Politics as Activity

Praxis, Poi¿sis, and Gesture in the Work of Giorgio Agamben
1. Auflage 2025
ISBN: 978-1-032-98075-1
Verlag: Routledge

Buch, Englisch, 152 Seiten, Format (B × H): 161 mm x 240 mm, Gewicht: 399 g

Reihe: Interventions

Engaging with a fundamental question at the heart of the Western tradition of political thought, namely the question of political action, this book considers a broad range of issues, from resistance to political mobilization. It explores the nature of political activity by engaging with Giorgio Agamben and his key interlocutors such as Hannah Arendt and Alexandre Kojève. It offers new insights into the complexity of Agamben’s political thought and intervenes in contemporary debates on issues such as identity politics and protest movements.

A fresh contribution to Agamben scholarship and a rigorous reflection on one of the core political questions of the occidental tradition, this volume will be of interest to scholars and students from a broad range of subject areas, including political theory, political philosophy, political science, aesthetics, philosophy of language, and biopolitics.

Zielgruppe

Postgraduate and Undergraduate Advanced

Autoren/Hrsg.

Sjöblom, Katarina

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Internationale Beziehungen

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 From sector to activity

1.2 Legacy: praxis and poiesis

1.3 Structure of analysis

2 AGAMBEN’S CONCEPTUAL LOGIC

2.1 Potentiality

2.2 The taking place of language

2.3 The coming community

2.4 Gesture and pure means

2.5 Inoperativity

2.6 Manner and profanation

2.7 A different use of praxis and poiesis

3 BEYOND POIESIS

3.1 Productive negativity

3.2 Agamben and the end of history

3.2.1 Animality and snobbery

3.2.2 The suspension of the dialectic

3.3 Production unraveled

4 BEYOND PRAXIS

4.1 The vulnerability of new beginnings

4.2 Stability in the realm of human affairs

4.3 The limits of founding: Arendt on Montesquieu and power

4.4 Principles of action

4.5 The contamination of praxis

4.6 Within praxis and poiesis

5 GESTURES AND PERFORMATIVES

5.1 From institutional performatives to faith in the word: J.L. Austin and Agamben

5.2 Iterability versus pure performatives: Derrida, Butler, and Agamben

5.3 The Shadow of Derrida

6 CONCLUSIONS: ACTION UPON ACTION

6.1 Undoing the doing, unmaking the making

6.2 Being versus action: notes on identity politics

REFERENCES

Über Autor(innen)

Katarina Sjöblom is working as a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Social Sciences and Philosophy at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland. Her doctoral dissertation, defended in November 2023, explored the nature of political activity by engaging with the thoughts of Giorgio Agamben, Hannah Arendt, Alexandre Kojève, and other prominent thinkers in the continental tradition of political thought. More generally, her research interests include modern political theory, social and resistance movements, biopolitics, and the relation between aesthetics and politics.