DOCSLIB.ORG

Making Space for Free Subjects: Squatting, Resistance, and the Possibility of Ethics', HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory, Vol

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Making Space for Free Subjects: Squatting, Resistance, and the Possibility of Ethics', HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory, Vol Edinburgh Research Explorer Making space for free subjects Citation for published version: Grohmann, S 2018, 'Making space for free subjects: Squatting, resistance, and the possibility of ethics', HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory, vol. 8, no. 3, pp. 506-521. https://doi.org/10.1086/701113 Digital Object Identifier (DOI): 10.1086/701113 Link: Link to publication record in Edinburgh Research Explorer Document Version: Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Published In: HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory General rights Copyright for the publications made accessible via the Edinburgh Research Explorer is retained by the author(s) and / or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing these publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. Take down policy The University of Edinburgh has made every reasonable effort to ensure that Edinburgh Research Explorer content complies with UK legislation. If you believe that the public display of this file breaches copyright please contact [email protected] providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 28. Sep. 2021 2018FHAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory 8 (3): 506–521 ARTICLE Making space for free subjects Squatting, resistance, and the possibility of ethics Steph GROHMANN, School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography, University of Oxford and Centre for Homeless and Inclusion Health, University of Edinburgh Anthropologists working on ethics have emphasized the importance of freedom for the becoming of ethical subjects. While some have therefore aligned themselves with the later work of Foucault, his earlier work has been identified as part of a “science of unfreedom” antithetical to the study of ethics. In this article, I suggest that the “early Foucault” can nevertheless be relevant for the anthropology of ethics, specifically by looking at contexts where freedom is not a given, but has to be actively created through the overcoming of conditions of unfreedom. Drawing on Faubion’s discussion of ethical subject positions, as well as Foucault’swork on disciplinary architectures, I discuss how subject positions, ethical and otherwise, are also and especially produced through prac- tices of ordering material and symbolic space. Different socio-spatial orders can therefore either be designed to impede the flour- ishing of free ethical subjects, or to facilitate it. Keywords: ethics, subject position, space and place, territoriality, squatting, homelessness Introduction ticularly ingenious to their efforts (e.g., in different ways, Hirschkind 2006; Zigon 2007; Mahmood 2011; Mattingly Anthropology’s recent “ethical turn” has seen a revival 2012), as it specifically speaks to the notion of ethical be- of interest in questions of morality and ethics. Within coming as a “technology of the self.” One of the most the fast-growing literature on the ethical dimension of prominent examples of such work in recent years is cer- human life, a number of approaches have emerged, con- tainly James Faubion’s An anthropology of ethics (2011). cerning themselves with the embeddedness of ethics in In a decisive development of Foucauldian ethics, Fau- everyday life (Lambek 2010; Das 2015), with extraordi- bion argues that becoming an ethical subject is not only nary moments of ethical crisis (Zigon 2007; Faubion 2011), a matter of cultivating particular virtues or dispositions, the experiential dimension of the ethical (Csordas 1990, but also involves actors gradually aligning themselves 1993, 1994, 1999, 2008; Desjarlais and Throop 2011), with particular “ethically marked subject positions” (2011: moral reasoning (Sykes 2012), and moral narratives (Mat- 14), i.e. becoming occupants of predefined standpoints tingly 1998, 2010; Faubion 2001; Zigon 2012), to name within a given network of symbolic relationships. “Eth- just a few. While it is impossible to do justice to all these ical autopoiesis,” in this view, is therefore to a degree cir- contributions in this article, I will draw specifically on a cumscribed by the availability of such socially produced set of approaches that galvanize around the notion of the subject positions to the individual, thus situating indi- ethical subject, and the various ways that individuals cul- vidual freedom within an “encompassing web” (Robbins tivate the kind of self they associate with ideas of “the 2012) of social relations. good” (Laidlaw 2002, 2013; Widlok 2004; Hirschkind In this article, I would like to take up the notion of 2006; Lambek 2008; Mahmood 2011; Mattingly 2012). subject “positions” in what is perhaps a more literal sense As Laidlaw relates, a number of anthropologists work- than the one Faubion has in mind: I want to talk about ing in this vein have found the “neo-Aristotelian” ap- the ways that (ethical) subjects are produced by position- proach exemplified in the work of Michel Foucault par- ing bodies in material and symbolic space. I will draw on HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory. Volume 8, number 3. