Agonism Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

In this article, I draw on Judith Shklar to provide an alternative to the liberal model of military intervention proposed in the last few years by intellectuals such as Michael Ignatieff. I suggest that Ignatieff misunderstands Shklar's liberalism of fear when he appropriates it as a foundation for military intervention on behalf of human rights. Through a reading of his Tanner Lectures Human Rights as Politics. Human Rights as Idolatry on one hand, and drawing on Shklar's entire body of work on the other, I highlight the profound differences separating these authors with regard to: their stance on natural law; the question of foundations and moral universals; the question of voice (Who speaks on behalf of the op-pressed?); and their general stance with respect to the legacy of colonialism. I pit what I call Shklar's activism against Ignatieff's interventionism, and put forward a reading of «putting cruelty first» as opening a forum for contestation across nations and cultures.

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- International Relations Theory, Liberalism, Agonism, Judith Shklar

If politics is ultimately about our deepest fears and desires rather than about, say, tax policy or better health care, then what place is there for a Left whose raison d’être will always be tied to improving the economic fortunes of the least fortunate? One answer is to begin to outline an “economics of meaning,” where economic or class critiques are a means to channel anger, create meaning, and build solidarity rather than to implement better policy outcomes (although, of course, policy changes would be good on their own, for moral rather than necessarily electoral reasons). This requires changing standard conceptions of what elections are for and what it means to win.

- by Shadi Hamid
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- Immigration, Nationalism, Populism, Immigration And Integration In Europe

“Power is war, the continuation of war by other means”: Foucault’s reversal of Clausewitz’s formula has become a staple of critical theory — but it remains highly problematic on a conceptual level. Elaborated during Foucault’s 1976 lectures (“Society Must Be Defended”), this work-hypothesis theorises “basic warfare” [la guerre fondamentale] as the teleological horizon of socio-political relations. Following Boulainvilliers, Foucault champions this polemological approach, conceived as a purely descriptive discourse on “real” politics and war, against the philosophico-juridical conceptuality attached to liberal society (Hobbes’s Leviathan being here the prime example).
However, in doing so, Foucault did not interrogate the conceptual validity of notions such as power and war, therefore interlinking them without questioning their ontological status. This problematic conflation was partly rectified in 1982, as Foucault proposed a more dynamic definition of power relations: “actions over potential actions”.
I argue, somewhat polemically, that Foucault’s hermeneutics of power still involves a teleological violence, dependent on a polemological representation of human relations as essentially instrumental: this resembles what Derrida names, in “Heidegger’s Ear”, an “anthropolemology”. However, I show that all conceptualisation of power implies its self-deconstruction. This self-deconstructive (or autoimmune) structure supposes an archi-originary unpower prior to power: power presupposes an excess within power, an excessive force, another violence making it both possible and impossible. There is something within power located “beyond the power principle” (Derrida). This (self-)excess signifies a limitless resistantiality co-extensive with power-relationality. It also allows the reversal of pólemos into its opposite, as unpower opens politics and warfare to the messianic call of a pre-political, pre-ontological disruption: the archi-originary force of différance. This force, unconditional, challenges Foucault’s conceptualisations of power, suggesting an originary performativity located before or beyond hermeneutics of power-knowledge, disrupting theoreticity as well as empiricity by pointing to their ontological complicity.
The bulk of this essay is dedicated to sketching the theoretical implications of this deconstructive reading of Foucault with respect to the methodology and conceptuality of political science and social theory.

- by Thomas Clément MERCIER
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- Critical Theory, Discourse Analysis, Sociology, Cultural Studies
- by Tali Hatuka
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- Conflict, Protest, Cities, Agonism

Recently the political philosophy of agonism has been applied by urban theorists to model inter-cultural urban encounters in so-called 'micro-publics', such as the workplace or the classroom. The paper examines to what extent agonism offers a viable model for dealing with urban diversity in these mundane, social encounters. I will argue that, applied to these lower-level social contexts, agonism takes the vulnerability of citizens with regard to their ethnic, cultural or religious attachments insufficiently into account. The resulting injuries will most likely be counter-productive to the goal of living with diversity. By way of a contrast, I will offer two less demanding, more practicable types of intercultural civility.

