Giorgio Agamben

"Where are the Missing Masses? The Quasi-publics and Non-publics of Technoscience"

by shiju sam varughese

Minerva: A Review of Science, Learning and Policy, Vol. 50, No. 2, 2012 (Special Issue: Young Scholars Take a Forward Look), DOI 10.1007/s11024-012-9197-3

The paper offers a political-philosophical analysis of the state and publics in the age of technoscience to propose... more The paper offers a political-philosophical analysis of the state and publics in the age of technoscience to propose three distinct categories of publics: scientific-citizen publics constituted by civil society, quasi-publics that initiate another kind of engagement through the activation of ‘political society,’ and non-publics cast outside these spheres of engagement, based on the empirical contexts of public engagement with technoscience in non-western contexts like India.

The limits to good governance: a case study of North Sea Fisheries

by Liza Griffin

Griffin, L (2010) ‘The limits to good governance: a case study of North Sea Fisheries’ Geoforum. 41 (2). pp. 282-292

EL CUERPO DES-ENCARNADO. APUNTES PARA UNA TEORÍA DE LA INFANCIA COMO RESISTENCIA

by Mauricio Amar

Published in "ACTUEL MARX INTERVENCIONES N° 9 PRIMER SEMESTRE 2010", pp. 59-75.

El hombre contemporáneo es un ser des-encarnado. En la medida en que el capitalismo se ha extendido de manera extensa... more El hombre contemporáneo es un ser des-encarnado. En la medida en que el capitalismo se ha extendido de manera extensa e intensa por el planeta, el habla ha sido expropiada por el poder, alejando su relación con la experiencia del cuerpo. Este último se transforma así en espacio de consumo, donde el deseo es transformado en valor de cambio. Se bosqueja en este artículo la posibilidad de re-encuentro del hombre con la experiencia, no transformándola en parte del museo de la infancia, ni recurriendo a la tradición, sino trayendo de vuelta una infancia que, en tanto lugar privilegiado del uso del mundo, contiene siempre una posibilidad de re-encarnamiento del cuerpo.

Contributo alla critica della giuridsizione del bene comune a partire dal diritto romano

by Giacomo Pezzano

Published in “Koiné”, XVIII, nn. 1-3, gennaio-giugno 2011, pp. 211-220

Giorgio Agamben, “Il Regno e la Gloria. Per una genealogia teologica dell’economia e del governo”, Bollati Boringhieri, Torino 2009

by Giacomo Pezzano

Published in“Lessico di Etica pubblica”, II, 1, 2011, pp. 130-138

A critical review of one of the most important books in the contemporary philosophical debate A critical review of one of the most important books in the contemporary philosophical debate

Agamben's Fictions

by Colin McQuillan

Philosophy Compass 7.6 (2012)

This article argues that Agamben’s conception of fiction is crucial for understanding his recent works. I suggest that... more This article argues that Agamben’s conception of fiction is crucial for understanding his recent works. I suggest that the key to understanding Agamben conception of fiction is to be found in a few curious remarks at the end of Language and Death. These remarks explain why the distinctions between life and death, animal life and human life, bare life and political forms of life, the outlaw and the sovereign, and the norm and the exception that continue to preoccupy Agamben are all fictions. After considering Agamben’s account of these fictions and their relation to the relevant passage in Language and Death, the article explores the ways Agamben thinks the fictions that govern human action and social life might be unworked.

SUR LE PROBLEME DE POESIE OU LA PROBLEMATISATION EN TANT QUE POESIE

by Enis Memisoglu

(2008) article to be published in Monokl Deleuze International Edition

LA POSSIBILITÉ DE LA JUSTICE CHEZ L’ONTOLOGIE D’ARISTOTE

by Enis Memisoglu

Unpublished paper

Exceptional States: The (Bio)politics of Love in Darwish's A State of Siege

by Tom Langley

published in 'Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies', 2012

Mahmoud Darwish's transition from the resistance poet of Palestinian nationalism to the ‘meditative and lyrical’... more Mahmoud Darwish's transition from the resistance poet of Palestinian nationalism to the ‘meditative and lyrical’ writer he became in his later years has often been controversial with Darwish's readers, who have frequently seen it as a movement away from the politics that first brought him to prominence. The question, as one commentator has provocatively put it, has been: ‘Does Mahmoud Darwish have a right to produce a book of poetry solely dedicated to love?’ (Hadidi 2008: 95). This essay will focus on his poem A State of Siege, which, though written during and about the 2002 Israeli siege of the West Bank, seems at times more concerned with the possibilities for love than with politics. I first attempt to view the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, focusing particularly on the period of the second intifada, within the theoretical framework of biopolitics established by Giorgio Agamben, before then going on to explore the resonances between Darwish's poem and the Homo Sacer project in an effort to bring to the surface the ‘emancipatory possibilities’ implicit in both texts. Ultimately, I want to suggest that there is, in fact, something radically political about the act of writing love poetry in a time of siege.