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/701113 © The Society for Ethnographic Theory. All rights reserved. 2575-1433/2018/0803-0011$10.00 This content downloaded from 129.215.019.038 on January 21, 2019 08:00:18 AM All use subject to University of Chicago Press Terms and Conditions (http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/t-and-c). 507 MAKING SPACE FOR FREE SUBJECTS ethnographic data taken from my research with home- to be widely known as “disciplinary architectures” (Fou- less people and squatters, conducted between 2010 and cault 2012) i.e. socio-spatial arrangements that are de- 2012 in Bristol, England, to illustrate this argument. signed to produce particular kinds of subjectivities and The limitations of format do not allow me to provide social relations. Foucault argues that such architectures, a comprehensive introduction to my field site here, found for example in prisons, hospitals, barracks, etc., for which I therefore have to refer the reader to my act as technologies of power, epitomized in an emblem- forthcoming book. However, to briefly contextualize, my atic example that has become the namesake for loci of fieldwork was conducted around the time that squat- discipline as such: the Panopticon. The concept is so well ting in England was turned from a civil dispute into a known that it hardly requires much of an explanation: criminal offence. Before this change in law in 2012, squat- a Panopticon, as originally devised by Jeremy Bentham, ting had, for practical purposes, been considered “legal,” is a type of architectural arrangement which distributes and the ongoing housing crisis across England, in con- bodies in space in such a way that they become subject cert with post-2008 austerity, meant that for thousands to constant and unbroken surveillance. It therefore pro- of people, squatting was a last-resort measure to alleviate duces, by virtue of its spatial properties, a range of lit- pressing housing need. My field site at the time harbored eral and figurative subject positions within a disciplin- a lively community of several hundred squatters, con- ary discourse comprised of brick-and-mortar as much nected in an ever-shifting network of dwellings, vehicle as of language and practice. For the interned, occupancy sites, and social spaces, which specifically understood of both the architecture and the discursive subject posi- itself as a self-help network for homeless and precari- tions it imposes is quite clearly a matter of coercion rather ously housed people. As squatters viewed it, squatting than choice—their behavior options are starkly restricted was a remedy for homelessness in the simple sense that and scripted through the relation to the other imposed as soon as a homeless person took possession of a squat, by the spatial properties of the inhabited space. More- they were no longer homeless, and thus, passively at the over, while the original Panopticon was a specific ar- mercy of the elements as much as their fellow man. In- chitectural innovation, its internal logic—as Foucault stead, they became “a squatter,” that is to say, a person himself shows—can be easily transposed between, and who by virtue of actively taking occupation of a space had enacted in, different socio-material spaces. When taken deliberately taken on a new social identity and position. as an abstract ordering principle, Panopticism can thus “A squatter,” in this view, was therefore not simply an- equally come to characterize a workplace, a school or other variety of homeless person (as the responsible so- even a “home.” The Panopticon is therefore what in this cial services would have it), they were an entirely different article I will call a “socio-spatial configuration,” i.e. an as- breed: someone who through deliberately resisting their semblage of spatial and social properties and practices exclusion from shelter had turned themselves not just that produce particular subject positions and their inter- into a dweller, but effectively, a rebel. This transformation relations. Such an ideal configuration is not only trans- of homeless people into squatters was