Post-anarchism
Post-anarchism is the term used to represent anarchist philosophies developed using post-structuralist and postmodernist approaches. Thus it is not a single coherent theory, but rather is different for each thinker, who utilize the combined works of any number of post-structuralists (Michel Foucault, Gilles Deleuze), postmodern feminists (Judith Butler), and post-Marxists (Ernesto Laclau, Chantal Mouffe, Jean Baudrillard), thus varying rather widely in approach.
The prefix "post-" does not mean 'after anarchism', but refers to the challenging and disruption of typically accepted assumptions. In the case of post-anarchism, this means a rejection of the epistemological foundations of classic anarchist theories as essentialist or reductionist. For one thing, such an approach widens the conception of what it means to have power over another individual, encouraging those who act against power to become aware of how their very resistance often becomes overdetermined by power as well. It argues that capitalism and the state are not the only sources of domination that should be confronted, and that new approaches need to be developed to combat the network-centric structures of domination in a postmodern epoch. 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 that their thought is certainly some of the most thoroughly anti-authoritarian to emerge in the history of philosophy.
Some conceptions translated into post-anarchism include:
- the misalignment of the subject in relation to discursive production
- the denaturalization of the body and sexuality
- the rejection of the repression hypothesis
- Foucault's genealogy
- the deconstruction of the binary opposition of Western thought
- the deconstruction of gender roles through feminist post-structuralism
Approaches
One post-anarchist, Todd May, argues for a "poststructuralist anarchism" grounded in the poststructuralist understanding of power, particularly through the work of Foucault. The "Lacanian anarchism" proposed by Saul Newman utilizes the works of Lacan and Derrida 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". The anarchy itself is not a final state of development, nor a static form of society, but rather becomes permanent.
Reading
- Call, Lewis: Postmodern Anarchism, Lanham, Lexington Books 2002
- Kastner, Jens: Politik und Postmoderne. Libertäre Aspekte in der Soziologie Zygmunt Baumans, Münster 2000 - ISBN 3897714035
- May, Todd: The Political Philosophy of Poststructuralist Anarchism, The Pennsylvania State University Press, University Park 1994 - ISBN 0271010460
- Mümken, Jürgen: Freiheit, Individualität und Subjektivität. Staat und Subjekt in der Postmoderne aus anarchistischer Perspektive, Frankfurt am Main 2003 - ISBN 3936049122
- Mümken, Jürgen (editor): Anarchismus in der Postmoderne. Beiträge zur anarchitischen Theorie und Praxis, Frankfurt am Main 2005 - ISBN 3936049378
- Newman, Saul: From Bakunin to Lacan. Anti-Authoritarianism and the Dislocation of Power, Lanham, Lexington Books 2001 - ISBN 0739102400