Post-anarchism
Encyclopedia
Post-anarchism or postanarchism is the term used to represent anarchist
philosophies
developed since the 1980s using post-structuralist
and postmodernist
approaches. Some prefer to use the term post-structuralist anarchism, so as not to suggest having moved "past" anarchism. It is not a single coherent theory, but rather is different for each thinker, who utilize the differently combined works of any number of post-structuralists (Michel Foucault
, Gilles Deleuze
, Jacques Lacan
), postmodern feminists
(Judith Butler
), and post-Marxists
(Ernesto Laclau
, Chantal Mouffe
, Jacques Rancière
) with those of classical anarchists, with particular concentration on Emma Goldman
, and Max Stirner
(and philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche
), thus varying rather widely in both approach and outcome.
. This means a basic rejection of the epistemological foundations of classical anarchist theories, due to their tendency towards essentialist
or reductionist
notions – although post-anarchists are generally quick to point out the many outstanding exceptions, such as those noted above. Such an approach is considered to be important insofar as it widens the conception of what it means to have or to be produced rather than only repressed by power
, thus encouraging those who act against power in the form of domination to become aware of how their resistance often becomes overdetermined by power-effects as well. It argues against earlier approaches that capitalism
and the state
are not the only sources of domination in the moment in which we live, and that new approaches need to be developed to combat the network-centric structures of domination that characterize late modernity
. Although thinkers such as Foucault, Deleuze, Derrida
, Butler, Lacan
, and Lyotard
are not explicitly self-described anarchists, their ideas nevertheless serve of great importance, given the anti-authoritarian nature of their thought and since some of them - to varying degrees - showed interest in the events of May 1968 in France.
Common concepts within post-anarchism include:
Hakim Bey his 1987 essay "Post-Anarchism Anarchy". Bey argued that anarchism had become insular and sectarian, confusing the various anarchist schools of thought
for the real experience of lived anarchy. In 1994, academic philosopher Todd May
initiated what he called "poststructuralist anarchism", arguing for a theory grounded in the poststructuralist understanding of power
, particularly through the work of Michel Foucault
and Emma Goldman
as a corrective to more circumscribed notions, while taking the anarchist approach to ethics as a mode through which to recast the poststructuralist lack of elucidation in this domain.
The "Lacanian anarchism" proposed by Saul Newman
utilizes the works of Jacques Lacan
and Max Stirner
more prominently. Newman criticizes classical anarchists, such as Michael Bakunin and Peter Kropotkin
, for assuming an objective "human nature
" and a natural order; he argues that from this approach, humans progress and are well-off by nature, with only the Establishment
as a limitation that forces behavior otherwise. For Newman, this is a Manichaen
worldview, which depicts only the reversal of Thomas Hobbes
' Leviathan
, in which the "good" state is subjugated by the "evil" people.
Lewis Call
has attempted to develop post-anarchist theory through the work of Friedrich Nietzsche
, rejecting the Cartesian concept of the "subject". From here a radical form of anarchism is made possible; the anarchism of becoming. This anarchism does not have an eventual goal, nor flow into "being", it is not a final state of development, nor a static form of society, but rather becomes permanent, as a means without end. Italian autonomist Giorgio Agamben
has also written about this idea. In this respect it is similar to the "complex systems" view of emerging society known as Panarchy
. Call critiques liberal
notions of language, consciousness, and rationality from an anarchist perspective, arguing that they are inherent in economic and political power within the capitalist state organization.
Recently the French
hedonist philosopher Michel Onfray
has embraced the term postanarchism to describe his approach to politics and ethics. He advocates for an anarchism in line with such intellectuals as "Orwell
, la philosophe Simone Weil
, Jean Grenier
, la French Theory avec Foucault
, Deleuze, Bourdieu, Guattari, Lyotard, le Derrida de Politiques de l'amitié et du Droit à la philosophie, mais aussi Mai 68" which for him was "a nietzschetian revolt in order to put an end to the "One" truth, revealed, and to put in evidence the diversity of truths, in order to make disappear ascetic Christian ideas and to help arise new possibilities of existence"
Another anarchist French intellectual with a dedication to post-structuralism is Daniel Colson. He published Petit lexique philosophique de l'anarchisme de Proudhon à Deleuze in 2001.