inexorably tied up posable between different contexts, as the term “Panop- with their physical occupation of the space of the squat, ticism” indicates, but it is also what different systems and therefore aptly serves to illustrate how assuming a theories refer to as “scalable”: as a principle or model, it particular spatial position can, quite literally, translate can be applied to social systems of any size. In the fol- into assuming a particular subject position. lowing, I will argue that such abstract, transposable con- Faubion’s understanding of the term “subject posi- figurations are not limited to disciplinary architectures, tion” certainly goes beyond such a “geographical” inter- but rather, that subject “positions,” ethical or otherwise, pretation. At the same time, however, one also does not can also and especially be understood as literally con- have to stray too far from Foucault’sworkonethicsto structed and enacted through spatial practices.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Black Flag White Masks: Anti-Racism and Anarchist Historiography
    Black Flag White Masks: Anti-Racism and Anarchist Historiography Süreyyya Evren1 Abstract Dominant histories of anarchism rely on a historical framework that ill fits anarchism. Mainstream anarchist historiography is not only blind to non-Western elements of historical anarchism, it also misses the very nature of fin de siècle world radicalism and the contexts in which activists and movements flourished. Instead of being interested in the network of (anarchist) radicalism (worldwide), political historiography has built a linear narrative which begins from a particular geographical and cultural framework, driven by the great ideas of a few father figures and marked by decisive moments that subsequently frame the historical compart- mentalization of the past. Today, colonialism/anti-colonialism and imperialism/anti-imperialism both hold a secondary place in contemporary anarchist studies. This is strange considering the importance of these issues in world political history. And the neglect allows us to speculate on the ways in which the priorities might change if Eurocentric anarchist histories were challenged. This piece aims to discuss Eurocentrism imposed upon the anarchist past in the form of histories of anarchism. What would be the consequences of one such attempt, and how can we reimagine the anarchist past after such a critique? Introduction Black Flag White Masks refers to the famous Frantz Fanon book, Black Skin White Masks, a classic in anti-colonial studies, and it also refers to hidden racial issues in the history of the black flag (i.e., anarchism). Could there be hidden ethnic hierarchies in the main logic of anarchism's histories? The huge difference between the anarchist past and the histories of anarchism creates the gap here.
    [Show full text]
  • Contemporary Anarchist Studies
    Contemporary Anarchist Studies This volume of collected essays by some of the most prominent academics studying anarchism bridges the gap between anarchist activism on the streets and anarchist theory in the academy. Focusing on anarchist theory, pedagogy, methodologies, praxis, and the future, this edition will strike a chord for anyone interested in radical social change. This interdisciplinary work highlights connections between anarchism and other perspectives such as feminism, queer theory, critical race theory, disability studies, post- modernism and post-structuralism, animal liberation, and environmental justice. Featuring original articles, this volume brings together a wide variety of anarchist voices whilst stressing anarchism’s tradition of dissent. This book is a must buy for the critical teacher, student, and activist interested in the state of the art of anarchism studies. Randall Amster, J.D., Ph.D., professor of Peace Studies at Prescott College, publishes widely in areas including anarchism, ecology, and social movements, and is the author of Lost in Space: The Criminalization, Globalization , and Urban Ecology of Homelessness (LFB Scholarly, 2008). Abraham DeLeon, Ph.D., is an assistant professor at the University of Rochester in the Margaret Warner Graduate School of Education and Human Development. His areas of interest include critical theory, anarchism, social studies education, critical pedagogy, and cultural studies. Luis A. Fernandez is the author of Policing Dissent: Social Control and the Anti- Globalization Movement (Rutgers University Press, 2008). His interests include protest policing, social movements, and the social control of late modernity. He is a professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Northern Arizona University. Anthony J. Nocella, II, is a doctoral student at Syracuse University and a professor at Le Moyne College.
