Contingency, contestation and hegemony: The possibility of a non-essentialist politics of the left
| dc.contributor.author | Grebe, Eduard | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2016-05-04T09:30:39Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2016-05-04T09:30:39Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2010 | |
| dc.date.updated | 2016-05-04T06:58:37Z | |
| dc.description.abstract | Two major developments of the last two decades have radically undermined traditional justifications of leftist politics: the failure of 20th-century `socialist' experiments, and what might be termed the deessentializing movement in contemporary philosophy. However, the social injustices that animated revolutionary thinkers in many respects remain, and some have arguably worsened in the era of globalized capitalism. This article investigates whether it is possible to articulate a new theoretical underpinning for progressive politics that nevertheless avoids the essentialist moves of Marxism. Ethico-political readings of Derrida - one of the most influential anti-essentialist thinkers - are compared to Ernesto Laclau's attempts at formulating a post-Marxist progressive politics built around the notions of `hegemony' and `radical democracy'. Laclau's intervention in the Marxist tradition is to deconstruct its traditional categories so as to take account of contingency; his intervention in deconstruction is to introduce what in this article is described as `contestation', so as to provide a more coherent account of the political. The article concludes that neither deconstruction nor radical democracy provides an adequate basis for poltical action, but that the latter's account of the political is a meaningful development of the theoretical schema articulated by the former and does point to the possibility of a non-essentialist progressive politics. | en_ZA |
| dc.identifier | http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0191453709103428 | |
| dc.identifier.apacitation | Grebe, E. (2010). Contingency, contestation and hegemony: The possibility of a non-essentialist politics of the left. <i>Philosophy and Social Criticism</i>, http://hdl.handle.net/11427/19403 | en_ZA |
| dc.identifier.chicagocitation | Grebe, Eduard "Contingency, contestation and hegemony: The possibility of a non-essentialist politics of the left." <i>Philosophy and Social Criticism</i> (2010) http://hdl.handle.net/11427/19403 | en_ZA |
| dc.identifier.citation | Grebe, E. (2009). Contingency, contestation and hegemony The possibility of a non-essentialist politics for the left. Philosophy & Social Criticism, 35(5), 589-611. | en_ZA |
| dc.identifier.issn | 0191-4537 | en_ZA |
| dc.identifier.ris | TY - Journal Article AU - Grebe, Eduard AB - Two major developments of the last two decades have radically undermined traditional justifications of leftist politics: the failure of 20th-century `socialist' experiments, and what might be termed the deessentializing movement in contemporary philosophy. However, the social injustices that animated revolutionary thinkers in many respects remain, and some have arguably worsened in the era of globalized capitalism. This article investigates whether it is possible to articulate a new theoretical underpinning for progressive politics that nevertheless avoids the essentialist moves of Marxism. Ethico-political readings of Derrida - one of the most influential anti-essentialist thinkers - are compared to Ernesto Laclau's attempts at formulating a post-Marxist progressive politics built around the notions of `hegemony' and `radical democracy'. Laclau's intervention in the Marxist tradition is to deconstruct its traditional categories so as to take account of contingency; his intervention in deconstruction is to introduce what in this article is described as `contestation', so as to provide a more coherent account of the political. The article concludes that neither deconstruction nor radical democracy provides an adequate basis for poltical action, but that the latter's account of the political is a meaningful development of the theoretical schema articulated by the former and does point to the possibility of a non-essentialist progressive politics. DA - 2010 DB - OpenUCT DP - University of Cape Town J1 - Philosophy and Social Criticism LK - https://open.uct.ac.za PB - University of Cape Town PY - 2010 SM - 0191-4537 T1 - Contingency, contestation and hegemony: The possibility of a non-essentialist politics of the left TI - Contingency, contestation and hegemony: The possibility of a non-essentialist politics of the left UR - http://hdl.handle.net/11427/19403 ER - | en_ZA |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/11427/19403 | |
| dc.identifier.vancouvercitation | Grebe E. Contingency, contestation and hegemony: The possibility of a non-essentialist politics of the left. Philosophy and Social Criticism. 2010; http://hdl.handle.net/11427/19403. | en_ZA |
| dc.language | eng | en_ZA |
| dc.publisher | SAGE Publications | en_ZA |
| dc.publisher.department | Centre for Social Science Research(CSSR) | en_ZA |
| dc.publisher.faculty | Faculty of Humanities | en_ZA |
| dc.publisher.institution | University of Cape Town | |
| dc.source | Philosophy and Social Criticism | en_ZA |
| dc.source.uri | https://uk.sagepub.com/en-gb/afr/journal/philosophy-social-criticism | |
| dc.title | Contingency, contestation and hegemony: The possibility of a non-essentialist politics of the left | en_ZA |
| dc.type | Journal Article | en_ZA |
| uct.type.filetype | Text | |
| uct.type.filetype | Image | |
| uct.type.publication | Research | en_ZA |
| uct.type.resource | Article | en_ZA |