European University Institute Library

Thinking freedom in Africa, toward a theory of emancipatory politics, Michael Neocosmos

eng

index present

non fiction

Thinking freedom in Africa

electronic resource

dictionaries

980837380

Michael Neocosmos

Cambridge Social Sciences eBooks

toward a theory of emancipatory politics

Previous ways of conceiving the universal emancipation of humanity have in practice ended in failure. Marxism, anti-colonial nationalism and neo-liberalism all understand the achievement of universal emancipation through a form of state politics. Marxism, which had encapsulated the idea of freedom for most of the twentieth century, was found wanting when it came to thinking emancipation because social interests and identities were understood as simply reflected in political subjectivity which could only lead to statist authoritarianism. Neo-liberalism and anti-colonial nationalism have also both assumed that freedom is realisable through the state, and have been equally authoritarian in their relations to those they have excluded on the African continent and elsewhere. Thinking Freedom in Africa then conceives emancipatory politics beginning from the axiom that people think’. In other words, the idea that anyone is capable of engaging in a collective thought-practice which exceeds social place, interests and identities and which thus begins to think a politics of universal humanity. Using the work of thinkers such as Alain Badiou, Jacques Rancière, Sylvain Lazarus, Frantz Fanon and many others, along with the inventive thought of people themselves in their experiences of struggle, the author proceeds to analyse how Africans themselves - with agency of their own - have thought emancipation during various historical political sequences and to show how emancipation may be thought today in a manner appropriate to twenty-first century conditions and concerns. --, Provided by publisher

Introduction: Politics is thought, thought is real, people think -- Part 1: Thinking political sequences: from African history to African historical political sequences. Theoretical introduction: understanding historical political sequences -- From Saint-Domingue to Haiti: the politics of freedom and equality, 1791-1960 -- Are those-who-do-not-count capable of reason? On the limits of historical thought -- The National Liberation Struggle mode of politics in Africa, 1945-1975 -- The People's Power mode of politics in South Africa, 1984-1986 -- From national emancipation to national chauvinism in South Africa, 1973-2013 -- Rethinking militancy in the current sequence: beyond politics as agency -- Understanding fidelity to the South African emancipatory event: the Treatment Action Campaign and Abahlali baseMjondolo -- Part 2: Opening up the thought of politics in Africa today: exceeding the limits of sociology: beyond representation. Theoretical introduction: social representation, modes of rule and political prescriptions -- Marxism and the politics of representation: the 'agrarian question' and the limits of political economy - class, nation and the party-state -- Thinking beyond representation, acting beyond representation: accounting for worker subjectivities in South Africa -- Renaming the state in Africa today -- Domains of state politics and systemic violence: the concept of 'uncivil society' -- The domain of civil society and its politics -- The domain of traditional society and its politics -- Towards a politics of solidarity: feminist contributions -- Conclusion: Reclaiming the domain of freedom