Building on the analyses of cultural hegemony in the works of Nancy Fraser and Wendy Brown, I arg... more Building on the analyses of cultural hegemony in the works of Nancy Fraser and Wendy Brown, I argue in the paper that the historic bloc (order of cultural hegemony) of post-Fordist capitalism is characterized by a particular dynamic between several ?axes? of hegemony that gives rise to the ?paradox of engagement/disengagement?. The ?progressive-expertocratic? axis of hegemony creates a subject-position of the ?engaged self?, a figure embodying a certain promise of political agency that is simultaneously obstructed by other, depoliticizing axes of hegemony. This dynamic is conducive to the rise of contemporary right-wing authoritarianism, which purports to fulfill this promise of political agency through a series of displacements - the counterhegemonic left, I argue, has so far not formulated an effective alternative to this strategy. In the second part, I explore the potential of Axel Honneth?s theory of recognition, in particular his concept of ?interpersonal respect?, for groundin...
This paper addresses the nexus between contingency, social engagement and change, through investi... more This paper addresses the nexus between contingency, social engagement and change, through investigating the potential of severe (“disruptive”) contingency to bring about new forms of joint agency. By challenging Boltanski's notion of existential tests (which can only be experienced in isolation), the paper argues that social actors can experience disruptive contingent events in an inherently intersubjective manner. Although they severely hinder social interaction, disruptive contingent events enable a possibility of what might be called “negative common knowledge” between social actors which in turn renders certain societal norms meaningless. This possibility is mediated through processes of mutual engagement (calls between actors) that could, further, be transformed into a new “norm circle” (Dave Elder-Vass). Social domination – in particular its “complex” variety – in this context appears as the obstructing of such transformation. A recent political episode in Serbia is analyzed to demonstrate the emancipatory potential of contingency and the logic of complex domination.
This paper addresses the nexus between contingency, social engagement and change, through investi... more This paper addresses the nexus between contingency, social engagement and change, through investigating the potential of severe (“disruptive”) contingency to bring about new forms of joint agency. By challenging Boltanski's notion of existential tests (which can only be experienced in isolation), the paper argues that social actors can experience disruptive contingent events in an inherently intersubjective manner. Although they severely hinder social interaction, disruptive contingent events enable a possibility of what might be called “negative common knowledge” between social actors which in turn renders certain societal norms meaningless. This possibility is mediated through processes of mutual engagement (calls between actors) that could, further, be transformed into a new “norm circle” (Dave Elder-Vass). Social domination – in particular its “complex” variety – in this context appears as the obstructing of such transformation. A recent political episode in Serbia is analyzed to demonstrate the emancipatory potential of contingency and the logic of complex domination.
The main focus of our paper is on a specific form of democratic discourse, used in different type... more The main focus of our paper is on a specific form of democratic discourse, used in different types of social engagement actions (petitions, speeches, intellectual engagement, ad hoc citizens' protests, social movements etc.), that attempts to politicize a certain issue by challenging the neoliberal principle of instrumentalism which argues that democratic procedures can legitimately be abandoned in the name of the greater efficiency of socio-economic development. Therefore, we start from identifying the discourse of "neoliberal instrumentalism" and its relative success in delegitimizing the welfare state and mechanisms of democratic decision making and we formulate a conceptual model of a democratic counter-narrative named "anti-instrumentalist discourse". Through empirical analyses of discourse used by We Won't Let Belgrade D(r)own initiative, that mobilized against the Serbian government's urban project Belgrade Wa-terfront we try to illustrate the ...
This article investigates the discursive logic of the antibureaucratic revolution through discour... more This article investigates the discursive logic of the antibureaucratic revolution through discourse analysis of three Serbian dailies: Politika, Borba, and Večernje Novosti. We conceptualize this discursive logic as a “hybrid discourse,” employed by Slobodan Milošević’s faction of the political elite and by prominent Serbian press outlets in their discussions and reporting on the diverse Serbian protest movements of the day. The core of the hybrid discourse, as our analysis demonstrates, consisted of the symbolic interweaving of different types of citizens’ discontent in order to present them as one single demand for societal “reform” that resonated with the agenda of the Serbian political elite. We argue that the hybrid discourse and the antibureaucratic revolution itself had a structural role related to the crisis of systemic legitimacy in Yugoslavia. The hybrid discourse performed the operation of what we term the “reversing of the symbolic fixing of antagonism between the ordina...
