Anarchist Critique of Radical Democracy

Anarchist Critique of Radical Democracy
Author: Markus Lundström
Publisher: PM Press
Total Pages: 129
Release: 2023-01-24
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1629639990

In spring of 2013, a wave of urban riots swept across Sweden after police shot an elderly man in his own home. When community residents from his marginalized city-district demanded an official apology, they were ignored. The anti-police insurgences that followed addressed deep problems of the Swedish welfare state, and the official responses revealed glitches built into democracy itself. In this updated edition of Anarchist Critique of Radical Democracy: The Impossible Argument, sociologist and historian Markus Lundström explores the boundaries of Swedish democracy. He probes in-depth interviews with community residents to explain how the 2013 riots intensified a profound, democratic conflict: the social divide between the governors and the governed. Resistance to this divide is then traced through the defiance of governance and approaches to democracy in the history of anarchist thought. This book offers an original introduction to anarchism. It relates the diversity of anarchist thought to anti-police riots and the radicalization of democracy.

Anarchist Critique of Radical Democracy

Anarchist Critique of Radical Democracy
Author: Markus Lundström
Publisher: Palgrave MacMillan
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2018
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9783319769769

"The very best and most fruitful interrogations of political life often come from a deep and scrupulous plunge into a single event. So it is with Markus Lundström's brilliant analysis of the battle in the streets of Husby in 2013. The result is a subtle, philosophically informed and original understanding of the possibilities for enacting the promise of anarchism." -Professor James C. Scott, Yale University, USA "This is movement-based theorizing at its best. Lundström offers a compelling genealogy that details how anarchism might radicalize democracy, or might have to move entirely beyond it. This is an important book for those wondering what comes next, after alterglobalization, after Occupy, for activists in Europe and North America." -Associate Professor Richard Day, Queen's University, Canada "This book takes seriously tensions within anarchism between making democracy more participatory vs making a more radical arrangement beyond democracy. Lundström exemplifies these tensions, and appeals to a variety of anarchist writers for the theoretical tools to think this tension productively." -Professor Kathy E. Ferguson, University of Hawai'i, USA "Advancing on the anarchist tradition, Lundström's argument is timely, compelling, and deeply grounded in the collective experience of radical democratic contestation. This book deserves wide attention from scholars and activists alike." -Assistant Professor Uri Gordon, University of Nottingham, UK This book addresses the conflictual nature of radical democracy. By analyzing democratic conflict in Husby, a marginalized Stockholm city district, it exposes democracy's core division - between governors and governed - as theorized by Jacques Rancière. Tracing the genealogy of that critique, the book interrogates a historical tradition generically adverse to every form of governance, namely anarchism. By outlining the divergent and discontinuous relationship between democracy and anarchy - within the history of anarchist thought - the author adds to democratic theory 'The Impossible Argument': a compound anarchist critique of radical democracy.

Radical Democracy and Collective Movements Today

Radical Democracy and Collective Movements Today
Author: Alexandros Kioupkiolis
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 258
Release: 2016-04-08
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1317071956

The 'Arab spring', the Spanish indignados, the Greek aganaktismenoi and the Occupy Wall Street movement all share a number of distinctive traits; they made extensive use of social networking and were committed to the direct democratic participation of all as they co-ordinated and conducted their actions. Leaderless and self-organized, they were socially and ideologically heterogeneous, dismissing fixed agendas or ideologies. Still, the assembled multitudes that animated these mobilizations often claimed to speak in the name of ’the people’, and they aspired to empowered forms of egalitarian self-government in common. Similar features have marked collective resistances from the Zapatistas and the Seattle protests onwards, giving rise to theoretical and practical debates over the importance of these ideological and political forms. By engaging with the controversy between the autonomous, biopolitical ’multitude’ of Hardt and Negri and the arguments in favour of the hegemony of ’the people’ advanced by J. Rancière, E. Laclau, C. Mouffe and S. Zizek the central aim of this book is to discuss these instances of collective mobilization, to probe the innovative practices and ideas they have developed and to debate their potential to reinvigorate democracy whilst seeking something better than ’disaster capitalism’.

