David Howarth
- Published in print:
- 1998
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198292371
- eISBN:
- 9780191600159
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198292376.003.0012
- Subject:
- Political Science, Reference
An overview of contributions to the development of discourse theoretical approaches in social science from the work of Althusser, Lacan, Derrida, Foucault, Laclau, and Mouffe. Particular attention is ...
More
An overview of contributions to the development of discourse theoretical approaches in social science from the work of Althusser, Lacan, Derrida, Foucault, Laclau, and Mouffe. Particular attention is given to the concepts of signification, antagonisms, political subjectivity, agency, hegemony, the hermeneutical tradition in social science, and how to apply deconstruction methods.Less
An overview of contributions to the development of discourse theoretical approaches in social science from the work of Althusser, Lacan, Derrida, Foucault, Laclau, and Mouffe. Particular attention is given to the concepts of signification, antagonisms, political subjectivity, agency, hegemony, the hermeneutical tradition in social science, and how to apply deconstruction methods.
Oliver Marchart
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748624973
- eISBN:
- 9780748672066
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748624973.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
This book, a wide-ranging overview of the emergence of post-foundationalism and a survey of the work of its key contemporary exponents, presents the first systematic coverage of the conceptual ...
More
This book, a wide-ranging overview of the emergence of post-foundationalism and a survey of the work of its key contemporary exponents, presents the first systematic coverage of the conceptual difference between ‘politics’ (the practice of conventional politics: the political system or political forms of action) and ‘the political’ (a much more radical aspect which cannot be restricted to the realms of institutional politics). It is also an introductory overview of post-foundationalism and the tradition of ‘left Heideggerianism’: the political thought of contemporary theorists who make frequent use of the idea of political difference: Jean-Luc Nancy, Claude Lefort, Alain Badiou and Ernesto Laclau. After an overview of current trends in social post-foundationalism and a genealogical chapter on the historical emergence of the difference between the concepts of ‘politics’ and ‘the political’, the work of individual theorists is presented and discussed at length. Individual chapters are presented on the political thought of Jean-Luc Nancy (including Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe), Claude Lefort, Alain Badiou, and Ernesto Laclau (including Chantal Mouffe). Overall, the book offers an elaboration of the idea of a post-foundational conception of politics.Less
This book, a wide-ranging overview of the emergence of post-foundationalism and a survey of the work of its key contemporary exponents, presents the first systematic coverage of the conceptual difference between ‘politics’ (the practice of conventional politics: the political system or political forms of action) and ‘the political’ (a much more radical aspect which cannot be restricted to the realms of institutional politics). It is also an introductory overview of post-foundationalism and the tradition of ‘left Heideggerianism’: the political thought of contemporary theorists who make frequent use of the idea of political difference: Jean-Luc Nancy, Claude Lefort, Alain Badiou and Ernesto Laclau. After an overview of current trends in social post-foundationalism and a genealogical chapter on the historical emergence of the difference between the concepts of ‘politics’ and ‘the political’, the work of individual theorists is presented and discussed at length. Individual chapters are presented on the political thought of Jean-Luc Nancy (including Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe), Claude Lefort, Alain Badiou, and Ernesto Laclau (including Chantal Mouffe). Overall, the book offers an elaboration of the idea of a post-foundational conception of politics.
Warren Breckman
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231143943
- eISBN:
- 9780231512893
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231143943.003.0005
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Political Philosophy
This chapter examines the movement from the symbolic to a desymbolization that opens the door to political voluntarism by focusing on Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe's 1985 book Hegemony and ...