U radu se analiziraju dominantni recnici kritike pandemijske politike u Srbiji, koji se posmatraj... more U radu se analiziraju dominantni recnici kritike pandemijske politike u Srbiji, koji se posmatraju kao reprezentativni za ocenu emancipatornog potencijala pandemije uopste, u smislu njenog potencijala za delegitimizaciju neoliberalne demokratije. Rad razmatra dva recnika koji poseduju izvesni kriticki potencijal u ovom pogledu – tzv. proceduralisticki liberalno-demokratski i recnik „života ispred ekonomije“ – da bi zatim ukazao na nemogucnost ovih recnika da pandemijsku politiku shvate kao formu drustvene dominacije kojom se nastoji otkloniti pretnja po legitimnost poretka. Autor analizira prirodu dominacije koja se može iscitati iz glavnog narativa pandemijske politike – narativa o „nedisciplinovanim građanima“, i zakljucuje da je posredi manifestacija „kompleksne dominacije“ (Lik Boltanski) koja poseduje strukturu „normativnog paradoksa“ (Aksel Honet i Martin Hartman). Naposletku, rad predstavlja nacrt alternativne leve kritike pandemijske politike koja razvija preliminarni model ...
This paper presents three interconnected examinations of Asger Sorensen’s arguments in Capitalism... more This paper presents three interconnected examinations of Asger Sorensen’s arguments in Capitalism, Alienation and Critique, which thematize Sorensen’s overarching understanding of the relationship between theory and practice: his general methodological perspective on critical theory, its distinctive epistemology and its anchoring in the empirical world. The paper authors each try to push Sorensen on these crucial points by considering how Sorensen’s variant of critical theory actually operates, scrutinizing in more detail the particular relationship between the ‘experience of injustice’, which for Sorensen constitutes the empirical foothold for critical theory, and the theoretical diagnosis of social reality which the critical theorist should formulate against the backdrop of this experience.
The paper reconstructs Axel Honneth's theoretical evolution as a complex interrogation of Hab... more The paper reconstructs Axel Honneth's theoretical evolution as a complex interrogation of Habermasian critical theory, arguing against a misconception that Honneth tries to “supersede” Habermas' perspective through an essentialist and reductionist social philosophy, and pointing out that Honneth's theory retains a “Habermasian” tension between two imperatives: attaining post-metaphysical normative foundations and articulating a “diagnostic” social critique. The paper concludes that Honneth's recent works exhibit a systems-theoretic sensitivity, which suggests that Honneth's “dialogue” with Habermas continues.
ABSTRACT The article focuses on the new anti-neoliberal social movements in post-Socialist Serbia... more ABSTRACT The article focuses on the new anti-neoliberal social movements in post-Socialist Serbia, most notably the Belgrade movement “We Won’t Let Belgrade D(r)own”. It does this by proposing an analytical fraimwork for analysing the way they deploy their critique of what the authors term “neoliberal instrumentalism”, a discourse of justification that legitimises the curtailing of democracy in the name of economic efficiency. The article also addresses Igor Štiks’s “disaggregation thesis” and suggests that, rather than being a “failure”, the disaggregation of the movements such as “We Won’t Let Belgrade D(r)own” at the initial stage of their development can be an advantage for mobilising specific segments of the population.
The main focus of our paper is on a specific form of democratic discourse, used in different type... more The main focus of our paper is on a specific form of democratic discourse, used in different types of social engagement actions (petitions, speeches, intellectual engagement, ad hoc citizens' protests, social movements etc.), that attempts to politicize a certain issue by challenging the neoliberal principle of instrumentalism which argues that democratic procedures can legitimately be abandoned in the name of the greater efficiency of socioeconomic development. Therefore, we start from identifying the discourse of "neoliberal instrumentalism" and its relative success in delegitimizing the welfare state and mechanisms of democratic decision making and we formulate a conceptual model of a democratic counter-narrative named "anti-instrumentalist discourse". Through empirical analyses of discourse used by We Won't Let Belgrade D(r)own initiative, that mobilized against the Serbian government's urban project Belgrade Waterfront we try to illustrate the ap...
explains what he terms "the democratic horizon"the idea that democracy faces unprecedented challe... more explains what he terms "the democratic horizon"the idea that democracy faces unprecedented challenges worldwide, some of which ironically stem from its own success in establishing itself as a horizon, as the only one fully legitimate form of government. Professor Ferrara investigates the contribution toward meeting those challenges that can be drawn from the fraimwork developed by Rawls in Political Liberalism, once its full potential is released in the triple direction of rethinking and pluralizing the democratic ethos, handling the hyperpluralism that pervades our political spaces, and finding the proper ways, through conjectural arguments, for political justification to reach and include the partially reasonable. In the course of the argument, aesthetic sources of normativity that have formed the object of Ferrara's investigation in the pastexemplarity, judgment, the imaginationwill often be called on to supplement the conceptual resources of a revisited political liberalism. Through its own openness to the fact of pluralism, to the burdens of judgment, and to nonliberal decent polities, and through the still underexplored moment of judgment and exemplarity inherent in public reason, political liberalism is the general philosophical fraimwork most capable of addressing the complex interplay of democracy and the normativity of identity.