- by Bart van Leeuwen
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- Urbanism, Citizenship and Identity, Cultural Diversity, Urban citizenship

There are numerous existing political atheologies that can be characterised by three movements – negative, positive, and critical atheological projects. By focusing on the critical atheologies of two political theorists, Richard Rorty and William Connolly, this article presents an insider's view of the influence that atheism has on political thought. After drawing out just what makes Rorty and Connolly's philosophies atheological, this article sets itself the task of drawing the consequences of a critical atheology for two fundamental concepts of contemporary political theory: secularism and toleration. These Enlightenment ideals can be rescued and re-framed following a pluralist critique. By refining our understanding of secularism beyond a strict church-state separation, an agonistic secularism which promotes an ethos of engagement is defended therein. Secondly, toleration is then defended in its agonistic form to include the practice of critique against conceptions of indifference or respect. Finally, the hard case of the French ban on veils in public schools is discussed to highlight the contribution of this political atheology to an important social issue.

- by Charles Devellennes
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- Atheism, Political Theory, History of Political Thought, History of Atheism

Etienne Balibar se réfère à l’idée arendtienne de la citoyenneté pour montrer que la démocratie se construit nécessairement au travers d’une aporie. D’une part, la démocratie évoque l’idéal isonomique de l’égalité pour fonder la communauté ; d’autre part, elle inscrit la différence dans l’éventualité d’une contestation permanente des principes unificateurs. Ce que je propose, c’est de contribuer à développer le dialogue entre E. Balibar et Hannah Arendt en m’interrogeant sur la possibilité d’aller au-delà de l’horizon de la violence. Le concept d’agon qu’Arendt utilise pour qualifier le vivre ensemble isonomique n’est pas la concurrence entre artisans, ni le conflit entre ennemis, mais renvoie plutôt à l’institution d’un monde commun grâce aux différences. L’agir agonistique comprend le risque de se distinguer, d’être en désaccord, de se différer, non seulement par rapport aux autres mais aussi par rapport a soi-même. Il faudrait alors définir la violence comme une force qui agit sur l’agon, c’est-à-dire, sur la capacité de « devenir-autre ». C’est justement ceci qu’aussi bien la loi que la notion moderne de droits oblitère.

- by Zeynep Gambetti
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- Violence, Hannah Arendt, Etienne Balibar, Agonism

This paper provides a critique and re-evaluation of the way that ethics is understood and promoted within mainstream Human Resource Management (HRM) discourse. We argue that the ethics located within this discourse focuses on bolstering the relevance of HRM as a key contributor to organizational strategy, enhancing an organization's sense of moral legitimacy and augmenting organizational control over employee behaviour and subjectivity. We question this discourse in that it subordinates the ethics of the employment relationship to managerial prerogative. In response, we suggest a different model of the relationship between ethics and HRM-one that finds the possibility of ethics in the contestation and destabilization of HRM. Such ethics arises through resistance to moral normalization and the constraint of freedom and difference. The contribution of our paper is in theorising the possibilities of a relationship between ethics and HRM that does not place HRM at its centre, as chief intermediary of the ethics of the employment relationship, but rather sees HRM as being a powerful player in a set of what Mouffe calls 'agonistic' socio-ethical relations.