    [Show full text]
  • Libertarian Socialism
    Libertarian Socialism Politics in Black and Red Editors: Alex Prichard, Ruth Kinna, Saku Pinta, and David Berry The history of anarchist-Marxist relations is usually told as a history of faction- alism and division. These essays, based on original research and written espe- cially for this collection, reveal some of the enduring sores in the revolutionary socialist movement in order to explore the important, too often neglected left- libertarian currents that have thrived in revolutionary socialist movements. By turns, the collection interrogates the theoretical boundaries between Marxism and anarchism and the process of their formation, the overlaps and creative ten- sions that shaped left-libertarian theory and practice, and the stumbling blocks to movement cooperation. Bringing together specialists working from a range of political perspectives, the book charts a history of radical twentieth-century socialism, and opens new vistas for research in the twenty-first. Contributors examine the political and social thought of a number of leading socialists— Marx, Morris, Sorel, Gramsci, Guérin, C.L.R. James, Hardt and Negri—and key movements including the Situationist International, Socialisme ou Barbarie and Council Communism. Analysis of activism in the UK, Australasia, and the U.S. serves as the prism to discuss syndicalism, carnival anarchism, and the anarchistic currents in the U.S. civil rights movement. Contributors include Paul Blackledge, Lewis H. Mates, Renzo Llorente, Carl SUBJECT CATEGORY Levy, Christian Høgsbjerg, Andrew Cornell, Benoît Challand, Jean-Christophe Politics-Anarchism/Politics-Socialism Angaut, Toby Boraman, and David Bates. PRICE ABOUT THE EDITORS $26.95 Alex Prichard is senior lecturer in International Relations at the University of Exeter.
    [Show full text]
  • Rethinking Anarchy and the State in IR Theory: the Contributions of Classical Anarchism*
    Rethinking Anarchy and the State in IR Theory: The Contributions of Classical Anarchism* Alex Prichard University of Bristol © Alex Prichard School of Sociology, Politics, and International Studies, University of Bristol Working Paper No. 03-10 Dr Alex Prichard gained his PhD from Loughborough University in 2008. His research brings to light the international political theory of the anarchist Pierre- Joseph Proudhon, and will be published by Routledge in 2011 in the 'New International Relations' series as The International Political Theory of Pierre- Joseph Proudhon: A World Without Sovereigns. He is founder and convenor of the PSA Anarchist Studies Network and is co-editor of 'Contemporary Anarchist Studies', a new book series to be published by Continuum from 2010. Dr Prichard was a teaching fellow and research officer at the University of Bath (2008-2009) and is currently an ESRC Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Bristol. He will be a teaching fellow in International Political Theory at the LSE from September 2010. *Please do not cite without the author’s permission. Comments welcome to [email protected] Rethinking Anarchy and the State in IR Theory: The Contributions of Classical Anarchism Abstract: In this paper I intervene in an ongoing debate between Colin Wight and Alex Wendt regarding the nature of the state. The current debate revolves around whether the state is an agent or a structure and seems to have become stuck as regards to the ontological status of groups. For Wendt the state is a person; for Wight the state is a structure that constrains and enables individuals.
    [Show full text]
  • Agrarian Anarchism and Authoritarian Populism: Towards a More (State-)Critical ‘Critical Agrarian Studies’
    The Journal of Peasant Studies ISSN: 0306-6150 (Print) 1743-9361 (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/fjps20 Agrarian anarchism and authoritarian populism: towards a more (state-)critical ‘critical agrarian studies’ Antonio Roman-Alcalá To cite this article: Antonio Roman-Alcalá (2020): Agrarian anarchism and authoritarian populism: towards a more (state-)critical ‘critical agrarian studies’, The Journal of Peasant Studies, DOI: 10.1080/03066150.2020.1755840 To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/03066150.2020.1755840 © 2020 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group Published online: 20 May 2020. Submit your article to this journal Article views: 3209 View related articles View Crossmark data Citing articles: 4 View citing articles Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at https://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=fjps20 THE JOURNAL OF PEASANT STUDIES https://doi.org/10.1080/03066150.2020.1755840 FORUM ON AUTHORITARIAN POPULISM AND THE RURAL WORLD Agrarian anarchism and authoritarian populism: towards a more (state-)critical ‘critical agrarian studies’* Antonio Roman-Alcalá International Institute of Social Studies, The Hague, Netherlands ABSTRACT KEYWORDS This paper applies an anarchist lens to agrarian politics, seeking to Anarchism; authoritarian expand and enhance inquiry in critical agrarian studies. populism; critical agrarian Anarchism’s relevance to agrarian processes is found in three studies; state theory; social general areas: (1) explicitly anarchist movements, both historical movements; populism; United States of America; and contemporary; (2) theories that emerge from and shape these moral economy movements; and (3) implicit anarchism found in values, ethics, everyday practices, and in forms of social organization – or ‘anarchistic’ elements of human social life.
