III Political Thought and Theory /Théorie et Pensée Politiques
| Published date | 01 October 2023 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/00208345231209559 |
| Date | 01 October 2023 |
711
III
POLITICAL THOUGHT AND THEORY
THÉORIE ET PENSÉE POLITIQUES
73.6025 ABBINNETT, Ross — Gorz and Stiegler: politics, ecology
and the Neganthropocene. Journal of Classical Sociology
23(2), May 2023 : 195-210.
The article explores the relationship between André Gorz’s account of the
possibility of a deproletarianised regime of labour and Bernard Stiegler’s
theory of the Neganthropocene. Gorz’s formulation of the impact of com-
puter and robotic systems on the turnover of capital was, I will argue, a
turning point in the way critical theory conceived the social implications of
technology. His account of the supervenience of work and culture over the
sphere of production forms the basis of the fundamental questions about
life, creativity, and freedom that have emerged in the digital age. The pa-
per will show that it is this notion of a fragile and disputed supervenience
that is re-formulated and extended in Stiegler’s account of the Neganthro-
pocene, particularly in his account of the fate of reflexive culture under the
regime of global-digital capitalisation. [R]
73.6026 ANFINSON, Kellan — Ecocritique at the end of the world.
New Political Science 45(1), 2023 : 142-153.
This essay revisits Timothy W. Luke’s Ecocritique to make a case for its
relevance today, when the world is on the brink of runaway climate change
and it is unclear what direction societies will take. To do so, it proceeds in
three parts. First, it outlines three significant shifts that have taken pla ce,
undermining some of the coordinates that guided Luke’s Ecocritique and
raising new problems for political ecology today. Then, it draws a few les-
sons from Ecocritique that remain vital to political ecology today. Finally,
inspired by the way Luke mapped his ecocritique by examining a number
of thinkers, projects, and movements, I will briefly outline a number of sites
that seem critical for mapping new ways forward at this juncture. The es-
say concludes with five suggestions for how ecological politics might pro-
ceed today. [R] [See Abstr. 73.5904]
73.6027 ASIS ROIG, Rafael de — Tommaso Greco’s proposal about
La legge della fiducia. Alle radici del diritto. Derechos y Lib-
ertades 48, Jan. 2023 : 37-46.
La legge della fiducia. Alle radici del diritto, is a proposal for understanding
the Law and, at the same time, an invitation to reflect on its meaning and
sense. These brief reflections address some of the questions on which the
book invites reflection and raise some of the doubts raised by Tommaso
Greco’s proposal. [R]
73.6028 BEE, Michele — The nurse of fanaticism: Adam Smith on
the origin of anti-establishment movements. History of Po-
litical Thought 44(1), Feb. 2023 : 92-115.
Like other Enlightenment thinkers, Smith advocates education to combat
popular ignorance as an antidote to fanaticism. However, he stands out
from them as he sees fanaticism above all as a moral problem which has
an economic solution. He attributes fanaticism to the emergence of anti-
establishment movements driven by excessive resentment against the
higher ranks of society and asserting excessively strict and unsocial moral
standards against the more relaxed morals of established groups, accused
of being corrupt. Smith's root solution to fanaticism can be found in the
general improvement of living conditions which comforts people in the
hope of bettering their situation. This hope leads people to gradually relax
and adopt less rigid moral attitudes in contrast to the gloomy attitude of
fanatics and their overly strict morals. [R]
73.6029 BELADI, Hamid, et al.— On stability of economic networks.
Theory and Decision 94(4), May 2023 : 677-691.
In the spirit of J. Von Neumann and O. Morgenstern (Theory of Games
and Economic Behavior, Princeton U. P., 1944), we introduce a notion of
network stability. We study the structure of stable economic networks and
their associated stable payoff allocations by analyzing the conditions un-
der which complete networks and star networks (both with desirable prop-
erty of inclusiveness) are stable. We also address conditions for existence
and uniqueness of stable set of networks. [R]
73.6030 BETTY, Louis — Rhinos and hippos, Oh My! Laurent Ober-
tone and the dangers of domestication. French Politics,
Culture and Society 41(1), March 2023 : 48-70.