The Radical Papers

The Radical Papers
Author: Dimitrios I. Roussopoulos
Publisher: Black Rose Books Ltd.
Total Pages: 180
Release: 1987
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN:

The second of a series, this book continues to probe basic social issues with a fresh and non-dogmatic analysis. The timely issues covered here are the limitations of the new ecology movements, ?Irangate? and ?Contragate?, North American free trade, the origins of male domination, women’s role in transforming the urban environment, and a different brand of socialism...Contributors include: Murray Bookchin, Noam Chomsky, Rossella Di Leo, Frank Harrison, Gary Teeple.--Publisher's description.

The Education of Radical Democracy

The Education of Radical Democracy
Author: Sarah S. Amsler
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 250
Release: 2015-04-10
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1134460201

The Education of Radical Democracy explores why radical democracy is so necessary, difficult, and possible and why it is important to understand it as an educative activity . The book draws on critical social theory and critical pedagogy to explain what enables and sustains work for radical democratization, and considers how we can begin such work in neoliberal societies today. Exploring examples of projects from the nineteenth century to the present day, the book sheds light on a wealth of critical tools, research studies, theoretical concepts and practical methods. It offers a critical reading of the ‘crisis of hope’ in neoliberal capitalist societies, focusing on the problem of the ‘contraction of possibilities’ for democratic agency, resistance to domination, and practices of freedom. It argues that radically democratic thinking, practice, and forms of social organization are vital for countering and overcoming systemic hegemonies and that these can be learned and cultivated. This book will be of interest to academics, practitioners, researchers, and students in education and critical theory, and to those interested in the sociology, philosophy and politics of hope. It also invites new dialogues between theorists of neoliberal power and political possibility, those engaged in projects for radical democratization, and teachers in formal and informal educational settings.

The Political Theory of Anarchism

The Political Theory of Anarchism
Author: April Carter
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 128
Release: 2013-04-15
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 113502569X

Anarchism is a significant but relatively neglected of political thought. April Carter examines the anarchist critique of the state, of bureaucracy, of democratic government and contrasts this attitude with more orthodox political theory. She also considers anarchist theories and social and economic organization, the relevance of anarchism to contemporary conditions and the problems of idealism in politics.

Politics of Postanarchism

Politics of Postanarchism
Author: Saul Newman
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
Total Pages: 208
Release: 2010-03-24
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0748634975

What is the relevance of anarchist thought for politics and political theory today? While many have dismissed anarchism in the past, Saul Newman contends that anarchism's heretical critique of authority, and its insistence on full equality and liberty, places it at the forefront of the radical political imagination today. With the unprecedented expansion of state power in the name of security, the current 'crisis of capitalism' and the terminal decline of Marxist and social democratic projects, it is time to reconsider anarchism as a form of politics. This book seeks to renew anarchist thought through the concept of postanarchism.

Radical Theories

Radical Theories
Author: Darrow Schecter
Publisher: Manchester University Press
Total Pages: 228
Release: 1994
Genre: Anarchism
ISBN: 9780719043857

This book aims to reclaim and rediscover the range of radical, democratic, socialist alternatives to capitalism. Schecter argues that whilst the collapse of the Soviet Union has seen the failure of one type of socialism, it has presented the left with the cance to re-evaluate the contribution of thinkers and movements obscured by the hegemony of Marxism-Leninism.

Anarchist Cybernetics

Anarchist Cybernetics
Author: Thomas Swann
Publisher: Policy Press
Total Pages: 190
Release: 2021-11-15
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1529208793

Igniting a new field of scholarly inquiry, this pioneering book introduces cybernetic thinking to politics and organizational studies to explore the continuing development of the radical idea of participatory democracy within organizations.