Телеграм канал «Политическая теория и философия (Political theory and philosophy)»

M. Doyle - «Decolonization» as neoliberal ideology Current management-led proposals to ‘decolonize the university’ within elite Anglo-American institutions ideologically legitimate their restructuring as transnational businesses. While anthropology is uniquely placed to critique social institutions and ideologies, its current dominant theoretical orientation is blind to the forms of power which shape its own institutional environments. Even as anthropologists have engaged in theories said to address problems of representation and epistemic injustice, they have failed to analyze the multiple crises of contemporary higher education, resulting from the profound transformation of universities’ political economy under neoliberal capitalism. A genuinely decolonial anthropology is one which frankly analyses its own structural economic conditions and combines this with a political practice of national and transnational solidarities to transform the institution of the university at the local and global level.

Kevin Mattson - Just Plain Dick: Richard Nixon's Checkers Speech and the "Rocking, Socking" Election of 1952 It all started with some businessmen bankrolling Richard Nixon to become a "salesman against socialization." But in this precursor to current campaign finance scandals, Nixon had some explaining to do to keep his place on Eisenhower's Republican ticket, so he took to the airwavess. In making his speech, Nixon left behind lines about a "Republican cloth coat" and a black and white cocker spaniel named "Checkers." The speech saved and bolstered Nixon's political career and set the tone for the 1952 campaign. Just Plain Dick is political history and more. It's the story of a young man nearing a nervous breakdown and staging a political comeback. While the narrative focuses tightly, almost cinematically, on the 1952 election cycle-from the spring primary season to the summer conventions, and then to the allegations against Nixon through to the speech in September and finally the election in November-Mattson also provides a broad-stroke depiction of American politics and culture during the Cold War. With publication scheduled during the 2012 election season, readers will see Nixon's contribution to current campaign styles. Here is a story of phony populism, a hatred of elites (tagged "eggheads" back then), and emotionally charged appeals erasing a rational assessment of a politician's qualifications. An entertaining and suspenseful read, Just Plain Dick is ideal election context for political junkies and those fascinated with 1950s America.

Kevin Mattson - Intellectuals in Action: The Origins of the New Left and Radical Liberalism, 1945–1970 Born in 1966‚ a generation removed from the counterculture‚ Kevin Mattson came of political age in the conservative Reagan era. In an effort to understand contemporary political ambivalence and the plight of radicalism today‚ Mattson looks back to the ideas that informed the protest‚ social movements‚ and activism of the 1960s. To accomplish its historical reconstruction‚ the book combines traditional intellectual biography including thorough archival research with social history to examine a group of intellectuals whose thinking was crucial in the formulation of New Left political theory. These include C. Wright Mills‚ the popular radical sociologist; Paul Goodman‚ a practicing Gestalt therapist and anarcho-pacifist; William Appleman Williams‚ the historian and famed critic of "American empire"; Arnold Kaufman‚ a "radical liberal" who deeply influenced the thinking of the SDS. The book discusses not only their ideas‚ but also their practices‚ from writing pamphlets and arranging television debates to forming left-leaning think tanks and organizing teach-ins protesting the Vietnam War. Mattson argues that it is this political engagement balanced with a commitment to truth-telling that is lacking in our own age of postmodern acquiescence. Challenging the standard interpretation of the New Left as inherently in conflict with liberalis‚ Mattson depicts their relationship as more complicated‚ pointing to possibilities for a radical liberalism today. Intellectual and social historians‚ as well as general readers either fascinated by the 1960s protest movements or actively seeking an alternative to our contemporary political malais‚ will embrace Mattson’s book and its promise to shed new light on a time period known for both its intriguing conflicts and its enduring consequences.

Sylvain Lazarus - Anthropology of the Name “The most radical critique of the very grounds of social science” Alain Badiou Anthropology of the Name is Sylvain Lazarus’s response to the intellectual caesura of May 1968. Taking up thought, politics, and the name, Lazarus presents an original doctrine on the nature of politics and the relationship of politics to thought. Whereas most theoreticians of politics start with their ideas on its specific empirical objects its institutions, such as parties, or its structures, such as the state Lazarus analyzes politics from within itself. Lazarus’s discussion is divided into two parts: a general methodology and a series of case studies. He fiercely argues that politics is a thought with its own field and categories, distinct from political science, economics, history, or philosophy. Politics, Lazarus drives home, is not a permanent feature of society: it is rare and sequential.