Title: Theorizing contemporary anarchism : solidarity, mimesis and radical social change /
Authors: Janicka, Iwona
Year: 2017
Subjects: Social change; Anarchism
Abstract: The turn of the Millennium demonstrated a fully-fledged revival and fusion of various left-wing social movements with differing agendas. Movements for women's, black, indigenous, LGTB and animal liberation as well as ecological, anti-nuclear and anti-war groups unified against the global capital. Considering the diverse emphases of these movements, is there a philosophical framework that could help us understand their nature and their modes of operation in the 21st century? This book provides a set of conceptual tools offering a theoretical model of 'slow' social transformation, a modality of social change that explicitly differs from the irruptive model of a revolution or a paradigm-changing event. Instead, it proposes the two concepts of mimetic contagion and solidarity with singularity which allow us to understand what is currently happening in the activist milieu. By bringing together some of today's most important thinkers, including Butler, Girard, Badiou, and Sloterdijk this book suggests a philosophical lens to look at the alternative living projects that contemporary left-wing activists undertake in practice.
Contents: FC; Half title; Also available from Bloomsbury; Title; Copyright; Dedication; Contents; Acknowledgements; Abbreviations; Introduction; 1 Universality in Triangulation: Hegel on a Carousel; Hegel's static triad: Universality-particularity-singularity; Butler's dynamic universal: Political performativity; Circulating singularity; Recognition and the question of asymmetry; Where are 'we' in Butler: The question of collectivity; 2 Universality in Mimesis: Structural Failure and Social Transformation; Towards recognition: Performativity as a special case of mimesis; How mimesis produces failure