More
This chapter examines the movement from the symbolic to a desymbolization that opens the door to political voluntarism by focusing on Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe's 1985 book Hegemony and Socialist Theory, where they sought to restore the theoretical dignity of Marxism by articulating a “post-Marxism without apologies.” Laclau and Mouffe's post-Marxism belongs to the intellectual history of France after 1968. In Hegemony and Socialist Theory, they reformulate proletarian dialectics into a theory that explicitly acknowledges the power of the symbolic as well as its debt to Claude Lefort's theory of democracy. Laclau's subsequent explorations and criticisms of deconstructionist philosophy and of Lacanian psychoanalysis are shown to be directed by his and Mouffe's concern to understand how radical politics can find its place in a world whose institution is ultimately symbolic and in which no agent or actor comparable to the dialectical proletariat can—or should—be imagined. An early ally in this search was Slavoj Žižek, who argues that “universality” is complicit with capitalist domination.Less
This chapter examines the movement from the symbolic to a desymbolization that opens the door to political voluntarism by focusing on Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe's 1985 book Hegemony and Socialist Theory, where they sought to restore the theoretical dignity of Marxism by articulating a “post-Marxism without apologies.” Laclau and Mouffe's post-Marxism belongs to the intellectual history of France after 1968. In Hegemony and Socialist Theory, they reformulate proletarian dialectics into a theory that explicitly acknowledges the power of the symbolic as well as its debt to Claude Lefort's theory of democracy. Laclau's subsequent explorations and criticisms of deconstructionist philosophy and of Lacanian psychoanalysis are shown to be directed by his and Mouffe's concern to understand how radical politics can find its place in a world whose institution is ultimately symbolic and in which no agent or actor comparable to the dialectical proletariat can—or should—be imagined. An early ally in this search was Slavoj Žižek, who argues that “universality” is complicit with capitalist domination.
Oliver Marchart
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748624973
- eISBN:
- 9780748672066
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748624973.003.0007
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
The assumption that the political has been systematically ‘absorbed’ by the social places the Laclauian enterprise in the framework of theories that share Carl Schmitt's neutralisation thesis and ...
More
The assumption that the political has been systematically ‘absorbed’ by the social places the Laclauian enterprise in the framework of theories that share Carl Schmitt's neutralisation thesis and Hannah Arendt's colonisation thesis. However, no pessimistic or even fatalistic conclusions as to the irreversibility of this absorption or enclosure of the political in the ‘iron cage’ of an increasingly bureaucratised and managed society are drawn. How does Ernesto Laclau proceed about showing the primacy of the political? And how does he define the political and the social in the first place? In Hegemony and Socialist Strategy, after having deconstructed the history of Marxism in a remarkable tour-de-force, Laclau and Chantal Mouffe start again building their theory of politics as hegemony by renouncing the conception of ‘society’ as founding totality of its partial processes. Laclau relates the difference between the social and the political to Edmund Husserl's distinction between sedimentation and reactivation. Laclau's theory has to be located at the antagonistic end of the scale of social post-foundationalism.Less
The assumption that the political has been systematically ‘absorbed’ by the social places the Laclauian enterprise in the framework of theories that share Carl Schmitt's neutralisation thesis and Hannah Arendt's colonisation thesis. However, no pessimistic or even fatalistic conclusions as to the irreversibility of this absorption or enclosure of the political in the ‘iron cage’ of an increasingly bureaucratised and managed society are drawn. How does Ernesto Laclau proceed about showing the primacy of the political? And how does he define the political and the social in the first place? In Hegemony and Socialist Strategy, after having deconstructed the history of Marxism in a remarkable tour-de-force, Laclau and Chantal Mouffe start again building their theory of politics as hegemony by renouncing the conception of ‘society’ as founding totality of its partial processes. Laclau relates the difference between the social and the political to Edmund Husserl's distinction between sedimentation and reactivation. Laclau's theory has to be located at the antagonistic end of the scale of social post-foundationalism.
Jon Beasley-Murray
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780816647149
- eISBN:
- 9781452945941
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816647149.003.0002
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Latin American Studies
This chapter examines hegemony theory and cultural studies, with particular emphasis on their shared populism. It begins by defining and historicizing the field of cultural studies before turning to ...
More
This chapter examines hegemony theory and cultural studies, with particular emphasis on their shared populism. It begins by defining and historicizing the field of cultural studies before turning to the Argentine theorist Ernesto Laclau and the development of his hegemony theory, suggesting that it simply mimics the logic of populism. It then considers the relationship between populism and the state by focusing on Argentina to show how both hegemony theory and cultural studies repeat the populist sleight of hand in which a purported anti-institutionalism in fact enables the state apparently to disappear. It argues that hegemony stands in for politics, and screens off the ways in which states anchor social order through habituation, under the guise of a fictional social contract. It also offers an alternative account of the Argentine Peronism from which Laclau’s theory arises.Less
This chapter examines hegemony theory and cultural studies, with particular emphasis on their shared populism. It begins by defining and historicizing the field of cultural studies before turning to the Argentine theorist Ernesto Laclau and the development of his hegemony theory, suggesting that it simply mimics the logic of populism. It then considers the relationship between populism and the state by focusing on Argentina to show how both hegemony theory and cultural studies repeat the populist sleight of hand in which a purported anti-institutionalism in fact enables the state apparently to disappear. It argues that hegemony stands in for politics, and screens off the ways in which states anchor social order through habituation, under the guise of a fictional social contract. It also offers an alternative account of the Argentine Peronism from which Laclau’s theory arises.