Illegal evictions? Overwriting possession and orality with law’s violence in Cambodia

by Simon Springer

Springer, S. Forthcoming. Illegal evictions? Overwriting possession and orality with law’s violence in Cambodia. Journal of Agrarian Change.

The unfolding of a juridico-cadastral system in present-day Cambodia is at odds with local understandings of... more The unfolding of a juridico-cadastral system in present-day Cambodia is at odds with local understandings of landholding, which are entrenched in notions of community consensus and existing occupation. The discrepancy between such orally recognized antecedents and the written word of law have been at the heart of the recent wave of dispossessions that have swept across the country. Contra the standard critique that corruption has set the tone, this paper argues that evictions in Cambodia are often literally underwritten by the articles of law. Whereas ‘possession’ is a well-understood and accepted concept in Cambodia, a cultural basis rooted in what James C. Scott refers to as ‘orality’, coupled with a long history of subsistence agriculture, semi-nomadic lifestyles, barter economies, and–until recently–widespread land availability have all ensured that notions of ‘property’ are vague among the country’s majority rural poor. In drawing a firm distinction between possessions and property, where the former is premised upon actual use and the latter is embedded in exploitation, this article examines how proprietorship is inextricably bound to the violence of law.

Spatialising the Refugee Camp

by Adam Ramadan

Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers

Benvenuti in tempi interessanti di Slavoj Žižek. La rivoluzione è possibile nel regno dell’uomo-massa?

by Pietro Piro

Recensione critica a S. Žižek, Benvenuti in tempi interessanti, Ponte alle Grazie, Milano 2012.

E' vero che per soppiantare efficacemente il capitale, ciò di cui abbiamo bisogno è l'opera graduale, lunga e faticosa... more E' vero che per soppiantare efficacemente il capitale, ciò di cui abbiamo bisogno è l'opera graduale, lunga e faticosa di riorganizzare interamente il processo produttivo in modo tale che le forze di alienazione della regolamentazione tanto del mercato quanto dello Stato vengano sostituite da un'autentica pianificazione organizzata "dal basso", in un rapporto di trasparenza con i produttori come afferma S. Žižek, oppure, il capitale non si tocca perché garantisce la lunga vita dell'uomo-massa?

2012 “Of Camps, Gulags & Extraordinary Renditions: Infrastructural Violence in Romania,” Ethnography, 13(4): Forthcoming.

by Bruce O'Neill

Paper prepared for a special issue of Ethnography (13/4) on “Infrastructural Violence" edited by Bruce O'Neill and Dennis Rodgers.

From fascist prisons to Communist-era gulags, Romania does not simply have a history of torture, but also an existing... more From fascist prisons to Communist-era gulags, Romania does not simply have a history of torture, but also an existing infrastructure conducive to its practice. Romania, human rights organizations have made clear, hosted a number of “secret detention centers” used by the U.S. Government in its program of “extraordinary rendition,” whereby intelligence agents illegally rendered, detained and tortured suspected terrorists. Both Romania’s gulags and its secret detention centers call to mind Giorgio Agamben’s notion of “the camp” – an extra-juridical space where human life is reduced to its bare form – which is why this article pivots on a historical comparison between the two. While both gulags and extraordinary rendition share material infrastructure, and both were organized around the production and management of “bare life,” this article shows that rendition operates through a very different spatial logic than a gulag. As a result, survivors of these different spatial iterations of “the camp” offer qualitatively different accounts of bare life. This observation allows ethnographers to extend Agamben’s analytical reach by spatially contextualizing the form, relations and kinds of violence taking shape inside “camps,” allowing theorists to think about bare life as a historically specific phenomenon.

Apuntes a propósito de la experiencia

by Adriana Segura

Cátedra de Estética, Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, UNAM.

Resignificar la noción de experiencia fue la consigna de Benjamin hacia la filosofía venidera; para recorrer ese... more Resignificar la noción de experiencia fue la consigna de Benjamin hacia la filosofía venidera; para recorrer ese camino, habrá que preguntarse acerca de las significaciones actuales que desde el uso común, la filosofía y la estética, adquiere la propia noción y cuestionarnos acerca de el tránsito de la experiencia original a la experiencia secularizada.

”Emme ole laittomia, olemme ihmisiä” - Liikkuvat muukalaiset symbolisen väkivallan kohteina sekä diskurssianalyyttinen tapaustutkimus ”laittoman” siirtolaisuuden uutisoinnista espanjalaisissa sanomalehdissa

by Niina Oisalo

Master's Thesis, Department of Political Sciences, University of Tampere 2005

The title in English: "We are not illegals, we are people" - The moving stranger as an object of symbolic... more The title in English: "We are not illegals, we are people" - The moving stranger as an object of symbolic violence and a discourse analytical case study on the representation of "illegal" immigrants in Spanish newspapers 

Neoliberalising violence: of the exceptional and the exemplary in coalescing moments

by Simon Springer

Springer, S. 2012. Neoliberalising violence: of the exceptional and the exemplary in coalescing moments. Area 44 (2), 136-143.