Anarchism
Anarchism is generally defined as the political philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, or alternatively as opposing authority in the conduct of human relations...
philosophies
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
developed since the 1980s using post-structuralist
Post-structuralism
Post-structuralism is a label formulated by American academics to denote the heterogeneous works of a series of French intellectuals who came to international prominence in the 1960s and '70s...
and postmodernist
Postmodernism
Postmodernism is a philosophical movement evolved in reaction to modernism, the tendency in contemporary culture to accept only objective truth and to be inherently suspicious towards a global cultural narrative or meta-narrative. Postmodernist thought is an intentional departure from the...
approaches. Some prefer to use the term post-structuralist anarchism, so as not to suggest having moved "past" anarchism. It is not a single coherent theory, but rather is different for each thinker, who utilize the differently combined works of any number of post-structuralists (Michel Foucault
Michel Foucault
Michel Foucault , born Paul-Michel Foucault , was a French philosopher, social theorist and historian of ideas...
, Gilles Deleuze
Gilles Deleuze
Gilles Deleuze , was a French philosopher who, from the early 1960s until his death, wrote influentially on philosophy, literature, film, and fine art. His most popular works were the two volumes of Capitalism and Schizophrenia: Anti-Oedipus and A Thousand Plateaus , both co-written with Félix...
, Jacques Lacan
Jacques Lacan
Jacques Marie Émile Lacan was a French psychoanalyst and psychiatrist who made prominent contributions to psychoanalysis and philosophy, and has been called "the most controversial psycho-analyst since Freud". Giving yearly seminars in Paris from 1953 to 1981, Lacan influenced France's...
), postmodern feminists
Postmodern feminism
Postmodern feminism is an approach to feminist theory that incorporates postmodern and post-structuralist theory.-Origins and theory:The largest departure from other branches of feminism is the argument that sex is itself constructed through language, a view most notably propounded in Judith...
(Judith Butler
Judith Butler
Judith Butler is an American post-structuralist philosopher, who has contributed to the fields of feminism, queer theory, political philosophy, and ethics. She is a professor in the Rhetoric and Comparative Literature departments at the University of California, Berkeley.Butler received her Ph.D...
), and post-Marxists
Post-Marxism
Post-Marxism has two related, but different uses: the socio-economic circumstances of Eastern Europe, especially in the ex-soviet republics after the Soviet Union's end; and the extrapolations of the philosophers and social theorists basing their postulations upon Karl Marx's writings and Marxism...
(Ernesto Laclau
Ernesto Laclau
Ernesto Laclau is an Argentine political theorist often described as post-Marxist.He studied History in Buenos Aires, graduating from the Universidad Nacional de Buenos Aires in 1964, and received a PhD from Essex University in 1977.Since the 1970s he has been Professor of Political Theory at the...
, Chantal Mouffe
Chantal Mouffe
Chantal Mouffe is a Belgian political theorist.-Work:Chantal Mouffe studied at Louvain, Paris and Essex and has worked in many universities throughout the world . She has also held visiting positions at Harvard, Cornell, Princeton and the CNRS...
, Jacques Rancière
Jacques Rancière
Jacques Rancière is a French philosopher, Professor of Philosophy at European Graduate School in Saas-Fee and Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of Paris Jacques Rancière (born Algiers, 1940) is a French philosopher, Professor of Philosophy at European Graduate School in Saas-Fee...
) with those of classical anarchists, with particular concentration on Emma Goldman
Emma Goldman
Emma Goldman was an anarchist known for her political activism, writing and speeches. She played a pivotal role in the development of anarchist political philosophy in North America and Europe in the first half of the twentieth century....
, and Max Stirner
Max Stirner
Johann Kaspar Schmidt , better known as Max Stirner , was a German philosopher, who ranks as one of the literary fathers of nihilism, existentialism, post-modernism and anarchism, especially of individualist anarchism...
(and philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche
Anarchism and Friedrich Nietzsche
The relation between Anarchism and Friedrich Nietzsche has been ambiguous. Even though Friedrich Nietzsche criticized anarchism his thought proved influential for many thinkers within what can be characterized as the anarchist movement...
), thus varying rather widely in both approach and outcome.
Background
The prefix "post-" does not mean 'after anarchism', but refers to the challenging and disruption of typically accepted assumptions within frameworks that emerged during the Enlightenment eraAge of Enlightenment
The Age of Enlightenment was an elite cultural movement of intellectuals in 18th century Europe that sought to mobilize the power of reason in order to reform society and advance knowledge. It promoted intellectual interchange and opposed intolerance and abuses in church and state...