Judith Renner
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780719088025
- eISBN:
- 9781781705872
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719088025.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
This book offers a new and critical perspective on the global reconciliation technology by highlighting its contingent and highly political character as an authoritative practice of post-conflict ...
More
This book offers a new and critical perspective on the global reconciliation technology by highlighting its contingent and highly political character as an authoritative practice of post-conflict peacebuilding. After retracing the emergence of the reconciliation discourse from South Africa to the global level, the book demonstrates how implementing reconciliation in post-conflict societies is a highly political practice which entails potentially undesirable consequences for the post-conflict societies to which it is deployed. Inquiring into the example of Sierra Leone, the book shows how the reconciliation discourse brings about the marginalization and neutralization of political claims and identities of local populations by producing these societies as being composed of the ‘victims’ and ‘perpetrators’ of past human rights violations which are first and foremost in need of reconciliation and healing.Less
This book offers a new and critical perspective on the global reconciliation technology by highlighting its contingent and highly political character as an authoritative practice of post-conflict peacebuilding. After retracing the emergence of the reconciliation discourse from South Africa to the global level, the book demonstrates how implementing reconciliation in post-conflict societies is a highly political practice which entails potentially undesirable consequences for the post-conflict societies to which it is deployed. Inquiring into the example of Sierra Leone, the book shows how the reconciliation discourse brings about the marginalization and neutralization of political claims and identities of local populations by producing these societies as being composed of the ‘victims’ and ‘perpetrators’ of past human rights violations which are first and foremost in need of reconciliation and healing.
Judith Renner
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780719088025
- eISBN:
- 9781781705872
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719088025.003.0002
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
Chapter 1 sets out to develop the theoretical framework for the book‘s undertaking. It outlines a discourse theoretical approach for the critical analysis of normative change which builds ...
More
Chapter 1 sets out to develop the theoretical framework for the book‘s undertaking. It outlines a discourse theoretical approach for the critical analysis of normative change which builds specifically, but not exclusively, on the discourse theory developed by Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe. The chapter argues that Laclau and Mouffe‘s concepts of the destabilisation (dislocation) of discourses and their (re)construction through hegemonic struggles, provide useful tools to reconstruct processes of normative change. Moreover, the concepts of discourse and its constitution around a particular nodal point or empty universal are helpful to analyse in detail the ways in which (normative) meaning is produced and temporarily stabilized in relational systems of signification. The chapter also fleshes out the concept of the power and productivity of discourses which is central for a critical inquiry into the performance of social meanings. It shows how to question the empirical validity of social reality and examine the ways in which discourses produce one and simultaneously repress specific interpretations of the social worldLess
Chapter 1 sets out to develop the theoretical framework for the book‘s undertaking. It outlines a discourse theoretical approach for the critical analysis of normative change which builds specifically, but not exclusively, on the discourse theory developed by Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe. The chapter argues that Laclau and Mouffe‘s concepts of the destabilisation (dislocation) of discourses and their (re)construction through hegemonic struggles, provide useful tools to reconstruct processes of normative change. Moreover, the concepts of discourse and its constitution around a particular nodal point or empty universal are helpful to analyse in detail the ways in which (normative) meaning is produced and temporarily stabilized in relational systems of signification. The chapter also fleshes out the concept of the power and productivity of discourses which is central for a critical inquiry into the performance of social meanings. It shows how to question the empirical validity of social reality and examine the ways in which discourses produce one and simultaneously repress specific interpretations of the social world
Andrew Arato
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780198755982
- eISBN:
- 9780191816987
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198755982.003.0007
- Subject:
- Law, Constitutional and Administrative Law
This chapter examines political theology—the preservation and imposition of concepts and figures of thought in political theory, inherited from monotheism. It argues that positive reliance on ...