This paper sets out to develop two related ideas. First, it seeks to identify how both violence and neoliberalism can... more This paper sets out to develop two related ideas. First, it seeks to identify how both violence and neoliberalism can be considered as moments. From this shared conceptualisation of process and fluidity, I argue that it becomes easier to recognise how these two phenomena actually converge. Building upon this conceived coalescence of neoliberalism and violence, the second aim is to recognise how the hegemony of neoliberalism positions it as an abuser, which facilitates the abandonment of those ‘Others’ who fall outside of neoliberal normativity. I argue that the widespread banishment of ‘Others’ under neoliberalism produces a ‘state of exception’, wherein because of its inherently dialectic nature, exceptional violence is transformed into exemplary violence. This metamorphosis occurs as aversion for alterity intensifies under neoliberalism and its associated violence against ‘Others’ comes to form the rule.

Tabula Rasa and Human Nature

by Robbie Duschinsky

draft - forthcoming in Philosophy

It is widely believed that the philosophical concept of ‘tabula rasa’ originates with Locke’s Essay Concerning Human... more It is widely believed that the philosophical concept of ‘tabula rasa’ originates with Locke’s Essay Concerning Human Understanding and refers to a state in which a child is as formless as a blank slate. Given that both these beliefs are entirely false, this article will examine why they have endured from the eighteenth century to the present. Attending to the history of philosophy, psychology, psychiatry and feminist scholarship it will be shown how the image of the tabula rasa has been used to signify an originary state of formlessness, against which discourses on the true nature of the human being can differentiate their position. The tabula rasa has operated less as a substantive position than as a whipping post. However, it will be noted that innovations in psychological theory over the past decade have begun to undermine such narratives by rendering unintelligible the idea of an ‘originary’ state of human nature.

Homo Sacer: Power, Life and the Sexual Body in Old French Saints’ Lives

by Emma Campbell

Exemplaria, 18:2 (2006), 233-73

‘A Weariness of the Flesh’: Towards a Theology of Boredom and Fatigue

by K Jason Wardley

From: 'Intensities: Philosophy, Religion and the Affirmation of Life' (Ashgate, 2012)

This essay follows two impulses: Jean-Yves Lacoste’s suggestion that philosophy and theology should speak about... more This essay follows two impulses: Jean-Yves Lacoste’s suggestion that philosophy and theology should speak about boredom and about fatigue, just as they do about anguish or joy, and the Swiss theologian Karl Barth’s contention that theological anthropology and philosophy of religion are incoherent without them. Above all, it will try and offer a tentative answer to the question as to what it means to pray when one is tired or bored. To this end, I shall begin by examining some of the traditional theological and philosophical readings of fatigue and boredom (beginning with Jewish and Christian scripture), before turning specifically to Martin Heidegger and Giorgio Agamben, and finally to recent phenomenological accounts, drawing from them some suggestions for a possible theology of boredom and fatigue.

- Policante, A. “Franciscan Profanators: or the radical pacifism of a broken window”, Nyx: A nocturnal, Issue 5, 2011.

by Amedeo Policante

Concerning THE MONSTROUS, this issue brings together artists, visionaries, rogue philosophers and hip photographers,... more Concerning THE MONSTROUS, this issue brings together artists, visionaries, rogue philosophers and hip photographers, poets, ravers and dreamers to describe the darkest of fantasies and phantasms.

The issue features exclusive interviews with street-artist Stik, K-punk theorist Mark Fisher, alongside theories of the weird by Eugene Thacker at the New School and a theoretical defence of genocide by Nick Land, now based in Shanghai. Sofia Himmelblau, firebrand of the University for Strategic Optimism, revisits race and class in the 2011 riots clean-up alongside artwork by Laura Oldfield Ford. Amedeo Policante finds in today’s black bloc a spectral echo of Franciscan profanators, whilst Yari Lanci tears through Amy Winehouse, Andre Breivik and the superheroes of contemporary comic-books what it means to be a vigilante.

Side-stepping theory, Lara Choksey offers a new story on the deathliness of old family bedrooms, and Dan Taylor documents a case of Cordyceps contamination amongst a limited human population. Phil Sawdon pieces together the correspondence of demonologists, madmen and creatures even more unnameable in a Monstrum Impuissant, Marcin Kolodziejczyk goes on a cheeseburger zombie safari whilst Becky Ayre discovers a new alphabet amongst genetic oddities. izabela Lyra begins a sequence of new stories about Jade, sick with gems, containing all the contradictions of the modern world.

This monster finally contains numerous pieces of work by up-and-coming artists like Abigail Jones’ ‘A Taste of Perfection’ series, a freakish desecration of Lady Gaga and others by Nuala C. Murphy, a criminal badge of honour by Peter Willis, the beasts and ice cream inside the mind of Christy Taylor, disquieting new sketches of the female forms by Julia Scheele, and a cosmophilosophical comic-strip by Emix Regulus. Lucy Pepper shares with Nyx her reflections on the viciously observant Trolls catalogue, whilst we leave with an apocalyptic photo-essay on strung-out ravers by the anthropological eyes of Sinikka Heden and Nicholas Gledhill.