Redirecting Radical Democracy: From Antagonism to Alienation

Sofia Anceau Helander

Published by Edinburgh University Press 2024

Redirecting Radical Democracy

From Antagonism to Alienation

Sofia Anceau Helander

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781399522182

Overview
Contents

About this book

How can radical democracy address today’s problems of alienation, manifested as precarisation?

Presents a deeper understanding of the challenges that alienation – manifested in particular as precarisation – poses to democracies and democratic movements today
Brings together leading contemporary work in radical democratic theory and critical theory, in particular the work of Chantal Mouffe and Rahel Jaeggi
Critically examines the deep assumptions about the individual subject in both radical democracy and the theory of alienation
Rethinks radical democracy by retrieving elements of the left-wing tradition from which it emerged

Today, alienation manifests itself primarily as precarisation and deprofessionalisation. When the subject’s work security or professional autonomy is undermined, relations – not only to others, but also to one's self – can become inhibited. This book shows that while alienation poses serious problems to modern democracies, it is a form of social suffering that is particularly difficult for democratic theory – preoccupied by the political – to address.

The book highlights that not even radical democracy, which emphasises the importance of social resistance, can include the alienated. The author shows this is not merely due to the historical emergence of radical democracy and its turn away from traditional socialism, but also to a deeper problem in the theory itself. Helander argues that in order to address alienation, radical democracy – as both normative theory and political strategy, must be reformulated starting with its deep assumptions about the subject.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Tables Publicly Available Download PDF	vi
Acknowledgements Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Introduction: From antagonism to alienation Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Part I Radical democracy
Chapter One. From the social to the political: The emergence and disappearance of the concept of alienation Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	31
Chapter Two. Antagonism or alienation? Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	50
Part II Alienation
Chapter Three. Alienation of the knower, the producer and the actor Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	89
Chapter Four. Towards an open and radical concept of alienation Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	120
Chapter Five. Alienation versus acedia Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	155
Part III Against alienation: Redirecting radical democracy
Chapter Six. Reformulating agonistic democracy and its subject Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	175
Chapter Seven. Redirecting the radical democratic strategy Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	195
Conclusion: Antagonism and alienation in the process of precarisation and beyond Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	221
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	231
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	244

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
Audience: College/higher education;
Pages
- Main content: 264
Illustrations
- Other: 5 black and white tables
Keywords: Politics

eBook

Published: February 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781399522182