More
This chapter examines political theology—the preservation and imposition of concepts and figures of thought in political theory, inherited from monotheism. It argues that positive reliance on political theology not only can have a profoundly authoritarian meaning, but is also helpful in misrepresenting that meaning, and that political theology can be thematized in order to go beyond it—a notion drawn from Claude Lefort, whose concept of democracy as the empty space of power clearly draws the line of distinction with not only totalitarianism, as he stressed, but with all modern forms of dictatorship. Additionally, the chapter explains that a political conception can be deeply theological by providing a critique of populist politics as described by Ernesto Laclau. The chapter concludes by presenting one attempt to justify populist constitution making in Latin America, one that also uses radical democratic ideology to disguise the authoritarian danger that the conception cannot eliminate.Less
This chapter examines political theology—the preservation and imposition of concepts and figures of thought in political theory, inherited from monotheism. It argues that positive reliance on political theology not only can have a profoundly authoritarian meaning, but is also helpful in misrepresenting that meaning, and that political theology can be thematized in order to go beyond it—a notion drawn from Claude Lefort, whose concept of democracy as the empty space of power clearly draws the line of distinction with not only totalitarianism, as he stressed, but with all modern forms of dictatorship. Additionally, the chapter explains that a political conception can be deeply theological by providing a critique of populist politics as described by Ernesto Laclau. The chapter concludes by presenting one attempt to justify populist constitution making in Latin America, one that also uses radical democratic ideology to disguise the authoritarian danger that the conception cannot eliminate.
Lasse Thomassen
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781474422659
- eISBN:
- 9781474435284
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474422659.003.0002
- Subject:
- Political Science, UK Politics
This chapter lays out Ernesto Laclau’s theory of discourse and hegemony as the theoretical framework that, together with Jacques Derrida’s deconstruction, guides the analyses of the cases studied in ...
More
This chapter lays out Ernesto Laclau’s theory of discourse and hegemony as the theoretical framework that, together with Jacques Derrida’s deconstruction, guides the analyses of the cases studied in the book. The chapter engages with the existing literature on the contemporary representations of Muslims in Western society in order to explain how the position developed in the book – that representation is constitutive – differs from that literature. To help illustrate the implications of the theoretical framework, the chapter uses Gordon Brown’s discourse of Britishness and illustrates the theoretical points with examples from his writings and speeches and with the citizenship tests introduced by New Labour.Less
This chapter lays out Ernesto Laclau’s theory of discourse and hegemony as the theoretical framework that, together with Jacques Derrida’s deconstruction, guides the analyses of the cases studied in the book. The chapter engages with the existing literature on the contemporary representations of Muslims in Western society in order to explain how the position developed in the book – that representation is constitutive – differs from that literature. To help illustrate the implications of the theoretical framework, the chapter uses Gordon Brown’s discourse of Britishness and illustrates the theoretical points with examples from his writings and speeches and with the citizenship tests introduced by New Labour.
Warren Breckman
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231143943
- eISBN:
- 9780231512893
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231143943.003.0008
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Political Philosophy
This book narrates the history of post-Marxism as the adventure of the symbolic. Post-Marxism involves a confrontation between the relatively rigid semiotic concept of the symbolic order and looser, ...
More
This book narrates the history of post-Marxism as the adventure of the symbolic. Post-Marxism involves a confrontation between the relatively rigid semiotic concept of the symbolic order and looser, less formulaic and less deterministic ideas of the symbolic. These more open concepts tap the complicated legacy of the symbolic turn, a history with roots deeper than the twentieth century. In the context of the convergence of Marxism's eclipse and the decline of foundational principles, this book evaluates the prospects for regenerating critical social and political philosophy beyond the Marxist framework, as well as the possibilities of creating and sustaining a positive emancipatory project. To do so, it draws on a series of historically and philosophically informed studies of several major thinkers who confront us with contrasting approaches to the challenges of political philosophy in the postfoundational and post-Marxist context. These figures include Cornelius Castoriadis, Claude Lefort, Marcel Gauchet, Ernesto Laclau, Chantal Mouffe, and Slavoj Žižek.Less
This book narrates the history of post-Marxism as the adventure of the symbolic. Post-Marxism involves a confrontation between the relatively rigid semiotic concept of the symbolic order and looser, less formulaic and less deterministic ideas of the symbolic. These more open concepts tap the complicated legacy of the symbolic turn, a history with roots deeper than the twentieth century. In the context of the convergence of Marxism's eclipse and the decline of foundational principles, this book evaluates the prospects for regenerating critical social and political philosophy beyond the Marxist framework, as well as the possibilities of creating and sustaining a positive emancipatory project. To do so, it draws on a series of historically and philosophically informed studies of several major thinkers who confront us with contrasting approaches to the challenges of political philosophy in the postfoundational and post-Marxist context. These figures include Cornelius Castoriadis, Claude Lefort, Marcel Gauchet, Ernesto Laclau, Chantal Mouffe, and Slavoj Žižek.