. This means a basic rejection of the epistemological foundations of classical anarchist theories, due to their tendency towards essentialist
Essentialism
In philosophy, essentialism is the view that, for any specific kind of entity, there is a set of characteristics or properties all of which any entity of that kind must possess. Therefore all things can be precisely defined or described...
or reductionist
Reductionism
Reductionism can mean either an approach to understanding the nature of complex things by reducing them to the interactions of their parts, or to simpler or more fundamental things or a philosophical position that a complex system is nothing but the sum of its parts, and that an account of it can...
notions – although post-anarchists are generally quick to point out the many outstanding exceptions, such as those noted above. Such an approach is considered to be important insofar as it widens the conception of what it means to have or to be produced rather than only repressed by power
Power (sociology)
Power is a measurement of an entity's ability to control its environment, including the behavior of other entities. The term authority is often used for power perceived as legitimate by the social structure. Power can be seen as evil or unjust, but the exercise of power is accepted as endemic to...
, thus encouraging those who act against power in the form of domination to become aware of how their resistance often becomes overdetermined by power-effects as well. It argues against earlier approaches that capitalism
Capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system that became dominant in the Western world following the demise of feudalism. There is no consensus on the precise definition nor on how the term should be used as a historical category...
and the state
Government
Government refers to the legislators, administrators, and arbitrators in the administrative bureaucracy who control a state at a given time, and to the system of government by which they are organized...
are not the only sources of domination in the moment in which we live, and that new approaches need to be developed to combat the network-centric structures of domination that characterize late modernity
Modernity
Modernity typically refers to a post-traditional, post-medieval historical period, one marked by the move from feudalism toward capitalism, industrialization, secularization, rationalization, the nation-state and its constituent institutions and forms of surveillance...
. Although thinkers such as Foucault, Deleuze, Derrida
Jacques Derrida
Jacques Derrida was a French philosopher, born in French Algeria. He developed the critical theory known as deconstruction and his work has been labeled as post-structuralism and associated with postmodern philosophy...
, Butler, Lacan
Jacques Lacan
Jacques Marie Émile Lacan was a French psychoanalyst and psychiatrist who made prominent contributions to psychoanalysis and philosophy, and has been called "the most controversial psycho-analyst since Freud". Giving yearly seminars in Paris from 1953 to 1981, Lacan influenced France's...
, and Lyotard
Jean-François Lyotard
Jean-François Lyotard was a French philosopher and literary theorist. He is well known for his articulation of postmodernism after the late 1970s and the analysis of the impact of postmodernity on the human condition...
are not explicitly self-described anarchists, their ideas nevertheless serve of great importance, given the anti-authoritarian nature of their thought and since some of them - to varying degrees - showed interest in the events of May 1968 in France.
Common concepts within post-anarchism include:
- the misalignment of the subjectSubject (philosophy)In philosophy, a subject is a being that has subjective experiences, subjective consciousness or a relationship with another entity . A subject is an observer and an object is a thing observed...
in relation to discourseDiscourseDiscourse generally refers to "written or spoken communication". The following are three more specific definitions:... - the denaturalization of the body and sexuality
- the rejection of the repressive hypothesis
- Foucault's genealogyGenealogy (philosophy)In philosophy, genealogy is a historical technique in which one questions the commonly understood emergence of various philosophical and social beliefs by showing alternative and subversive histories of their development...
- the deconstructionDeconstructionDeconstruction is a term introduced by French philosopher Jacques Derrida in his 1967 book Of Grammatology. Although he carefully avoided defining the term directly, he sought to apply Martin Heidegger's concept of Destruktion or Abbau, to textual reading...
of the binary oppositions of Western thoughtWestern philosophyWestern philosophy is the philosophical thought and work of the Western or Occidental world, as distinct from Eastern or Oriental philosophies and the varieties of indigenous philosophies.... - the deconstruction of gender roleGender roleGender roles refer to the set of social and behavioral norms that are considered to be socially appropriate for individuals of a specific sex in the context of a specific culture, which differ widely between cultures and over time...
s through feminist poststructuralism
Approaches
The term "post-anarchism" was coined by philosopher of post-left anarchyPost-left anarchy
Post-left anarchy is a recent current in anarchist thought that promotes a critique of anarchism's relationship to traditional leftism. Some post-leftists seek to escape the confines of ideology in general also presenting a critique of organizations and morality...