- by Geraint Harvey
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- Marketing, Business Ethics, Applied Ethics, Politics

Die Rückkehr des A(nta)gonismus? Mouffes agonistisches Demokratiemodell und die politischen Umbrüche in Griechenland. In: Agridopoulos, A./Papagiannopoulos, I. (Hg.) (2016): Griechenland im europäischen Kontext: Krise und Krisendiskurse.... more

- by Aristotelis Agridopoulos
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- Democratic Theory, Modern Greek Politics, Agonism

This article studies Cape Town’s new slum “reblocking” paradigm, in which settlements are reorganized, housing upgraded,
and services delivered in situ. Though not without structural and long-term challenges, research shows that for those waiting
for post-apartheid housing, reblocking provides an alternative to eviction and resettlement. Through primary and secondary
research over 2014–2016 on four reblocking pilot projects covering six hundred households, we argue that reblocking hinges
not on consensus but rather the “productive tension” generated in the negotiation of visions and outcomes. We draw on
critical theories of agonism and participation to suggest that such tension plays a role in producing legitimacy.

- by Malini Ranganathan and +1
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- Community Engagement & Participation, Apartheid, South Africa, Agonism

Em mais um volume, o Apoena – Grupo de Estudos Schopenhauer-Nietzsche traz a público textos apresentados no IV Encontro Nietzsche-Schopenhauer: Ecologia Cinza, Natureza Agônica, em novembro de 2012, em Fortaleza. O IV Encontro Nietzsche-Schopenhauer foi consagrado à discussão acerca da concepção da natureza na contemporaneidade e da maneira pela qual as perspectivas de Schopenhauer e de Nietzsche tornam possível sua problematização. Dos pontos de vista de Schopenhauer e Nietzshe, a natureza é marcada por uma tensão inteiramente incompreensível para o ecologismo, mas que é o foco daquilo que poderíamos chamar de ecologia cinza. Daí o fio comum que agrupa as orientações diversas dos textos presentes na primeira parte deste volume. A segunda parte traz textos mais diversos, que giram em torno da questão ético-política dos afetos e paixões a partir de Schopenhauer e Nietzsche.

- by Thiago Mota
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- Philosophy, Friedrich Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, Ecology

Chantal Mouffe’s conceptualization of a deliberatively forged consensus as a hegemony and her assertion that adversarial politics best nurtures the conditions of freedom have had a profound influence on contemporary democratic thought. This article takes a critical view of this trend, arguing that a norm of consensus is a very precondition, rather than impediment, for the kind of pluralistic democracy Mouffe and other agonists wish to promote. It is asserted that Mouffe’s dehistoricized refutation of consensus lacks causal or explanatory relevance to how concrete actors embedded in empirical situations relate to one another and that the very preparedness to find something acceptable about another is at the heart of what it means to treat others justly.

- by George Vasilev
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- Democratic Theory, Conflict, Jurgen Habermas, Deliberative Democracy

The way in which societies institutionalize “collective memory” is one of the most important aspects of contemporary politics, feeding directly into the constitution of individual and communal identities, and creating sources of discord and dialogue. This essay explores some of the most significant issues at stake in debates over the political uses of the past. I suggest that it is important to distinguish between three modes of historical consciousness, memory, mythology, and critical history. I then offer a critique of Avishai Margalit’s "The Ethics of Memory" (2002), arguing that in failing to allow space for “acknowledging” the plurality of communal myths his strong communitarian conception of mnemonic ethics leaves room for the perpetuation of asymmetric power relations and the imposition of hegemonic identities. Developing this line of thought, the essay then explores some of the ways in which agonistic democratic theorists might think through the relationship between past and present, myth and history. I argue that it is necessary to avoid procedures and institutions that entrench diverse identities while simultaneously establishing conditions in which different communities can freely propound their historical identity-constitutive claims.