    [Show full text]
  • A Study of Permaculture and Anarchism in Global Justice Movements in New Zealand
    AN ALTERNATIVE TO DEVELOPMENT FRAMEWORK: A STUDY OF PERMACULTURE AND ANARCHISM IN GLOBAL JUSTICE MOVEMENTS IN NEW ZEALAND By Tazia Gaisford A thesis submitted to the Victoria University of Wellington in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Development Studies Victoria University of Wellington 2011 2 Abstract This study is a response to calls for alternatives to development by post- development authors and critics of post-development alike. It asks “can the praxis of permaculture and anarchism provide an alternative to development?” Although alternatives to development arguably do not exist untouched by the dominant development paradigm, it is possible to imagine and to create the different possible organisations based on principles of mutual aid, direct action and self-management. Anarchism as a politically focused social philosophy and permaculture as an ecologically focused design philosophy are mutually beneficial in strengthening each other. The combined analysis of alternatives to development uses case studies in the Wellington Region, primarily Climate Camp Aotearoa, with permaculture and anarchist principles, and contributes another perspective to the post-development debate. The two approaches share converging central ethics, principles and struggles of praxis. They recognise that transformative change is necessary. Whether it is called a cultural revolution, transition or paradigm shift, the underlying recognition is that we need to live more harmoniously with each other and the natural environment by creating diverse post-industrial societies. Many tools, principles and processes advocated by alternative development and post-development are the same. However, the combination of those tools, principles and processes, and how they are designed and applied in relation to each other systemically, are significant in determining whether or not the intent is that of an alternative to development.
    [Show full text]
  • Editorial: Postanarchism
    Editorial: Postanarchism SAUL NEWMAN Postanarchism is emerging as an important new current in anarchist thought, and it is the source of growing interest and debate amongst anarchist activists and scholars alike, as well as in broader academic circles. Given the number of internet sites, discussion groups, and new books and journal publications appearing on postanarchism, it is time that the challenges it poses to classical anarchist thought and practice are taken more seriously. Postanarchism refers to a wide body of theory – encompassing political theory, philosophy, aesthetics, literature and film studies – which attempts to explore new directions in anarchist thought and politics. While it includes a number of different perspectives and trajectories, the central contention of postanarchism is that classical anarchist philosophy must take account of new theoretical directions and cultural phenomena, in particular, postmodernity and poststructuralism. While these theoretical categories have had a major impact on different areas of scholarship and thought, as well as politics, anarchism tends to have remained largely resistant to these developments and continues to work within an Enlightenment humanist epistemological framework1 which many see as being in need of updating. At the same time, anarchism – as a form of political theory and practice – is becoming increasingly important to radical struggles and global social movements today, to a large extent supplanting Marxism. Postanarchism seeks to revitalise anarchist theory in light of these new struggles and forms of resistance. However, rather than dismissing the tradition of classical anarchism, postanarchism, on the contrary, seeks to explore its potential and radicalise its possibilities. It remains entirely consistent, I would suggest, with the libertarian and egal- itarian horizon of anarchism; yet it seeks to broaden the terms of anti-authoritarian thought to include a critical analysis of language, discourse, culture and new modalities of power.