Hakim Bey his 1987 essay "Post-Anarchism Anarchy". Bey argued that anarchism had become insular and sectarian, confusing the various anarchist schools of thought
Anarchist schools of thought
Anarchism is generally defined as the political philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, or alternatively as opposing authority in the conduct of human relations...
for the real experience of lived anarchy. In 1994, academic philosopher Todd May
Todd May
Todd May is a political philosopher notable for his role in developing, alongside Saul Newman and Lewis Call, the theory of post-structuralist anarchism. He is currently Class of 1941 Memorial Professor of Philosophy at Clemson University and contributes to CounterPunch...
initiated what he called "poststructuralist anarchism", arguing for a theory grounded in the poststructuralist understanding of power
Power (sociology)
Power is a measurement of an entity's ability to control its environment, including the behavior of other entities. The term authority is often used for power perceived as legitimate by the social structure. Power can be seen as evil or unjust, but the exercise of power is accepted as endemic to...
, particularly through the work of Michel Foucault
Michel Foucault
Michel Foucault , born Paul-Michel Foucault , was a French philosopher, social theorist and historian of ideas...
and Emma Goldman
Emma Goldman
Emma Goldman was an anarchist known for her political activism, writing and speeches. She played a pivotal role in the development of anarchist political philosophy in North America and Europe in the first half of the twentieth century....
as a corrective to more circumscribed notions, while taking the anarchist approach to ethics as a mode through which to recast the poststructuralist lack of elucidation in this domain.
The "Lacanian anarchism" proposed by Saul Newman
Saul Newman
Saul Newman is a political theorist and central post-anarchist thinker.Newman coined the term "post-anarchism" as a general term for political philosophies filtering 19th century anarchism through a post-structuralist lens, and later popularized it through his 2001 book From Bakunin to Lacan...
utilizes the works of Jacques Lacan
Jacques Lacan
Jacques Marie Émile Lacan was a French psychoanalyst and psychiatrist who made prominent contributions to psychoanalysis and philosophy, and has been called "the most controversial psycho-analyst since Freud". Giving yearly seminars in Paris from 1953 to 1981, Lacan influenced France's...
and Max Stirner
Max Stirner
Johann Kaspar Schmidt , better known as Max Stirner , was a German philosopher, who ranks as one of the literary fathers of nihilism, existentialism, post-modernism and anarchism, especially of individualist anarchism...
more prominently. Newman criticizes classical anarchists, such as Michael Bakunin and Peter Kropotkin
Peter Kropotkin
Prince Pyotr Alexeyevich Kropotkin was a Russian zoologist, evolutionary theorist, philosopher, economist, geographer, author and one of the world's foremost anarcho-communists. Kropotkin advocated a communist society free from central government and based on voluntary associations between...
, for assuming an objective "human nature
Human nature
Human nature refers to the distinguishing characteristics, including ways of thinking, feeling and acting, that humans tend to have naturally....
" and a natural order; he argues that from this approach, humans progress and are well-off by nature, with only the Establishment
The Establishment
The Establishment is a term used to refer to a visible dominant group or elite that holds power or authority in a nation. The term suggests a closed social group which selects its own members...
as a limitation that forces behavior otherwise. For Newman, this is a Manichaen
Manichaeism
Manichaeism in Modern Persian Āyin e Māni; ) was one of the major Iranian Gnostic religions, originating in Sassanid Persia.Although most of the original writings of the founding prophet Mani have been lost, numerous translations and fragmentary texts have survived...
worldview, which depicts only the reversal of Thomas Hobbes
Thomas Hobbes
Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury , in some older texts Thomas Hobbs of Malmsbury, was an English philosopher, best known today for his work on political philosophy...
' Leviathan
Leviathan (book)
Leviathan or The Matter, Forme and Power of a Common Wealth Ecclesiasticall and Civil — commonly called simply Leviathan — is a book written by Thomas Hobbes and published in 1651. Its name derives from the biblical Leviathan...
, in which the "good" state is subjugated by the "evil" people.
Lewis Call
Lewis Call
Lewis Call is an American academic notable for being a central post-anarchist thinker. He is best known for his 2002 book Postmodern Anarchism, which develops an account of postmodern anarchism through philosophers such as Friedrich Nietzsche and cyberpunk writers such as William Gibson and Bruce...
has attempted to develop post-anarchist theory through the work of Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was a 19th-century German philosopher, poet, composer and classical philologist...
, rejecting the Cartesian concept of the "subject". From here a radical form of anarchism is made possible; the anarchism of becoming. This anarchism does not have an eventual goal, nor flow into "being", it is not a final state of development, nor a static form of society, but rather becomes permanent, as a means without end. Italian autonomist Giorgio Agamben
Giorgio Agamben
Giorgio Agamben is an Italian political philosopher best known for his work investigating the concepts of the state of exception and homo sacer....
has also written about this idea. In this respect it is similar to the "complex systems" view of emerging society known as Panarchy
Panarchy
Panarchy is a conceptual term first coined by the Belgian botanist and economist Paul Emile de Puydt in 1860, referring to a specific form of governance that would encompass all others. The Oxford English Dictionary lists the noun as "chiefly poetic" with the meaning "a universal realm," citing...