- by Duncan Bell
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- Critical Theory, Social Theory, Mythology, Philosophy

My review of Christa Davis Acampora's Contesting Nietzsche

- by Lawrence J Hatab
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- Friedrich Nietzsche, Agonism

Metadichol® is a Nanoemulsion of long-chain alcohols found in many foods. Metadichol acts as an inverse ag-onist on Nuclear Vitamin D receptors (VDR) that have a ubiquitous presence in cells and acts by modulating the immune system and affects many biological processes to modulate many diseases. We have demonstrated that Metadichol is useful in both type 1 and two diabetes and in modulating insulin levels and reducing sugar levels and thus increasing insulin sensitivity. We had earlier shown that it binds to VDR and thus an effect on glucose homeostasis that is a hallmark of VDR pathways. We now report also that it is an agonist of GPR120 (G protein-coupled receptor 120) which has emerged as a key target for metabolic diseases like obesity and insulin resistance. In the in-vitro assay, Metadichol is comparable to GW9508 the most extensively used standard compound in GPR 120 research.

- by palayakotai R raghavan
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- Diabetes, Agonism, Diabetes and Insulin Resistance, GPCR

Colección: Spal Monografías Arqueología Núm.: XLIII Reservados todos los derechos. Ni la totalidad ni parte de este libro puede reproducirse o trasmitirse por ningún procedimiento electrónico o mecánico, incluyendo fotocopia, grabación... more

In his most explicitly philosophical book Pascalian Meditations, Pierre Bourdieu (2000) clarified what he meant by the notion of symbolic violence. Symbolic violence signifies more than simply forms of discursive power that mediate social relationships without the
imposition of physical force. Rather, it signifies a form of violence that the target of the violence is themselves complicit in. “Symbolic power is exerted only with the collaboration of those who undergo it because they help to construct it as such” (p. 171).

- by Sean Phelan
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- Media Studies, Media and Cultural Studies, Digital Media, Digital Culture

In December 2008, Athens saw an eruption of violent protests that followed the murder of a teenager by a policeman. Initially reacting to police violence, the protestors did not articulate a specific agenda. The rallies, which mobilised a substantial part of the population – particularly the youth – dissipated a few weeks later. Similar outbreaks have taken place in other European cities in recent years (e.g. the Paris banlieues) and warrant a number of questions with regards to the capacity of our states and our cities to nurture a strong democratic life, acknowledging the role of conflict and preventing its violent expression.

- by Konstantin Kastrissianakis
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- Conflict, Agonistic Pluralism, Public Space, Chantal Mouffe

The Sentient House project is an investigation into approaches that the artist- designer can take to better involve the public in developing a critical perspective on pervasive technology in the home and the surrounding environment. Using Interaction Design approaches including workshops, surveys, rapid-prototyping and critical thinking, this thesis suggests a framework for developing a more participatory atmosphere for Critical Design.
As the world becomes more connected, and ‘smarter’, citizen’s concerns are being sidelined in favour of rapid progress and solutionism. Many of these initiatives are backed by government and commercial concerns who may not have the public’s best interest at heart.
The designs and approaches generated from this public participation seek to provide an outlet for a more agonistic debate and to develop tools and approaches to engage the public in questioning and addressing how technology affects them in the future.
The outcomes of this research suggest that the public is receptive to a more active involvement in designing their digital future, and that the designer can be a critical component in revealing hidden consequences and alternative pathways for a more transparent and desirable future.

Der Begriff des sozialen Bandes wird in Alltags- und Wissenschaftssprache gerne verwendet, wenn es darum geht, eine Krise des Sozialen zu diagnostizieren: »Das soziale Band reißt«, heißt es dann. Was aber ist das soziale Band? Wie wird es von wem geknüpft? Und wie weit lässt es sich dehnen, bevor es tatsächlich reißt? Um die Fragen zu beantworten, verfolgt diese Edition drei Ziele: Das grundlagentheoretische Vorhaben besteht in einer Klärung, Ausdifferenzierung und Systematisierung unterschiedlicher
historischer Konzeptionen des sozialen Bandes; das zeitdiagnostische Vorhaben richtet sich auf eine Untersuchung gegenwärtiger Erosionen von sozialen Bindungen und das explorative Vorhaben auf die Sichtbarmachung von alternativen Formen der Sozialintegration.