Oliver Marchart
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781474442602
- eISBN:
- 9781474459860
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474442602.003.0009
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
Starting from a short story by Borges, this chapter discusses the role that representation may play in a project of radical democracy, defined as a ‘collective will’ aiming at expanding the ...
More
Starting from a short story by Borges, this chapter discusses the role that representation may play in a project of radical democracy, defined as a ‘collective will’ aiming at expanding the democratic horizon of freedom, equality and solidarity, as established in the democratic revolution. It is radical not in the sense of referring, with these terms, to a particular ground or foundation of democracy, but to the ultimate absence of such ground. This implies that we have to see radical democracy as an emancipatory project of expanding the democratic idea of representation – as a relation of mediacy and self-alienation – to more and more social fields. The chapter takes its lead from Claude Lefort, Ernesto Laclau and Frank Ankersmit, to claim that representation should be understood as, precisely, a relation of non-identity between represented and representative, as only then it attests to the ultimately ungroundable nature of the democratic regime. These points are exemplified by analyses of the case of Bosnia, where the democratic, non-identitarian form of representation was replaced by an identitarian one, and that of the anti-representational ideology of the assembly movement of 2011, which fell into the self-delusionary trap of a fantasy of presence and immediacy.Less
Starting from a short story by Borges, this chapter discusses the role that representation may play in a project of radical democracy, defined as a ‘collective will’ aiming at expanding the democratic horizon of freedom, equality and solidarity, as established in the democratic revolution. It is radical not in the sense of referring, with these terms, to a particular ground or foundation of democracy, but to the ultimate absence of such ground. This implies that we have to see radical democracy as an emancipatory project of expanding the democratic idea of representation – as a relation of mediacy and self-alienation – to more and more social fields. The chapter takes its lead from Claude Lefort, Ernesto Laclau and Frank Ankersmit, to claim that representation should be understood as, precisely, a relation of non-identity between represented and representative, as only then it attests to the ultimately ungroundable nature of the democratic regime. These points are exemplified by analyses of the case of Bosnia, where the democratic, non-identitarian form of representation was replaced by an identitarian one, and that of the anti-representational ideology of the assembly movement of 2011, which fell into the self-delusionary trap of a fantasy of presence and immediacy.
Meghan Sutherland
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780816665167
- eISBN:
- 9781452946207
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816665167.003.0015
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter examines the representation of place on television, arguing for the need to think outside the bounds of the materialist-simulationist dichotomy. It offers a reconceptualization of ...
More
This chapter examines the representation of place on television, arguing for the need to think outside the bounds of the materialist-simulationist dichotomy. It offers a reconceptualization of television that moves away from canonical accounts of this medium’s derealization of place. It argues for an understanding of the vital role that the image of place serves (both materially and rhetorically) in the televisual representation of disaster as a means of providing an always-contingent but nevertheless indispensable grounds for the representation of the social world. Bringing together Immanuel Kant, Ernesto Laclau, 9/11, and Hurricane Katrina, the chapter provides a new way of understanding television and a new way of understanding place.Less
This chapter examines the representation of place on television, arguing for the need to think outside the bounds of the materialist-simulationist dichotomy. It offers a reconceptualization of television that moves away from canonical accounts of this medium’s derealization of place. It argues for an understanding of the vital role that the image of place serves (both materially and rhetorically) in the televisual representation of disaster as a means of providing an always-contingent but nevertheless indispensable grounds for the representation of the social world. Bringing together Immanuel Kant, Ernesto Laclau, 9/11, and Hurricane Katrina, the chapter provides a new way of understanding television and a new way of understanding place.
Warren Breckman
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781474442602
- eISBN:
- 9781474459860
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474442602.003.0005
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
The ‘symbolic’ has found its way into the heart of contemporary radical democratic theory. When one encounters this term in major theorists such as Ernesto Laclau and Slavoj Žižek, our first impulse ...