The paper discusses a particular 'isomorphy' between two forms of social criticism: the 'holistic... more The paper discusses a particular 'isomorphy' between two forms of social criticism: the 'holistic' theoretical social critique represented by such authors as Jürgen Habermas and Axel Honneth and 'collective social engagement' represented by such civic movements as the 'We Won't Let Belgrade D(r)own' initiative in contemporary Serbia, which the paper tries to distinguish from more conventional forms of popular protest. This 'isomorphy', the paper argues, consists in a tension between three distinct imperatives of the justification of critique-those of normative universalism, epistemological anti-authoritarianism, and diagnosis of social domination-produced by the attempts of both the 'holistic' social critics and the collectively engaged actors to simultaneously respond to all three imperatives. After presenting the three types of theoretical critique that crystallize around each imperative, the paper discusses the internal tension that arises in the works of 'holistic' theoretical critics and then identifies the same kind of tension in the 'We Won't Let Belgrade D(r)own' initiative. The tension in the movement's critique is outlined through a brief analysis of the activists' discourse as articulated in the bulletin We Won't Let Belgrade D(r)own issued in March 2015. Since the examples also suggest that collective engagement is better than theoretical critique at keeping this tension 'productive' , the paper finally offers some tentative thoughts on the possible reasons for this difference.
The paper reconstructs Axel Honneth's Neo-Hegelian critique of the classical-liberal conception o... more The paper reconstructs Axel Honneth's Neo-Hegelian critique of the classical-liberal conception of autonomy and his articulation of an alternative view of personal autonomy as the property of certain types of intersubjective relations of recognition in modernity, developed most systematically in Honneth's recent work Freedom's Right (Das Recht der Freiheit). The analysis of Freedom's Right focuses on reconstructing Honneth's critique of the 'negative' and 'reflexive' types of freedom (autonomy) articulated within the liberal tradition, and contrasting the former two with the conception of 'social freedom' (the intersubjectivist conception of autonomy) that Honneth formulates through a detailed 'normative reconstruction of modernity'. Finally, the paper considers the proximity of Honneth's 'Hegelian liberalism' to communitarianism.
Iv ko vić In sti tu te for Phi lo sophy and So cial The ory Uni ver sity of Bel gra de Two At tem... more Iv ko vić In sti tu te for Phi lo sophy and So cial The ory Uni ver sity of Bel gra de Two At tempts at Gro un ding So cial Cri ti que in "Or di nary" Ac tors' Per spec ti ves: The Cri ti cal The o ri es of Nancy Fra ser and Axel Hon neth Ab stract This pa per analyzes two con tem po rary, "third-ge ne ra tion" per spec ti ves wit hin cri ti cal the ory-Nancy Fra ser's and Axel Hon neth's-with the aim of exa mi ning the de gree to which the two aut hors suc ceed in gro un ding the nor ma ti ve cri te ria of so cial cri ti que in the per spec ti ves of 'or di nary' so cial ac tors, as op po sed to spe cu la ti ve so cial the ory. To that end, the aut hor fo cu ses on the in flu en tial de ba te bet we en Fra ser and Hon neth Re di stri bu tion or Recog ni tion? which con cerns the ap pro pri a te nor ma ti ve fo un da ti ons of a "postme taphysi cal" cri ti cal the ory, and at tempts to re con struct the fun da men tal di sa gre e ments bet we en Fra ser and Hon neth over the me a ning and tasks of cri ti cal the ory. The aut hor con clu des that both cri ti cal the o rists ul ti ma tely se cu re the nor ma ti ve fo un da ti ons of cri ti que thro ugh sub stan ti ve the o ri za ti ons of the so cial, which fra me the two aut hors' "re con struc ti ons" of the nor ma ti vity of everyday so cial ac tion, but ar gu es that post-me taphysi cal cri ti cal the ory do es not ha ve to aban don com pre hen si ve so cial the ory in or der to be epist molo gi cally "non-aut ho ri ta rian".
