From Antagonism to Alienation. Redirecting Radical Democracy
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ACTA UNIVERSITATIS UPSALIENSIS Skrifter utgivna av Statsvetenskapliga föreningen i Uppsala 206 From Antagonism to Alienation – Redirecting Radical Democracy Sofia Helander Dissertation presented at Uppsala University to be publicly examined in Brusewitzsalen, Gamla torget 6, Uppsala, Monday, 6 September 2021 at 13:00 for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. The examination will be conducted in Swedish. Faculty examiner: Associate Professor Mikael Carleheden (Department of Sociology, University of Copenhagen). Abstract Helander, S. 2021. From Antagonism to Alienation. Redirecting Radical Democracy. Skrifter utgivna av Statsvetenskapliga föreningen i Uppsala 206. 216 pp. Uppsala: Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis. ISBN 978-91-513-1226-2. How can democratic theory address contemporary problems of alienation? Today, alienation manifests itself primarily in processes of precarization and deprofessionalization. When the subject’s work security or professional autonomy is undermined, her relations – not only to others, but also to herself – can become inhibited. This dissertation argues that while alienation poses a serious problem in today’s democracies, it is a form of social suffering that is particularly difficult for democratic theory – preoccupied by the political – to address. In this dissertation, I seek to address alienation in a radical and open way by taking agonistic democracy as my starting point. Indeed, I assume that a suitable theory of alienation should satisfy two general criteria. On the one hand, it should be radical, engaging with the suffering that people experience in a way that encourages them to contest it. On the other hand, it should be open, avoiding the pitfalls of determinism, human essentialism and the ideal of harmony, all of which risk breeding authoritarianism. In this respect, agonistic democracy seems like the best theory to address alienation. The theory is characterized by its emphasis on transformative social struggle as well as its concern with avoiding what it sees as the authoritarian pitfalls of traditional socialism. However, while agonistic democracy, preoccupied with the struggle against social marginalization, should be able to address alienation, it cannot. This, I argue, is not merely due to the historical conditions from which it emerges – marked by a turn away from traditional socialist concepts towards a focus on antagonism – but also due to a deeper tension in the theory itself. In its attempts to remain both radical and open, agonistic democracy comes to rely on a subject who is flexible, strong and conflict-seeking. For this reason, it fails to include those who cannot thrive in social disorder, those who are left alienated. I therefore seek to reformulate the subject of agonistic democracy in order to address alienation in an open and radical way. Keywords: political theory, social theory, democratic theory, critical theory, radical democracy, agonistic democracy, alienation, precarity Sofia Helander, Department of Government, Box 514, Uppsala University, SE-75120 Uppsala, Sweden. © Sofia Helander 2021 ISSN 0346-7538 ISBN 978-91-513-1226-2 URN urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-442427 (http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-442427) Contents Introduction .................................................................................................... 9 From Antagonism to Alienation ................................................................... 11 Alienation today ....................................................................................... 13 The problem: addressing alienation in a radical and open way ................ 18 Radical democracy – the strongest answer ............................................... 19 What is missing? The theoretical gap ....................................................... 21 Purpose and research questions ................................................................ 22 Contribution to the literature .................................................................... 24 Structure of the book ................................................................................ 24 Criteria and Concepts .................................................................................... 26 Criteria, type of critique and demarcations .............................................. 26 Defining radical democracy ..................................................................... 34 The debates on radical democracy – the social and the subject ............... 36 The debate on alienation .......................................................................... 40 Significance .............................................................................................. 42 Radical Democracy ....................................................................................... 43 1. From the Social to the Political – the Emergence and Disappearance of the Concept of Alienation ......................................................................... 45 The turn from the economic to the social – the emergence of the concept of alienation ................................................................................ 45 The turn from the social to the political – the disappearance of the concept of alienation ................................................................................ 48 2. Antagonism or Alienation? ...................................................................... 59 Open and radical – the aims of radical democracy ................................... 60 A radical democratic concept of alienation? ............................................ 68 The agonist ............................................................................................... 78 Conclusion ................................................................................................ 88 Alienation ...................................................................................................... 89 3. Alienation of the Knower, the Producer and the Actor ........................... 91 Hegel’s alienation of the knower .............................................................. 92 Marx’s alienation of the producer ............................................................ 97 The alienation of the actor ...................................................................... 103 Open and radical? ................................................................................... 114 Conclusion .............................................................................................. 115 4. Towards an Open and Radical Concept of Alienation .......................... 117 Reconstructing the concept of alienation – resources and challenges .... 118 Appropriation – a conceptual clarification ............................................. 120 Impaired appropriation as domination ................................................... 125 Impaired appropriation as disorientation ................................................ 139 Conclusion .............................................................................................. 147 5. Alienation versus Acedia ....................................................................... 148 Defining and distinguishing the concept of alienation ........................... 148 Radical and open? .................................................................................. 153 Alienation versus Acedia ....................................................................... 159 Conclusion .............................................................................................. 162 Against Alienation – Redirecting Radical Democracy .............................. 163 6. Reformulating Agonistic Democracy and its Subject ............................ 165 Reformulating the subject ...................................................................... 166 Reformulating agonistic democracy – from antagonism to alienation ... 170 Is the theory still radical democratic? ..................................................... 177 Conclusion .............................................................................................. 181 7. Redirecting the Radical Democratic Strategy ........................................ 183 The struggle with and against alienation ................................................ 183 Who to include? ..................................................................................... 185 How to organize? ................................................................................... 195 What to demand? .................................................................................... 202 Conclusion .............................................................................................. 204 Conclusion .................................................................................................. 205 Bibliography ............................................................................................... 211 Acknowledgements Writing is a solitary endeavour and, therefore, completely dependent on your company. The time spent exchanging ideas with people in and outside of the university has by far been the most exciting part of the thesis and what has made it worthwhile. First and above all, I wish to express my gratitude to my advisors Sofia Näsström, Bo Bengtsson and Alexandra Segerberg. Thank you, Sofia, for approaching every little unfinished draft with the same excitement and subtle attention, and for your almost magical ability to find gems in the most