Constituent Imagination: ένα βιβλίο που ενώνει τη θεωρία με τη πολιτική πράξη, την έρευνα με την αντίσταση

Militant Investigations// Cοllective Theorization

Edited by Stevphen Shukaitis & David Graeber with Erika Biddle

From the ivory tower to the barricades! Radical intellectuals explore the relationship between research and resistance.

What is the relationship of radical theory to movements for social change? In a world where more and more global struggles are refusing vanguard parties and authoritarian practices, does the idea of the detached intellectual, observing events from on high, make sense anymore? In this powerful and unabashedly militant collection, over two dozen academic authors and engaged intellectuals--including Antonio Negri and Colectivo Situaciones--provide some challenging answers. In the process, they redefine the nature of intellectual practice itself.

Includes materials from Brian Holmes * Ben Holtzman // Craig Hughes // Kevin Van Meter * Antonio Negri * Colectivo Situaciones * Gavin Grindon * Maribel Casas-Cortes + Sebastian Cobarrubias * Angela Mitropolous * Jack Bratich * Harry Halpin * Jeff Juris * Gaye Chan + Nandita Sharma * Ben Shepard * Kirsty Robertson * Bre * Anita Lacey * Michal Osterweil + Graeme Chesters * Dave Eden * Uri Gordon * Ashar Latif + Sandra Jeppesen

________

Just as we use narratives to construct and deconstruct our social world, so narratives about forms of politics open up or delimit possibilities for organization. But the relation of radical academics and intellectuals and the social movements we work with (or more often talk about with little real connection) has had a tenuous and not always positive history. Far too often radical theorists have used their knowledge or ideas to claim leadership roles and positions of power within movements, attempting to control and direct through vanguard structures, leading to many problems despite their positive intentions. The practices of the interwoven strands of the global justice movement, creating and enacting horizontal networks instead of top-down structures like states, parties, or corporation, demand that radical theorists and academics critically rethink their role in and relation to movements, and the nature of intellectual practice itself.

Constituent Imagination was released by AK Press in May 2007. For further information and updates will be posted in this site as they become available. Interested individuals are also encouraged to check out the "Inscribing Organized Resistance" of the journal ephemera, which grew out of this project.

 

http://www.constituentimagination.net
info [at] constituentimagination [dot] net

technorati tags:constituent, imagination, radical, research, politics

Blogged with Flock