. Call critiques liberal
Liberalism
Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...
notions of language, consciousness, and rationality from an anarchist perspective, arguing that they are inherent in economic and political power within the capitalist state organization.
Recently the French
French people
The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...
hedonist philosopher Michel Onfray
Michel Onfray
Michel Onfray is a contemporary French philosopher who adheres to hedonism, atheism and anarchism...
has embraced the term postanarchism to describe his approach to politics and ethics. He advocates for an anarchism in line with such intellectuals as "Orwell
George Orwell
Eric Arthur Blair , better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English author and journalist...
, la philosophe Simone Weil
Simone Weil
Simone Weil , was a French philosopher, Christian mystic, and social activist.-Biography:Weil was born in Paris to Alsatian agnostic Jewish parents who fled the annexation of Alsace-Lorraine to Germany. She grew up in comfortable circumstances, and her father was a doctor. Her only sibling was...
, Jean Grenier
Jean Grenier
Jean Grenier was a French philosopher and writer. He taught for a time in Algiers, where he became a significant influence on the young Albert Camus.-Biography:...
, la French Theory avec Foucault
Michel Foucault
Michel Foucault , born Paul-Michel Foucault , was a French philosopher, social theorist and historian of ideas...
, Deleuze, Bourdieu, Guattari, Lyotard, le Derrida de Politiques de l'amitié et du Droit à la philosophie, mais aussi Mai 68" which for him was "a nietzschetian revolt in order to put an end to the "One" truth, revealed, and to put in evidence the diversity of truths, in order to make disappear ascetic Christian ideas and to help arise new possibilities of existence"
Another anarchist French intellectual with a dedication to post-structuralism is Daniel Colson. He published Petit lexique philosophique de l'anarchisme de Proudhon à Deleuze in 2001.
Further reading
- Rousselle, Duane and Evren, Süreyyya (eds) Post-Anarchism: A Reader. London: Pluto Press. (2011)
- Michel OnfrayMichel OnfrayMichel Onfray is a contemporary French philosopher who adheres to hedonism, atheism and anarchism...
La puissance d'exister, Paris, Grasset, (2006) ISBN 2-246-71691-8 - Michel OnfrayMichel OnfrayMichel Onfray is a contemporary French philosopher who adheres to hedonism, atheism and anarchism...
Politique du rebelle : traité de résistance et d'insoumission (1997) - Michel Onfray La philosophie féroce : exercices anarchistes. (2004)
- Colson, Daniel. "Anarchist Subjectivities and Modern Subjectivity".
- Colson, Daniel. "Deleuze et le renouveau de la pensée libertaire"
- Call, Lewis et al. "Post-anarchism today", Anarchist Developments in Cultural Studies, volume 1, 2010.
External links
- Archive of Post anarchist articles and on post-anarchism in english at the Anarchist Library
- "Postanarchism in a Nutshell" by Jason Adams
- "Post-Anarchism and Social War: Post-structuralism, and the Revival of an Anarchist Subterranean" by Torrance
- "Toward a Post-Anarchist Critique of Anarchist Businesses" by Saint Schmidt
- "Postanarchism is not what you think: The role of postanarchist theory after the backlash" By Saint Schmidt
- Accursed Anarchism: Five Post-Anarchist Meditations on Bataille by Saint Schmidt
- Derrida's Deconstruction Of Authority by Saul NewmanSaul NewmanSaul Newman is a political theorist and central post-anarchist thinker.Newman coined the term "post-anarchism" as a general term for political philosophies filtering 19th century anarchism through a post-structuralist lens, and later popularized it through his 2001 book From Bakunin to Lacan...
- http://libcom.org/library/anarchism-and-the-politics-of-ressentiment-saul-newman"Anarchism and the politics of ressentiment" by Saul NewmanSaul NewmanSaul Newman is a political theorist and central post-anarchist thinker.Newman coined the term "post-anarchism" as a general term for political philosophies filtering 19th century anarchism through a post-structuralist lens, and later popularized it through his 2001 book From Bakunin to Lacan...
] - "Anarchist Subjectivities and Modern Subjectivity" by Daniel Colson
- What's Wrong With Postanarchism? by Jesse Cohn and Shawn Wilbur
- Anarsi postanarchist texts in Turkish and translated from other languages