Laurent Obertone is virtually unknown outside the French-speaking world.
The author of bestselling fiction and nonfiction works on crime, immigra-
tion, and civil war in France, Obertone maintains a cult following despite
being exiled from mainstream media. This article examines the motifs of
Obertone's work, focusing on human domestication, that is, the tendency
of prosperous societies to excuse criminal behavior due to guilt, virtue sig-
naling, and fear of conflict. Obertone sees French judicial laxity as a prod-
uct of misguided humanitarianism coupled with status competition among
elites to show the greatest indulgence toward criminals. This attitude is
pushing France toward civil conflict, as criminals take advantage of a cul-
ture de l'excuse. [R, abr.]
73.6031 BÖSEL, Bernd — Der psychotechnologische Komplex —
Die Automatisierung mentaler Prozesse als demokratie-
theoretisches Problem (The psychotechnological com-
plex — The automation of mental processes as a problem
of democracy theory). Zeitschrift für Politikwissenschaft
32(2), June 2022 : 551-571.
The article deals with the intertwining of psyche, technology, and politics
first by means of a discussion of French philosopher Bernard Stiegler
(1952-2020), who, in his later works, began to conceptualize media as
psychotechnologies and argued for supplementing the category of bi-
opower, so popularly used in many disciplines since Foucault, with that of
“psychopower”. The term “psychopolitics”, which also emerges in this dis-
cussion, will then be given a more concrete meaning with the help of Ger-
man theorists Alexandra Rau and Byung-Chul Han. On this conceptual as
well as contemporary diagnostic basis, the second half of the article out-
lines the “psychotechnological arsenal” of the present: this refers to digital
technological innovations that aim to influence the psychological pro-
cesses of users, and to which one can count persuasive technologies, mi-
crotargeting, apps for wellness and mental health, and affective compu-
ting, among others. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 73.5789]
73.6032 BOSWORTH, Kai — The ambiguous role of (eco)populism
in the work of Timothy Luke. New Political Science 45(1),
2023 : 129-141.
The concept of “eco-populism” has been used by the political theorist Tim-
othy Luke to designate the possibility of open-ended green political futures
which might be constructed beyond the limited ecological imaginaries of
technoscience, neoliberalism, and Marxism. This article interrogates the
conceptual origins through which “eco-populism” became the preferred
name for this alternative. Eco-populism is taken to rightly critique some of
the class characteristics of ecological destruction, but it obscures their ex-
tension into the realms of reactionary po litics, private property, and North
American agrarian settler colonialism. This article develops an immanent
critique of the formal limits of populism, while also demonstrating its his-
torical formation in the US steers it away from more radical orientations
towards climate justice. [R] [See Abstr. 73.5904]
73.6033 BUCHHOLZ, Hans-Ludwig — Shiller oder Schiller? (Shiller
or Schiller?). Zeitschrift für Politikwissenschaft 32(1), March
2022 : 75-94.
The article examines how the social sciences can use fictional literature to
study economic inequality. Usually, the relevant research limits itself to
societal-factual narratives, as the example of Robert Shiller’s Narrative
Economics shows. However, this approach can restrict narratives to the
role of a one-dimensional variable in economics, or it inadvertently literises
them, which then calls into question their objectivity. In contrast, theorists
like Friedrich Schiller and Martha Nussbaum emphasize the multifaceted
functions of literary narratives. They tend to place exaggerated hopes in
these narratives’ objectivity, though and risk conflating fictional represen-
tations with the reality of peoples’ lives. Comparing the two lines of r e-
search reveals that literary and societal narratives complement each other
as long as their specific functions remain strictly separated. [R, abr.] [See
Abstr. 73.5991]
73.6034 BURLES, Regan — Kant’s domestic analogy: international
and global order. European Journal of International Relations
29(2), June 2023 : 501-522.
The domestic analogy is an old but persistent problem in theories of inter-
national politics. This paper examines the problem in the work of Immanuel
Kant, whose political writings are often cited as a paradigmatic example of
the analogy between individuals and states. Attention to Kant’s own
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