More
The ‘symbolic’ has found its way into the heart of contemporary radical democratic theory. When one encounters this term in major theorists such as Ernesto Laclau and Slavoj Žižek, our first impulse is to trace its genealogy to the offspring of the linguistic turn, structuralism and poststructuralism. This paper seeks to expose the deeper history of the symbolic in the legacy of Romanticism. It argues that crucial to the concept of the symbolic is a polyvalence that was first theorized in German Romanticism. The linguistic turn that so marked the twentieth century tended to suppress this polyvalence, but it has returned as a crucial dimension of contemporary radical political theory and practice. At stake is more than a recovery of historical depth. Through a constructed dialogue between Romanticism and the thought of both Žižek and Laclau, the paper seeks to provide a sharper appreciation of the resources of the concept of the symbolic.Less
The ‘symbolic’ has found its way into the heart of contemporary radical democratic theory. When one encounters this term in major theorists such as Ernesto Laclau and Slavoj Žižek, our first impulse is to trace its genealogy to the offspring of the linguistic turn, structuralism and poststructuralism. This paper seeks to expose the deeper history of the symbolic in the legacy of Romanticism. It argues that crucial to the concept of the symbolic is a polyvalence that was first theorized in German Romanticism. The linguistic turn that so marked the twentieth century tended to suppress this polyvalence, but it has returned as a crucial dimension of contemporary radical political theory and practice. At stake is more than a recovery of historical depth. Through a constructed dialogue between Romanticism and the thought of both Žižek and Laclau, the paper seeks to provide a sharper appreciation of the resources of the concept of the symbolic.
Jürgen Schaflechner
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780190850524
- eISBN:
- 9780190850555
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190850524.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, Hinduism
In the first chapter, the author evaluates the various possibilities to engage with the empirical material collected for this book. Due to the shrine’s new accessibility, paired with its recent ...
More
In the first chapter, the author evaluates the various possibilities to engage with the empirical material collected for this book. Due to the shrine’s new accessibility, paired with its recent institutionalization, many formerly disconnected practices and narratives started to meet on a regular basis. Doing fieldwork at the site, together with engaging with a variety of texts and other media, the author was confronted with the question of how to organize all of these voices that uniformly claimed to speak the truth about the shrine and its annexed practices. Chapter 1 elaborates on the theoretical foundations of this work through a concept the author calls “the solidification of tradition.” Utilizing newer anthropological theories of the ontological turn and supplementing them with the political philosophy of post-foundationalism helps the author to produce his own engagement with the various truth-claims encountered during his research.Less
In the first chapter, the author evaluates the various possibilities to engage with the empirical material collected for this book. Due to the shrine’s new accessibility, paired with its recent institutionalization, many formerly disconnected practices and narratives started to meet on a regular basis. Doing fieldwork at the site, together with engaging with a variety of texts and other media, the author was confronted with the question of how to organize all of these voices that uniformly claimed to speak the truth about the shrine and its annexed practices. Chapter 1 elaborates on the theoretical foundations of this work through a concept the author calls “the solidification of tradition.” Utilizing newer anthropological theories of the ontological turn and supplementing them with the political philosophy of post-foundationalism helps the author to produce his own engagement with the various truth-claims encountered during his research.
Barry Cannon
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- July 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780719077715
- eISBN:
- 9781781701959
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719077715.003.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
This book explores the presidency of Hugo Chávez Frías of Venezuela (1999–present) in the context of theory on populism. It examines issues such as the continued relevance of populism itself in Latin ...
More
This book explores the presidency of Hugo Chávez Frías of Venezuela (1999–present) in the context of theory on populism. It examines issues such as the continued relevance of populism itself in Latin American politics, populism's origins in the profound race/class cleavages found in the region, its ideological diversity, with, however, a programmatic emphasis on popular participation, and finally populist claims to legitimacy within a region with weak democratic institutions. It contends that it is sometimes necessary to step outside and infringe existing institutionality when that institutionality lacks legitimacy and is acting against democracy's progressive tendencies. It also looks at the dispute on populism between the ‘historical/sociological perspective’ of Gino Germani and others, and the ‘ideological perspective’ of Ernesto Laclau. Central to Germani's theories was the belief that modernisation processes formed the context in which populism emerged in Latin America. The book concludes by looking at the role of neoliberal globalisation in increasing inequality in the region.Less
This book explores the presidency of Hugo Chávez Frías of Venezuela (1999–present) in the context of theory on populism. It examines issues such as the continued relevance of populism itself in Latin American politics, populism's origins in the profound race/class cleavages found in the region, its ideological diversity, with, however, a programmatic emphasis on popular participation, and finally populist claims to legitimacy within a region with weak democratic institutions. It contends that it is sometimes necessary to step outside and infringe existing institutionality when that institutionality lacks legitimacy and is acting against democracy's progressive tendencies. It also looks at the dispute on populism between the ‘historical/sociological perspective’ of Gino Germani and others, and the ‘ideological perspective’ of Ernesto Laclau. Central to Germani's theories was the belief that modernisation processes formed the context in which populism emerged in Latin America. The book concludes by looking at the role of neoliberal globalisation in increasing inequality in the region.