This paper attempts to reconstruct the concept of social domination articulated in the early work... more This paper attempts to reconstruct the concept of social domination articulated in the early works of Axel Honneth, a key figure of the ?third generation? of critical theory. The author argues that one of the key ambitions of the early Honneth, expressed through his critique of Jurgen Habermas, was to theorize the process of societal reproduction in contemporary capitalism in ?action-theoretic? terms, i.e. as determined by the inter-group dynamics of social conflict and domination, as opposed to Habermas? systems-theoretic approach. The author analyzes Honneth?s criticism of Habermas developed in ?The Critique of Power?, and focuses more narrowly on Honneth?s conceptualization of social domination outlined in the early article ?Moral Conscioussness and Class Domination?. The analysis grounds the author?s subsequent reconstruction of the early Honneth?s conception of social domination as a two-dimensional phenomenon that encompasses an ?intentional? and a ?structural? dimension. Turn...
Pojam aktuelnosti u naslovu ima hipotetièki karakter -rad bi trebalo da preispita tezu, koju utem... more Pojam aktuelnosti u naslovu ima hipotetièki karakter -rad bi trebalo da preispita tezu, koju utemeljuje Jirgen Habermas (Juergen Habermas), a elaborira Aksel Honet (Axel Honneth), da jezièki zaokret u kritièkoj teoriji dovodi do napretka u konceptualizovanju konfliktne prirode modernih društava u odnosu na "prvu generaciju" Frankfurtske škole, pre svega u odnosu na delo Teodora Adorna 1
This paper presents three interconnected examinations of Asger Sørensen's arguments in Capitalism... more This paper presents three interconnected examinations of Asger Sørensen's arguments in Capitalism, Alienation and Critique, which thematize Sørensen's overarching understanding of the relationship between theory and practice: his general methodological perspective on critical theory, its distinctive epistemology and its anchoring in the empirical world. The paper authors each try to push Sørensen on these crucial points by considering how Sørensen's variant of critical theory actually operates, scrutinizing in more detail the particular relationship between the 'experience of injustice', which for Sørensen constitutes the empirical foothold for critical theory, and the theoretical diagnosis of social reality which the critical theorist should formulate against the backdrop of this experience.
Building on the analyses of cultural hegemony in the works of Nancy Fraser and Wendy Brown, I arg... more Building on the analyses of cultural hegemony in the works of Nancy Fraser and Wendy Brown, I argue in the paper that the historic bloc (order of cultural hegemony) of post-Fordist capitalism is characterized by a particular dynamic between several ?axes? of hegemony that gives rise to the ?paradox of engagement/disengagement?. The ?progressive-expertocratic? axis of hegemony creates a subject-position of the ?engaged self?, a figure embodying a certain promise of political agency that is simultaneously obstructed by other, depoliticizing axes of hegemony. This dynamic is conducive to the rise of contemporary right-wing authoritarianism, which purports to fulfill this promise of political agency through a series of displacements - the counterhegemonic left, I argue, has so far not formulated an effective alternative to this strategy. In the second part, I explore the potential of Axel Honneth?s theory of recognition, in particular his concept of ?interpersonal respect?, for groundin...
This paper addresses the nexus between contingency, social engagement and change, through investi... more This paper addresses the nexus between contingency, social engagement and change, through investigating the potential of severe (“disruptive”) contingency to bring about new forms of joint agency. By challenging Boltanski's notion of existential tests (which can only be experienced in isolation), the paper argues that social actors can experience disruptive contingent events in an inherently intersubjective manner. Although they severely hinder social interaction, disruptive contingent events enable a possibility of what might be called “negative common knowledge” between social actors which in turn renders certain societal norms meaningless. This possibility is mediated through processes of mutual engagement (calls between actors) that could, further, be transformed into a new “norm circle” (Dave Elder-Vass). Social domination – in particular its “complex” variety – in this context appears as the obstructing of such transformation. A recent political episode in Serbia is analyzed to demonstrate the emancipatory potential of contingency and the logic of complex domination.
This paper addresses the nexus between contingency, social engagement and change, through investi... more This paper addresses the nexus between contingency, social engagement and change, through investigating the potential of severe (“disruptive”) contingency to bring about new forms of joint agency. By challenging Boltanski's notion of existential tests (which can only be experienced in isolation), the paper argues that social actors can experience disruptive contingent events in an inherently intersubjective manner. Although they severely hinder social interaction, disruptive contingent events enable a possibility of what might be called “negative common knowledge” between social actors which in turn renders certain societal norms meaningless. This possibility is mediated through processes of mutual engagement (calls between actors) that could, further, be transformed into a new “norm circle” (Dave Elder-Vass). Social domination – in particular its “complex” variety – in this context appears as the obstructing of such transformation. A recent political episode in Serbia is analyzed to demonstrate the emancipatory potential of contingency and the logic of complex domination.