- by Steffen Herrmann and +1
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- Social Philosophy, Agonistic Pluralism, Social and Political Philosophy, Agonism

Il s’agit de comprendre la question du conflit dans la pensée de Jean-François Lyotard. Le fil conducteur de l'approche est l’agonistique langagière, conception selon laquelle les jeux de langage sont des sortes de lutte : les rapports entre les phrases sont des rapports de pouvoir discursif. Tel objectif présuppose d’abord de reconstruire la généalogie de l’agonistique, ensuite de rechercher les implications du principe de l’agonistique langagière dans le contexte de la Grundlagenkrise et finalement de montrer les ressemblances et distinctions entre le concept du différend et celui de l’agôn. C'est sur cette base que la question de la possiblité d'un "avec" agonistique nous interpelle.

- by Thiago Mota
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- Law, Philosophy, Languages and Linguistics, Political Science

In establishing an anarchic framework for understanding public space as a vision for radical democracy, this article proceeds as a theoretical inquiry into how an agonistic public space might become the basis of emancipation. Public space is presented as an opportunity to move beyond the technocratic elitism that often characterizes both civil societies and the neoliberal approach to development, and is further recognized as the battlefield on which the conflicting interests of the world's rich and poor are set. Contributing to the growing recognition that geographies of resistance are relational, where the “global” and the “local” are understood as co-constitutive, a radical democratic ideal grounded in material public space is presented as paramount to repealing archic power in general, and neoliberalism’s exclusionary logic in particular.

- by Simon Springer
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- Critical Theory, Sociology, Economic Sociology, Political Sociology

Responding to David Harvey’s critique of my paper ‘Why a radical geography must be anarchist’, I once again reiterate the importance of anarchist perspectives in contemporary politics and geographical praxis. In challenging Harvey on the limits to Marx, I urge him to think again about the hidden vanguardism, implied statism, and veiled hierarchy that continue to lurk within the Marxist project, and importantly how these specters constrain both our collective political imagination and the possibilities of radical geography. I am admittedly very critical of Harvey, but I nonetheless refuse to close the door on dialogue between the Black and Red, even in the face of ongoing Marxist ridicule of anarchist politics. Accordingly, I propose an agonistic embrace of a ‘postfraternal’ or ‘postsororal’ politics on the left, where we come to appreciate ongoing conflict as a sign of a healthy leftist milieu. In doing so we can move beyond the misguided idea that all disagreements over strategies, tactics, and organizing methods will ever be resolved. Ultimately, what I have dubbed ‘the condition of postfraternity’ keeps us alert to the continually unfolding possibilities of a thoroughly politicized and forever protean space. By embracing this shifting horizon, not as a static limit to our politics, but as a beautiful enabler of visionary possibilities, the rhizomes of emancipation grow stronger.

- by Simon Springer
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- Critical Theory, Management, History, Economic History
- by Gregory Flaxman
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- Mythology, Philosophy, Greek Tragedy, Plato

"This book investigates one of the most characteristic and prominent features of ancient Greek literature – the scene of debate or agon, in which with varying degrees of formality characters square up to each other and engage in a contest... more

- by Elton Barker
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- World Literatures, Classics, Greek Literature, Homer

Hannah Arendt's fierce critique of sovereignty, along with her excavation of Greek agonism, has gained much traction among critical theorists of international politics who revisit the basic assumptions of conventional international theories, such as state sovereignty and power as domination. This paper engages with an increasingly popular stream within such critical international studies that appropriates Arendt's agonism to envision a form of a global public acting in concert. I argue that Arendt's thoughts cannot be reduced to a radical vision of agonistic cosmo-politics. Rather, her thinking suggests that political actors appreciate and care for their public worlds while remaining alert to institutional ossification. Her appreciation of the constitutional state confirms that state agency is an important element of her thoughts. By examining the vicissitudes of publicity found in Arendt's thinking and their reflexive effect on inter-polity relations, the article elucidates the grounds of her international agonism and brings home a form of international politics where states pursuing the domestic goal of greatness coexist and cooperate. Thus, the study suggests that critical scholars of radical agonism miss the important implications of an "institutional" Arendt for international politics.

