precarious New York & London: Verso, 2015. Editor’s Note: What does it mean to make a living, or a life for oneself, today? We live in a moment when corporations … Continue reading “On Precarity and the Freedom from Security”
Volume 31, Number 1 114, Spring 2013 Charlie Samuya Veric Third World Project, or How Poco Failed Tryon P. Woods “Beat It like a Cop”: The Erotic Cultural Politics of Punishment in the Era of Postracialism Denise Ferreira da Silva … Continue reading “New Print Issue: Spring 2013”
Lauren Berlant’s most recent book, Cruel Optimism (Duke UP, 2011), undertakes the ambitious and necessary project of thinking the political present. Cruel Optimism attends closely to what goes undernoticed about living in relation to waning or worn-out models of legibility, sovereignty and sustainability. This dossier assembles … Continue reading “Cruel Optimism: New Social Text Periscope Dossier”
“Ain’t no such thing as halfway crooks…” -Mobb Deep, “Shook Ones,” Infamous Mobb Deep “there are so many different anonymous networks with different terms of use so i keep mixing them up” -Anonymous on Anonymous (#anonops) September 25, 2011 Joseph … Continue reading “Is it a Crime? The Transgressive Politics of Hacking in Anonymous”
Onstage is Instinto, a female trio extraordinaire. The divas are wearing shimmering strapless dresses with high heels. As a salsa beat kicks in, they rap in a lyrical prose, spin on their heels, and sing in three part harmony. This … Continue reading “Made in Havana City”
The historical fact that Athens was the birthplace of democracy has been haunting the crowds assembled for nearly two months in the city’s Syntagma (Constitution) Square, right across from the House of Parliament, protesting undaunted against the government’s incapacity to … Continue reading “Indignant Politics in Athens – Democracy Out of Rage”
Social Text is currently accepting proposals for Periscope, the journal’s curated web forum of illuminating critical opinion on contemporary political and theoretical affairs. Previous Periscopes have focused on topics as diverse as Queer Suicide, the South African World Cup, and … Continue reading “Proposals for Periscope”