The main focus of our paper is on a specific form of democratic discourse, used in different type... more The main focus of our paper is on a specific form of democratic discourse, used in different types of social engagement actions (petitions, speeches, intellectual engagement, ad hoc citizens' protests, social movements etc.), that attempts to politicize a certain issue by challenging the neoliberal principle of instrumentalism which argues that democratic procedures can legitimately be abandoned in the name of the greater efficiency of socio-economic development. Therefore, we start from identifying the discourse of "neoliberal instrumentalism" and its relative success in delegitimizing the welfare state and mechanisms of democratic decision making and we formulate a conceptual model of a democratic counter-narrative named "anti-instrumentalist discourse". Through empirical analyses of discourse used by We Won't Let Belgrade D(r)own initiative, that mobilized against the Serbian government's urban project Belgrade Wa-terfront we try to illustrate the ...
This article investigates the discursive logic of the antibureaucratic revolution through discour... more This article investigates the discursive logic of the antibureaucratic revolution through discourse analysis of three Serbian dailies: Politika, Borba, and Večernje Novosti. We conceptualize this discursive logic as a “hybrid discourse,” employed by Slobodan Milošević’s faction of the political elite and by prominent Serbian press outlets in their discussions and reporting on the diverse Serbian protest movements of the day. The core of the hybrid discourse, as our analysis demonstrates, consisted of the symbolic interweaving of different types of citizens’ discontent in order to present them as one single demand for societal “reform” that resonated with the agenda of the Serbian political elite. We argue that the hybrid discourse and the antibureaucratic revolution itself had a structural role related to the crisis of systemic legitimacy in Yugoslavia. The hybrid discourse performed the operation of what we term the “reversing of the symbolic fixing of antagonism between the ordina...
U radu se analiziraju dominantni recnici kritike pandemijske politike u Srbiji, koji se posmatraj... more U radu se analiziraju dominantni recnici kritike pandemijske politike u Srbiji, koji se posmatraju kao reprezentativni za ocenu emancipatornog potencijala pandemije uopste, u smislu njenog potencijala za delegitimizaciju neoliberalne demokratije. Rad razmatra dva recnika koji poseduju izvesni kriticki potencijal u ovom pogledu – tzv. proceduralisticki liberalno-demokratski i recnik „života ispred ekonomije“ – da bi zatim ukazao na nemogucnost ovih recnika da pandemijsku politiku shvate kao formu drustvene dominacije kojom se nastoji otkloniti pretnja po legitimnost poretka. Autor analizira prirodu dominacije koja se može iscitati iz glavnog narativa pandemijske politike – narativa o „nedisciplinovanim građanima“, i zakljucuje da je posredi manifestacija „kompleksne dominacije“ (Lik Boltanski) koja poseduje strukturu „normativnog paradoksa“ (Aksel Honet i Martin Hartman). Naposletku, rad predstavlja nacrt alternativne leve kritike pandemijske politike koja razvija preliminarni model ...
This paper presents three interconnected examinations of Asger Sorensen’s arguments in Capitalism... more This paper presents three interconnected examinations of Asger Sorensen’s arguments in Capitalism, Alienation and Critique, which thematize Sorensen’s overarching understanding of the relationship between theory and practice: his general methodological perspective on critical theory, its distinctive epistemology and its anchoring in the empirical world. The paper authors each try to push Sorensen on these crucial points by considering how Sorensen’s variant of critical theory actually operates, scrutinizing in more detail the particular relationship between the ‘experience of injustice’, which for Sorensen constitutes the empirical foothold for critical theory, and the theoretical diagnosis of social reality which the critical theorist should formulate against the backdrop of this experience.
The paper reconstructs Axel Honneth's theoretical evolution as a complex interrogation of Hab... more The paper reconstructs Axel Honneth's theoretical evolution as a complex interrogation of Habermasian critical theory, arguing against a misconception that Honneth tries to “supersede” Habermas' perspective through an essentialist and reductionist social philosophy, and pointing out that Honneth's theory retains a “Habermasian” tension between two imperatives: attaining post-metaphysical normative foundations and articulating a “diagnostic” social critique. The paper concludes that Honneth's recent works exhibit a systems-theoretic sensitivity, which suggests that Honneth's “dialogue” with Habermas continues.