- by Shinkyu Lee
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- Cosmopolitanism, International Ethics, Hannah Arendt, International society

Nietzsche’s writings on responsibility pose an interpretative challenge pointing to a broader tension in his work. On the one hand, he dismisses responsibility as a metaphysical illusion incompatible with a scientific worldview. On the other, he praises rare individuals who construct a strong will for which they can be responsible. This impasse is reflected in the literature with some scholars treating this as an irreducible tension, or by emphasizing one aspect of Nietzshce’s thought over the other. Against such approaches, I argue that Nietzsche engages responsibility as a political convention that reflects and organizes social forces, relations of power, and affective attachments, and therefore must be studied, understood, and challenged in these terms. Rather studying responsibility philosophically, Nietzsche engages the value of responsibility and its possibility for revaluation. To support this argument, I reconstruct Nietzsche’s mode of political inquiry, in which values are created, maintained, and evolve through agonistic contest. Accordingly, I re-read Nietzsche’s naturalism and his account of the “sovereign individual” as competing agonistic perspectives that Nietzsche utilizes to contest the ossification and taken-for-granted value of moral responsibility. Nietzsche’s political project, therefore, aims to explore how responsibility has shaped political life and to unsettle the givenness of modernity’s conception of responsibility and encourage its revaluation.

- by Michael Christopher Sardo
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- Political Theory, Friedrich Nietzsche, Naturalism, Responsibility

In this paper we attempt a tentative answer to the following question: in Trojan Women, is Euripides criticizing a certain degeneration of agonism ― something we could label as “‘asymmetric conflict”’? Why this question? Trojan Women are well known as a powerful tragic play, which puts on stage the condition of the enslaved (and barbaric, to a Greek eye) women of Troy. Interpretations and academic studies of Trojan Women are more than abundant, given the undoubtable value of the play. Our tentative attempt does not gain inspiration by secondary literature about the play, but from a problem that we face nowadays and that seems to be displayed in this classical tragedy.

- by Luca Torrente
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- Conflict, Euripides, Agonism, Trojan Women

International relations (IR) scholars have increasingly integrated Hannah Arendt into their works. Her fierce critique of the conventional ideas of politics driven by rulership, enforcement, and violence has a particular resonance for theorists seeking to critically revisit the basic assumptions of IR scholarship. Arendt's thinking, however, contains complexity and nuance that need careful treatment when extended beyond domestic politics. In particular, Arendt's vision of free politics-characterized by the dualistic emphasis on agonistic action and institutional stability-raises two crucial issues that need further elaboration for IR research that appropriates her thinking. One involves the orientation of her international thoughts. Although Arendt shows "idealistic" aspirations for authentic politics practiced by diverse equals in an institutionally articulated space of freedom, she never loses interest in the extant situation of "non-idealistic" politics. Engaging with Arendt's theory orientation requires a careful analysis of difficult topics, such as her distinctive conception of the political and her critiques of the nation-state and international law. The other topic that needs clarification when Arendt's thoughts are applied to IR involves specific ways of associating different sites of power. A close examination of Arendt's council-based federalism reveals her distinctive idea of international politics, based on her acute awareness of the fundamental complexity that lies in power association and state agency. Bringing IR topics like state agency into conversation with her works generates illuminating questions for Arendt scholarship. Likewise, the ongoing debate on agonistic and institutional features of Arendt's thoughts can provide crucial insights into critical studies of international politics.

