Hope, Critique, and Utopia
TL;DR: The authors assesses the extent to which the category of hope assists in preserving and redefining the vestiges of utopian thought in critical social theory, arguing that the current philosophical and everyday interest in social hope can be traced to the limited capacity of liberal conceptions of freedom to articulate a vision of social transformation apposite to contemporary suffering and indignity.
Abstract: This paper assesses the extent to which the category of hope assists in preserving and redefining the vestiges of utopian thought in critical social theory. Hope has never had a systematic position among the categories of critical social theory, although it has sometimes acquired considerable prominence. It will be argued that the current philosophical and everyday interest in social hope can be traced to the limited capacity of liberal conceptions of freedom to articulate a vision of social transformation apposite to contemporary suffering and indignity. The background to these experiences is the structural changes associated with the injustices of globalisation, the mobilisation of the capitalist imaginary and the uncertainties of the risk society. The category of hope could assist in sustaining the utopianism of critical theory through con joining normative principles with a temporal orientation. Yet, the paradoxes of the current phase of capitalist modernisation have further denuded notions of...
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TL;DR: The hope boom in anthropological studies as mentioned in this paper suggests that it reflects two converging developments: a sense of increasing unpredictability and crisis, and a lack of political and ideological direction in this situation.
Abstract: This introduction discusses the hope boom in anthropological studies, suggesting that it reflects two converging developments: a sense of increasing unpredictability and crisis, and a sense of lack of political and ideological direction in this situation. We further identify two overall trends in the anthropological literature gathered under the rubric of hope: an emphasis on hopefulness against all odds and one on specific formations of hope and temporal reasoning.
126 citations
Cites background from "Hope, Critique, and Utopia"
...Much work focuses on such questions in epistemological terms (for example, Appadurai 2013; Browne 2005; Miyazaki 2004, 2006; Thompson and Žižek 2013) or as windows on epochal shifts and a late capitalist Zeitgeist (for example, Berlant 2011; Guyer 2007; Zournazi 2002)....
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Book•
01 Jan 2003
TL;DR: In this article, the authors discuss the social revolution of our time and two theories of Democratization: Generative Politics and Positive Welfare, Poverty and Life Values, and Modernity under a Negative Sign: Ecological Issues and Life Politics.
Abstract: Preface. Introduction. 1. Conservatism: Radicalism Embraced. 2. Socialism: The Retreat from Radicalism. 3. The Social Revolutions of Our Time. 4. Two Theories of Democratization. 5. Contradictions of the Welfare State. 6. Generative Politics and Positive Welfare. 7. Positive Welfare, Poverty and Life Values. 8. Modernity under a Negative Sign: Ecological Issues and Life Politics. 9. Political Theory and the Problem of Violence. 10. Questions of Agency and Values. Notes. Index.
118 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, critical theories of subject transformation together with new work on pedagogies of discomfort are brought together to create new ways of opening up possibilities for critical education that respond to neoliberal subjectivities without corresponding to or affirming them.
Abstract: While the need for humanising education is pressing in neoliberal societies, the conditions for its possibility in formal institutions have become particularly cramped. A constellation of factors – the strength of neoliberal ideologies, the corporatisation of universities, the conflation of human freedom with consumer satisfaction, and a wider crisis of hope in the possibility or desirability of social change – make it difficult to apply classical theories of subject-transformation to new work in critical pedagogy. In particular, the growth of interest in pedagogies of comfort (as illustrated in certain forms of ‘therapeutic’ education and concerns about student ‘satisfaction’) and resistance to critical pedagogies suggest that subjectivty has become a primary site of political struggle in education. However, it can no longer be assumed that educators can (or should) liberate students’ repressed desires for ‘humanisation’ by politicising curricula, pedagogy or institutions. Rather, we must work to understand the new meanings and affective conditions of critical subjectivity itself. Bringing critical theories of subject transformation together with new work on ‘pedagogies of discomfort’, I suggest we can create new ways of opening up possibilities for critical education that respond to neoliberal subjectivities without corresponding to or affirming them.
109 citations
Cites background from "Hope, Critique, and Utopia"
...For other accounts of the ‘crisis of hope’ in late-capitalist society, see Bauman (2004), Browne (2005), Giroux (2004, 2007), Habermas (1989), Harvey (2005), Jameson (2004, 2005 and Zournazi (2002, p. 14)....
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TL;DR: In this article, a variety of theories and models of hope are discussed, including those offered by Marcel, Dauenhauer, Bloch, Moltmann, Bovens, Pettit, Snyder, Rorty and Gutierrez.
Abstract: It is widely acknowledged that hoping is an integral part of what it is to be human. The present article strives to make sense of the myriad competing conceptions of hope that have emerged over the past half-century. Two problems with the literature are highlighted. First, discussions of hope tend to take place within rather than between disciplines. Second, hope is often taken to be an undifferentiated experience. In order to address the first problem, the article takes an interdisciplinary approach, drawing on research from the fields of philosophy, anthropology, psychology, theology and politics. In order to address the second problem, the article proposes that hope be regarded as a human universal that can be experienced in different modes. A variety of theories and models of hope are discussed, including those offered by Marcel, Dauenhauer, Bloch, Moltmann, Bovens, Pettit, Snyder, Rorty and Gutierrez. While many of these claim to have identified the characteristics of hope, it is argued that each cap...
107 citations
Cites background from "Hope, Critique, and Utopia"
...For this reason, Browne (2005) is able to distinguish between the appeal of and the appeal to hope, i.e. he highlights differentiated hopeful responses to the injustices of globalization....
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...In broader socio-political terms, Browne (2005) contextualizes the contemporary interest in hope in terms of neo-liberal hegemony and the injustices of globalization....