    [Show full text]
  • The Direction of Ecological Insurrections: Political Ecology Comes to Daggers with Fukuoka
    The direction of ecological insurrections: political ecology comes to daggers with Fukuoka Alexander Dunlap1 University of Oslo, Norway Abstract This article proposes a political ecology of resistance. This is done by putting forward insurrectionary political ecology as a lens of research and struggle, through the confluence of the complementary "political" practice of insurrectionary anarchism and the "ecological" method of "no-till natural farming." While seemingly different, the article argues that these practices are compatible, animating a political ecology of resistance around anti- authoritarian political and ecological lifeways. This direction, or compass, of insurrectionary political ecology is discussed in relation to other autonomous tendencies, as it complements and strengthens existing critical schools of thought heavily influenced by political ecology, such as (decolonial) degrowth, environmental justice and post-development. Insurrectionary political ecology deepens connections with scholarly rebels in political and ecological struggles outside—and rejecting—the university system. The article includes discussions of research ethics, various conceptions of "activism", autonomous tendencies and existing differences between the concepts of "revolution" and "insurrection", in order to debate notions of "counter-hegemony" and "duel- power." The overall purpose here is to offer a theoretical ethos for a political ecology of resistance that invigorates political praxis to subvert the ongoing socio-ecological catastrophes. Keywords: Resistance; insurrectionary political ecology; post-development; decolonization; degrowth; insurrectionary ecology; environmental justice Résumé Cet article propose une écologie politique de la résistance. Cela se fait en proposant «l'écologie politique insurrectionnelle» comme un prisme de recherche et de lutte, à travers la confluence de la pratique politique de l'anarchisme insurrectionnel et de la méthode «écologique» de «l'agriculture naturelle sans labour».
    [Show full text]
  • Medieval History and Anarchist Studies’, Forthcoming in Anarchist Studies, 29:1 (Spring 2021)
    If you wish to cite this pre-publication paper, please use the following format: Ian Forrest, ‘Medieval History and Anarchist Studies’, forthcoming in Anarchist Studies, 29:1 (Spring 2021). ***************** Medieval history and anarchist studies Abstract: Medieval history and anarchist studies have a great deal to offer one another, but there is very little intellectual traffic between the two fields. This paper encourages historians to deploy anarchism as an approach to historical research akin to Marxist or feminist historiography, so that ‘anarchist history’ can move beyond the history of the modern anarchist movement and become a radical new way of studying and learning from the human past. Recent developments in anthropology and archaeology are offered as examples of how this might happen. Medieval history would benefit from the development of an anarchist approach to questions of ungoverned spaces, domination and inequality, and the growth of states and institutions. Anarchist studies would benefit from greater awareness of recent research in medieval history, much of which is relevant to anarchist interests. Keywords: medieval history, feminism, anthropology, archaeology ******************* If you wish to cite this pre-publication paper, please use the following format: Ian Forrest, ‘Medieval History and Anarchist Studies’, forthcoming in Anarchist Studies, 29:1 (Spring 2021). If you wish to cite this pre-publication paper, please use the following format: Ian Forrest, ‘Medieval History and Anarchist Studies’, forthcoming in Anarchist Studies, 29:1 (Spring 2021). ***************** Medieval history and anarchist studies Not only the past but also the future, not only the future but also the past Ursula Le Guin, The Dispossessed This paper makes two proposals: that an anarchist perspective has a lot to offer the study of medieval history, and that medieval history has, in turn, a lot to offer anarchist studies.