- by Shinkyu Lee
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- Human Rights, Idealism, Federalism, Realism (Political Science)

Evaluación de dos fuentes de fertilización, en tres sustratos sólidos bajo
la técnica de hidroponía y su incidencia en el rendimiento de tomate
(Lycopersicun esculentum Mill) variedad marglobe. Pág 6
Evaluation of two sources of fertilization, in three solid substrates under the Hydroponics
technique and its impact on tomatoes’ yield (Lycopersicun esculentum Mill) the
Marglobe variety
Evaluación del efecto del ácido ascórbico como inhibidor de pardeamiento
enzimático en el fruto de anona pulpa rosada (Annona diversifolia) y en la
cinética de la polifenoloxidasa. Pág 20
Evaluation of ascorbic acid effect as enzymatic browning inhibitor in pink pulp anona fruit
(Annona diversifolia) and on the polyphenol oxidase kinetics
Determinación del análisis bromatológico proximal y calidad culinaria de
Phaseolus vulgaris L. (frijol común) grano negro criollo cultivado en la
zona occidental de El Salvador. Pág. 34
Caracteres fenológicos, morfológicos, y agronómicos de 26 líneas mutantes
de frijol (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) en su séptima generación en la búsqueda de
genotipos promisorios a potencial de rendimiento, El Salvador. Pág. 60
Manejo Pesquero Sostenible de Ucides occidentalis (“punche”),
recurso hidrobiológico de la Cuenca Baja del Río Lempa, Bahía de
Jiquilisco, departamento de Usulután. Pág. 46
Characters phonological, morphological and agronomical 26 mutant lines (Phaseolus vulgaris L.)
in its seventh generation in search of promising genotypes yield potential, El Salvador.

- by Revista Agrociencia and +1
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- Agonism, Ingeniería Agronómica, Phaseolus vulgaris, Hidroponia
- by Johannes Nollé
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- Ancient History, History of Religion, Numismatics, Pamphylia

Pain is an authentic part of humanity. This text deals with the topic of pain within the context of sports. It compares the agon of war to the agon of sports. Here, pain is considered as a physical phenomenon, as a cultural and social construct as well as a meaningful phenomenon. Another issue addressed in this paper is how pain is presented as an authentic component of performing sports. A loss of authenticity in sports is mentioned in connection with the prevalence of injuries. special attention is paid to the topic of death, which is understood as being a part of the horizon of pain. The last part of the article focuses on crises in professional sports and asks about the meaning of pain and suffering in sports.

- by Ivo Jirásek
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- Sport Psychology, Death Studies, Pain, Authenticity

The diagnosis of a new geological epoch, The 'Anthropocene', has implications far beyond geological science. If human activity has disrupted the planet, then this diagnosis potentially disrupts socio-political conventions. This article assesses the implications the Anthropocene has for democratic politics, by delineating three challenges; challenges of knowledge, time and boundary. In contrast to the claim that democratic institutions are unable to adequately respond to these challenges, I suggest that they might be strengthened through an engagement with them. Following an 'agonistic' understanding of politics, I argue that the contestation instigated by the challenges of the Anthropocene is key to democratic renewal. Just as democracy in the Anthropocene can be enhanced through an agonistic approach, agonistic theory can be enriched through an engagement with the Anthropocene.

- by Amanda Machin
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- Deliberative Democracy, Environmental Politics, Democracy, Agonism
- by Liana Lomiento
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- Plato, Socrates, Agonism, Platonic dialogues

What kinds of creative potential exist in silence-in not coming out? This ethnographic study takes the strategic silences that queer persons in Mumbai deploy regarding 'coming out' as productive for theorizing the connections between kinship and queerness. While some strands of queer critique conceptualize the relationship between kinship and queerness antagonistically, the author deploys the concept of agonistic intimacy outlined in Singh's Poverty and the Quest for Life (2015) to consider how queers might inhabit heterosexual kinship networks through the interplay of con-testation and submission. Silence, then, need not signal the image of the transnational queer in need of saving, but a mode of negotiating desires for respectability and queerness.

