Showing papers in "Theory in Action in 2019"

(In)Visibilities that Vary: The Production of Aging Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Subjects in Chronic Care

Abstract: Despite the recent emergence of empirical literature on expressions of systemic stigma and discrimination shaping the realities of older lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) adults, particularly those interacting with systems of chronic care, these social conditions are yet to be theorized. Drawing on the theoretical traditions of Foucauldian governmentality and intersectionality, this paper constitutes a preliminary attempt at conceptualizing the production of aging LGBTQ subjects within the context of contemporary chronic care. Whereas governmentality is used to highlight issues of visibility that construct aging sexual and gender minorities as targets of subjugation in systems of chronic care, intersectionality is utilized to theorize variations in these processes of subject formation across subcategories of older LGBTQ adults. The paper concludes with implications of this theoretical analysis for further conceptualization and empirical inquiry, as well as broader systemic change, in the area of LGBTQ aging. [Article copies available for a fee from The Transformative Studies Institute. E-mail address: journal@transformativestudies.org Website: http://www.transformativestudies.org ©2019 by The Transformative Studies Institute. All rights reserved.]

Lenin as an Original Political Theorist, or Not: Debunking the Textbook Interpretation

Abstract: Lars T. Lih’s Lenin Rediscovered: “What Is to Be Done?” in Context, containing new translations of heretofore mangled Russian terms, proves that Lenin was not initially an authoritarian. It elucidates why What Is To Be Done? is more democratic than popularly believed, but The State and Revolution – not analyzed by Lih – is, ironically, less democratic, given its technocratic picture of “the dictatorship of the proletariat,” an outgrowth of Marx’s class-reductionist definition of politics and Engels’ vision of communism as the “administration of things.” This essay reveals what Lenin owed to Kautsky’s democratic Marxism and critiques Lukács’ theoretical justification for “Leninism.” [Article copies available for a fee from The Transformative Studies Institute. E-mail address: journal@transformativestudies.org Website: http://www.transformativestudies.org ©2019 by The Transformative Studies Institute. All rights reserved.]