    [Show full text]
  • Changing Anarchism.Pdf
    Changing anarchism Changing anarchism Anarchist theory and practice in a global age edited by Jonathan Purkis and James Bowen Manchester University Press Manchester and New York distributed exclusively in the USA by Palgrave Copyright © Manchester University Press 2004 While copyright in the volume as a whole is vested in Manchester University Press, copyright in individual chapters belongs to their respective authors. This electronic version has been made freely available under a Creative Commons (CC-BY-NC- ND) licence, which permits non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction provided the author(s) and Manchester University Press are fully cited and no modifications or adaptations are made. Details of the licence can be viewed at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ Published by Manchester University Press Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9NR, UK and Room 400, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010, USA www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data applied for ISBN 0 7190 6694 8 hardback First published 2004 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Typeset in Sabon with Gill Sans display by Servis Filmsetting Ltd, Manchester Printed in Great Britain by CPI, Bath Dedicated to the memory of John Moore, who died suddenly while this book was in production. His lively, innovative and pioneering contributions to anarchist theory and practice will be greatly missed.
    [Show full text]
  • "The Twentieth-Century Chinese Anarchist Movement." Daoism and Anarchism: Critiques of State Autonomy in Ancient and Modern China
    Rapp, John A. "The twentieth-century Chinese anarchist movement." Daoism and Anarchism: Critiques of State Autonomy in Ancient and Modern China. London: Continuum, 2012. 107– 122. Contemporary Anarchist Studies. Bloomsbury Collections. Web. 28 Sep. 2021. <http:// dx.doi.org/10.5040/9781501306778.ch-005>. Downloaded from Bloomsbury Collections, www.bloomsburycollections.com, 28 September 2021, 20:13 UTC. Copyright © John A. Rapp 2012. You may share this work for non-commercial purposes only, provided you give attribution to the copyright holder and the publisher, and provide a link to the Creative Commons licence. 5 The twentieth-century Chinese anarchist movement It might seem odd for a book on Chinese anarchism to devote only one chapter to the early twentieth-century anarchist movement in China, which began separately at the turn of the last century among Chinese student groups in Tokyo and Paris, respectively, and continued in China itself after the 1911 revolution until it was gradually eclipsed by Marxist–Leninism in the 1920s. First, given the rather extensive scholarship on this movement both in and outside of China, 1 and second, the limited relationship of that movement to either premodern Daoist anarchism or to the dissident Marxists whose critique will be labeled “neo-anarchist” in later chapters, that early twentieth-century movement lies largely outside the scope of this book, with two different but notable exceptions that are the focus of this chapter. For the most part the early twentieth-century Chinese anarchists adopted the themes of their European and American counterparts, especially concerning the need for a social revolution to overthrow the capitalist state and to establish social and economic equality within an industrial, modern, but communal society, also to be accomplished through establishing experiments such as work–study movements where people would combine intellectual work with manual labor.
    [Show full text]
  • Post-Anarchism Today” 2010.1
    9 9 Anarchist Developments in Cultural Studies “Post-Anarchism today” 2010.1 Editorial — Post-anarchism Today Lewis Call∗ Welcome to Post-anarchism Today. This is certainly not USA Today, et ce n’est certainement pas Aujourd’hui en France. Indeed, it is a refreshing antidote to all such discourses of modern state capitalism. During its short but colourful existence, post-anarchism has always been libertarian and socialist in its basic philosophical outlook: that’s the anarchism part. But post-@ has also maintained its independence from modern rationalism and modern concepts of subjectivity: that’s the post- part. As I survey post-anarchism today, I find to my surprise and delight that both parts are stronger than ever. It’s now clear that post-@ is a part of anarchism, not something that stands against it. It’s equally clear that post-@ has changed anarchism in some interesting and important ways. I speak of post-anarchism today because I believe that we are liv- ing through a post-anarchist moment. I know,I know: the owl of Minerva flies only at dusk, so how can I claim to understand the mo- ment I’m living in? But one of the many great things about post-@ is that it means we can be done, finally, with Hegel. Minerva’s owl needs to get a job. We need a new bird, faster, more intuitive, more open source: something more like the Linux penguin. Things hap- pen faster than they used to, and the rate of change is accelerating. Our ability to comment on these things must also accelerate.
    [Show full text]