- by Brian Horton
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- South Asia, Agonism, Queer Kinship, Queer Anthropology

Axel Honneth may be criticised for reducing political philosophy to moral psychology. In what follows, I argue that if his theory of recognition is reframed as one of democracy, quite another picture will appear. To do this, I systematically reconstruct Honneth’s stance as a multidimensional version of radical democracy. The question I discuss is the manner in which this framework combines the three dimensions of democratic deliberation, culture, and conflict. I then discuss Honneth’s picture from both a deliberative and agonistic viewpoint. How one understands the way in which he combines the abovementioned dimensions is dependent upon which one of these two approaches one may choose. I claim that when taken together, these three dimensions form the grounding of a radical-democratic understanding of a struggle for recognition, which I term institutional agonism.

- by Odin Lysaker
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- Critical Theory, Political Philosophy, Political Theory, Social Philosophy

On retrouve alors, maintenant explicitement employé par Foucault, le terme d’agonistique, qui décrit la structure conditionnant de l’énonciation de la vérité dans le contexte de la démocratie grecque. Foucault parle d’un champ agonistique rendant possible la parrêsia, c’est-à-dire l’énonciation d’une vérité qui n’est point destituée de pouvoir, mais bien au contraire fondante du pouvoir démocratique. Il est remarquable que le champ agonistique conditionnant l’exercice du pouvoir-vérité démocratique renvoie à un partage avec les autres, c’est-à-dire à un avec. On parlerait alors d’un avec agonistique. Mais le plus remarquable est pourtant le fait que cette description de la démocratie n’a pas l’air de la dénonce, mais bien plutôt celui de la défense.

- by Thiago Mota
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- Discourse, Michel Foucault, Democracy, Agonism

Una de las cuestiones más debatidas en el pensamiento político contemporáneo es la de cómo articular una noción de comunidad democrática capaz de integrar inclusivamente a la diversidad de realidades identitarias coexistentes en las actuales sociedades democráticas y pluralistas. La moderna concepción del Estado democrático-liberal, vinculada prioritariamente a la garantía de derechos individuales y a una anémica ingeniería institucional de elección de gobernantes, es cuestionada desde distintos frentes teóricos y políticos que pujan por una profundización del aspecto democrático de aquella dupla conceptual. En este contexto, buena parte de los estudios sobre la democracia parecen encaminarse hacia la búsqueda de alternativas a los enfoques minimalistas, agregativos o economicistas, hegemónicos durante la segunda mitad del siglo XX. El presente trabajo focaliza en dos de estas teorías que, aceptando los pilares fundamentales del liberalismo político, procuran radicalizar el carácter democrático del Estado moderno, a saber: la democracia deliberativa, promovida por Jürgen Habermas, y el pluralismo agonístico, que defiende Chantal Mouffe.

- by Pascal Debruyne
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- Agonistic Pluralism, Citizenship, Chantal Mouffe, Agonism

An account of Deleuze's late philosophy, especially in the age of neoliberalism and our "society of control." Includes discussions of (1) the marketplace of idea and the emergence of the "New Philosophers"; (2) the relation between thought and opinion (doxa); (3) chaos and cosmology; (4) the problem and politics of life; (5) modern philosophy as an institution of capitalism; and (6) Deleuze and Guattari's late recourse to the concept of utopia.

- by Gregory Flaxman
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- Marketing, Thermodynamics, Political Economy, Philosophy

Este artículo parte de la premisa de que en las democracias liberales actuales se extiende un nuevo estilo discursivo propiamente cínico. El artículo traza una genealogía de este cinismo político partiendo del liberalismo político de John Rawls y recalando en la teoría agonística de la democracia de Chantal Mouffe, e intenta mostrar que la superación del liberalismo político que la teoría agonística lleva años proponiendo parece realizarse finalmente a través del cinismo, aunque con resultados diferentes de los esperados: la expansión del cinismo en la esfera pública debe entenderse como una degradación del debate público con consecuencias políticas inquietantes.

- by José Luis López de Lizaga
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- Peter Sloterdijk, Rawls, Chantal Mouffe, Political Liberalism