Warren Breckman
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231143943
- eISBN:
- 9780231512893
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231143943.003.0007
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Political Philosophy
This epilogue summarizes issues underlying the emergence of post-Marxism in the 1970s and 1980s as Marxism lost its hold on the imagination of the western European intellectual left. The post-Marxism ...
More
This epilogue summarizes issues underlying the emergence of post-Marxism in the 1970s and 1980s as Marxism lost its hold on the imagination of the western European intellectual left. The post-Marxism associated with Ernesto Laclau, Chantal Mouffe, Jacques Derrida, and Slavoj Žižek attempted to hold onto the possibility of radical action and progressive transformation, while also renouncing Marxism's idea of a privileged social actor, Leninism's insistence on a vanguard party possessing correct theory, and indeed, the basic Marxist-Leninist belief that a theory could ever adequately guide social movements operating within a complex historical reality. Many of the resonances between the eras before and after Marxism's ascendancy may be tied to the prominent role of the symbolic, which has furnished us a red thread by which to track a number of thinkers wrestling with the challenge of reconceiving democratic theory in a context marked by the collapse of really existing socialism and the weakening hold of the Marxist model.Less
This epilogue summarizes issues underlying the emergence of post-Marxism in the 1970s and 1980s as Marxism lost its hold on the imagination of the western European intellectual left. The post-Marxism associated with Ernesto Laclau, Chantal Mouffe, Jacques Derrida, and Slavoj Žižek attempted to hold onto the possibility of radical action and progressive transformation, while also renouncing Marxism's idea of a privileged social actor, Leninism's insistence on a vanguard party possessing correct theory, and indeed, the basic Marxist-Leninist belief that a theory could ever adequately guide social movements operating within a complex historical reality. Many of the resonances between the eras before and after Marxism's ascendancy may be tied to the prominent role of the symbolic, which has furnished us a red thread by which to track a number of thinkers wrestling with the challenge of reconceiving democratic theory in a context marked by the collapse of really existing socialism and the weakening hold of the Marxist model.
Johannes Angermuller and Raj Kollmorgen
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- March 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780198829911
- eISBN:
- 9780191868368
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198829911.003.0021
- Subject:
- Political Science, Comparative Politics
As a practice of meaning making in society, discourse points to important dimensions of social and historical change. This chapter discusses examples of discourse research on social transformation in ...
More
As a practice of meaning making in society, discourse points to important dimensions of social and historical change. This chapter discusses examples of discourse research on social transformation in Central and Eastern Europe. It shows how methods from linguistic, semiotic, and cultural theory can be used to account for a changing social order (e.g., how change is narrated in Russia during the perestroika period or how Eastern Germans are represented in Western media discourse after the reunification). Against a background in Discourse Studies, we put special emphasis on macrosociological views of discursive change, which one can find, for instance, in Foucault’s power/knowledge approach, Laclau/Mouffian hegemony analysis, and Critical Discourse Analysis. The chapter concludes by pointing out the strengths as well as the limits of discourse research, which is based on the idea that language not only represents social realities but, through representation, also contributes to creating them.Less
As a practice of meaning making in society, discourse points to important dimensions of social and historical change. This chapter discusses examples of discourse research on social transformation in Central and Eastern Europe. It shows how methods from linguistic, semiotic, and cultural theory can be used to account for a changing social order (e.g., how change is narrated in Russia during the perestroika period or how Eastern Germans are represented in Western media discourse after the reunification). Against a background in Discourse Studies, we put special emphasis on macrosociological views of discursive change, which one can find, for instance, in Foucault’s power/knowledge approach, Laclau/Mouffian hegemony analysis, and Critical Discourse Analysis. The chapter concludes by pointing out the strengths as well as the limits of discourse research, which is based on the idea that language not only represents social realities but, through representation, also contributes to creating them.