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a new perspective on contemporary debates about the transformations of work and employment, and their impacts on individuals and communities, by focusing on the writings of Christophe Dejours.
Abstract: This article aims to present a new perspective on contemporary debates about the transformations of work and employment, and their impacts on individuals and communities, by focusing on the writings of Christophe Dejours. Basically, the article attempts to show that Dejours' writings make a significant contribution to contemporary social theory. This might seem like an odd claim to make, since Dejours' main training was in psychoanalysis and his main activity is the clinical, psychiatric study of pathologies linked to work. However, in the course of his career, Dejours has greatly extended this initial clinical interest, and by integrating insights from philosophy and other social sciences, has developed a highly sophisticated and consistent theoretical model of work. Starting from a narrow psychopathological focus, Dejours has gradually developed a full-blown theoretical defence of the centrality of work. The article outlines the main features of Dejours' metapsychological model, and the structuring role...
61 citations
Cites background from "Hope, Critique, and Utopia"
...Neoliberal discourse is thus caught in a contradiction of its own making between its utopian vision of the fully autonomous, self-realized individual and the reality of its politics of fear (Browne, 2006)....
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References
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1,427 citations
Book•
01 Jan 1987
TL;DR: Castoriadis's "The Imaginary Institution of Society" as discussed by the authors is one of the most important works of contemporary European thought, and it is the most original, ambitious, and reflective attempt to think through the liberating mediation of history, society, external and internal nature once again as praxis.
Abstract: "[T]he most original, ambitious, and reflective attempt to think through the liberating mediation of history, society, external and internal nature once again as praxis". -- Ju rgen Habermas, "The Philosophical Discourse of Modernity" "Castoriadis's "The Imaginary Institution of Society" is a work of great power and originality. As a work of social theory, I would argue that it belongs in a class with the writings of Habermas and Arendt". -- Jay Bernstein, University of Essex This is one of the most original and important works of contemporary European thought. First published in France in 1975, it is the major theoretical work of one of the foremost thinkers in Europe today. Castoriadis offers a brilliant and far-reaching analysis of the unique character of the social-historical world and its relations to the individual, to language, and to nature. He argues that most traditional conceptions of society and history overlook the essential feature of the social-historical world, namely that this world is not articulated once and for all but is in each case the creation of the society concerned. In emphasizing the element of creativity, Castoriadis opens the way for rethinking political theory and practice in terms of the autonomous and explicit self-institution of society.
1,412 citations
Book•
01 Jan 1998
TL;DR: Habermas's theory of democracy has at least three features that set it apart from competing positions as mentioned in this paper : it combines a concern with questions of normative justification with an empirical analysis of the social conditions necessary for the realization of democratic institutions.
Abstract: edited by Ciaran Cronin and Pablo De Greiff Since its appearance in English translation in 1996, JA rgen Habermas's Between Facts and Norms has become the focus of a productive dialogue between German and Anglo-American legal and political theorists. The present volume contains ten essays that provide an overview of Habermas's political thought since the original appearance of Between Facts and Norms in 1992 and extend his model of deliberative democracy in novel ways to issues untreated in the earlier work.Habermas's theory of democracy has at least three features that set it apart from competing positions. First, it combines a concern with questions of normative justification with an empirical analysis of the social conditions necessary for the realization of democratic institutions. Second, at the heart of his model is the assertion of an internal relationship between liberalism and democracy. On this account, the rights of the individual that are central to liberalism can be guaranteed only within a constitutional framework that at the same time fosters democratic rights of political participation through the public sphere. Finally, Habermas defends a conception of universal human rights that is not only sensitive to cultural differences but also calls for legal and political institutions that facilitate the cultivation of cultural and religious identities within pluralistic societies.These essays demonstrate the extraordinary power of Habermas's theory of democracy through a further engagement with Rawls's political liberalism and through original contributions to current debates over nationalism, multiculturalism, and the viability of supranational political institutions.
989 citations
Book•
01 Jan 2003
TL;DR: A brief history of white colonial paranoia and the rise of Australian fundamentalism can be found in this article, where the authors discuss the lost art of the well-administered national cuddle and the imaginary of paranoid nationalism.
Abstract: Preface: Camera obscura, or the unbearable lopsidedness of being - Introduction - Transcendental capitalism and the roots of paranoid nationalism - On worrying: the lost art of the well-administered national cuddle - Border dis/order: the imaginary of paranoid nationalism - A brief history of White colonial paranoia - The rise of Australian fundamentalism: reflections of the rule of Ayatollah Johnny - Polluting memories: migration and colonial responsibility in Australia - The class aesthetics of global multiculturalism - Exighophobia/ homorophobia: 'Comes a time we are all enthusiasm' - A concluding fable: the gift of care, or the ethics of pedestrian crossings - Endnotes - Bibliography - Index
615 citations
Book•
13 Feb 1998
TL;DR: In this paper, a western perspective on an eastern intepretation of where north meets south: Pyrenean borderland cultures is presented, and the transformation of the European/Africa frontier is discussed.
Abstract: 1 Nation, state and identity at international borders 2 State formation and national identity in the Catalan borderland during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries 3 A western perspective on an eastern intepretation of where north meets south: Pyrenean borderland cultures 4 The 'new immigration' and the transformation of the European/Africa frontier 5 Transnationalism in California and Mexico at the end of empire 6 National identity on the frontier: Palestinians in the Israeli educational system 7 'Grenzregime': the Wall and its aftermath 8 Transcending the state? Gender and borderline constructions of citizenship in Zimbabwe 9 Borders, boundaries, tradition and state on the Malaysian periphery 10 Markets, morality and modernity in north-east Turkey 11 Imagining 'the south': hybridity, heterotropies and Arabesk on the Turkish Syrian border
354 citations