The entire world is watching as the future of Greece, and with it that of the global economy, is hanging in the balance. As journalists and commentators worry over the prospect of a Greek sovereign default triggering a chain reaction … Continue reading “Greeks on the Move: Capitalism's Wreckage and the Demand for Real Democracy”
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New Periscope Dossier on Violence
Social Text CollectiveBeginning Monday May 24th, and running serially for a week, a new dossier entitled ‘Thinking Through Violence‘ will be appearing on the Social Text website. Check back for essays by Arvind Rajagopal, Banu Bargu, Allen Feldman, Drucilla Cornell, and Mary Louise Pratt.
Introduction
Social Text CollectiveHannah Arendt noted in 1969 that Georges Sorel’s remark in 1906 — that “the problems of violence still remain very obscure” remained true. An additional half-century has elapsed since Sorel made his observation, but his remark remains true. The … Continue reading “Introduction”
Forging Life into a Weapon
banu barguMy remarks are structured around a consideration of four images.These images will, I hope, enable us to confront the question of violence, of a specific kind of violence, by bringing it to us in its (almost) immediate actuality, in … Continue reading “Forging Life into a Weapon”
Politics of Grieving
drucilla cornellIn my work, I have defended a nonviolent ethic through Derrida and Levinas, which begins with the commandment, “thou shall not kill.” But this ethic certainly does not end there. My book The Philosophy of the Limit gives us … Continue reading “Politics of Grieving”
The Becoming Non-State of the State
Allen FeldmanMy ethnographic work in Northern Ireland and South Africa and on the current war on terror has been an engagement with forms of life, communities, subjects, and silenced sovereignties, navigating, drowning, surviving, and dying, within ecotonesof informalized state violence. … Continue reading “The Becoming Non-State of the State”
Violence and Language
mary louise prattIf you work on Latin America then you know that there is a field of study there called “violentology,” and there are specialists whom you call violentólogos, particularly in Colombia, where the question of violence has become a kind … Continue reading “Violence and Language”
Afterword
Social Text CollectiveMichel Foucault observed that, although the head of the king had been cut off, in political theory the king remained in his place.For Foucault, theory did not appear able to think about politics without an organizing center, although in … Continue reading “Afterword”
A Trespasser's Legacy
Balthazar Becker
Work Reviewed: Miyoshi, Masao. Trespasses: Selected Writings. Ed. Eric Cazdyn. Durham: Duke UP, 2010. xxxiii + 344 pp. No obituaries appeared in the major American newspapers when Masao Miyoshi, the author of Accomplices of Silence(1974), As We Saw Them (1979), and Off Center: Power … Continue reading “A Trespasser's Legacy”
On Public Intellectualism in the UK
Tariq JazeelThis feature in today’s The Observer newspaper on Britain’s relationship to ‘public intellectualism’ is at times illuminating, and at times frustrating in the most productive of ways. Indeed, some of my frustration with it connects directly to a theme that … Continue reading “On Public Intellectualism in the UK”
Must We Rebuild the Anthill?: A Letter to/for Japanese Comrades
George CaffentzisDear comrades, We are writing to express our solidarity with you in a time when the pain from the deaths of friends, family and comrades is still raw and the task of shaping a new kind of life out of … Continue reading “Must We Rebuild the Anthill?: A Letter to/for Japanese Comrades”
Launch Party for Social Text 106: "Interspecies"
Social Text CollectivePlease join us to toast the publication of a special issue of Social Text on Interspecies, edited by Julie Livingston and Jasbir K. Puar!
Industries of production and scientific research rely on the use of nonhuman animals and plants, remaking environments, populations, and even genetic information to suit human designs. This issue of Social Text considers the radical implications of questioning the exceptional status of humans among the planet’s species. Responding to growing interest in animal studies and posthumanism, the contributors draw on racial, feminist, queer, postcolonial, and disability theories to probe the diversity of human relationships with other forms of biosocial life. Interspecies queries the politics of traditional species taxonomy and examines the ways humans use the material characteristics of other species to pursue their economic, political, and social aims.
Season of "Arab Revolt" is also a season of "African Revolt"
Michael RalphIn the midst of revolutionary transformations sweeping the “Middle East,” be careful not to overlook a conjoined protest movement stretching across the African continent. In addition to “pro-democracy protests” in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Yemen, Oman, Bahrain, Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya, … Continue reading “Season of "Arab Revolt" is also a season of "African Revolt"”
Democracy in America… and Wisconsin
Russ Castronovo
Full disclosure: I wrote this on my office computer and I sent it to Social Text Online via my university email. To give fair warning, I use “recall,” “protest,” and other words that the Republican Party of Wisconsin latched … Continue reading “Democracy in America… and Wisconsin”
Insecure Times
Ashley Dawson
Under Review: Marc Abélès, The Politics of Survival (Duke University Press, 2010) Kolya Abramsky, Sparking a Worldwide Energy Revolution: Social Struggles in the Transition to a Post-Petrol World(AK Press, 2010) Slavoj Zizek, Living in the End Times (Verso, 2010) Writing about Hollywood disaster … Continue reading “Insecure Times”