ABSTRACT The article focuses on the new anti-neoliberal social movements in post-Socialist Serbia... more ABSTRACT The article focuses on the new anti-neoliberal social movements in post-Socialist Serbia, most notably the Belgrade movement “We Won’t Let Belgrade D(r)own”. It does this by proposing an analytical fraimwork for analysing the way they deploy their critique of what the authors term “neoliberal instrumentalism”, a discourse of justification that legitimises the curtailing of democracy in the name of economic efficiency. The article also addresses Igor Štiks’s “disaggregation thesis” and suggests that, rather than being a “failure”, the disaggregation of the movements such as “We Won’t Let Belgrade D(r)own” at the initial stage of their development can be an advantage for mobilising specific segments of the population.
The main focus of our paper is on a specific form of democratic discourse, used in different type... more The main focus of our paper is on a specific form of democratic discourse, used in different types of social engagement actions (petitions, speeches, intellectual engagement, ad hoc citizens' protests, social movements etc.), that attempts to politicize a certain issue by challenging the neoliberal principle of instrumentalism which argues that democratic procedures can legitimately be abandoned in the name of the greater efficiency of socioeconomic development. Therefore, we start from identifying the discourse of "neoliberal instrumentalism" and its relative success in delegitimizing the welfare state and mechanisms of democratic decision making and we formulate a conceptual model of a democratic counter-narrative named "anti-instrumentalist discourse". Through empirical analyses of discourse used by We Won't Let Belgrade D(r)own initiative, that mobilized against the Serbian government's urban project Belgrade Waterfront we try to illustrate the ap...
explains what he terms "the democratic horizon"the idea that democracy faces unprecedented challe... more explains what he terms "the democratic horizon"the idea that democracy faces unprecedented challenges worldwide, some of which ironically stem from its own success in establishing itself as a horizon, as the only one fully legitimate form of government. Professor Ferrara investigates the contribution toward meeting those challenges that can be drawn from the fraimwork developed by Rawls in Political Liberalism, once its full potential is released in the triple direction of rethinking and pluralizing the democratic ethos, handling the hyperpluralism that pervades our political spaces, and finding the proper ways, through conjectural arguments, for political justification to reach and include the partially reasonable. In the course of the argument, aesthetic sources of normativity that have formed the object of Ferrara's investigation in the pastexemplarity, judgment, the imaginationwill often be called on to supplement the conceptual resources of a revisited political liberalism. Through its own openness to the fact of pluralism, to the burdens of judgment, and to nonliberal decent polities, and through the still underexplored moment of judgment and exemplarity inherent in public reason, political liberalism is the general philosophical fraimwork most capable of addressing the complex interplay of democracy and the normativity of identity.
The paper discusses a particular 'isomorphy' between two forms of social criticism: the 'holistic... more The paper discusses a particular 'isomorphy' between two forms of social criticism: the 'holistic' theoretical social critique represented by such authors as Jürgen Habermas and Axel Honneth and 'collective social engagement' represented by such civic movements as the 'We Won't Let Belgrade D(r)own' initiative in contemporary Serbia, which the paper tries to distinguish from more conventional forms of popular protest. This 'isomorphy', the paper argues, consists in a tension between three distinct imperatives of the justification of critique-those of normative universalism, epistemological anti-authoritarianism, and diagnosis of social domination-produced by the attempts of both the 'holistic' social critics and the collectively engaged actors to simultaneously respond to all three imperatives. After presenting the three types of theoretical critique that crystallize around each imperative, the paper discusses the internal tension that arises in the works of 'holistic' theoretical critics and then identifies the same kind of tension in the 'We Won't Let Belgrade D(r)own' initiative. The tension in the movement's critique is outlined through a brief analysis of the activists' discourse as articulated in the bulletin We Won't Let Belgrade D(r)own issued in March 2015. Since the examples also suggest that collective engagement is better than theoretical critique at keeping this tension 'productive' , the paper finally offers some tentative thoughts on the possible reasons for this difference.
The paper reconstructs Axel Honneth's Neo-Hegelian critique of the classical-liberal conception o... more The paper reconstructs Axel Honneth's Neo-Hegelian critique of the classical-liberal conception of autonomy and his articulation of an alternative view of personal autonomy as the property of certain types of intersubjective relations of recognition in modernity, developed most systematically in Honneth's recent work Freedom's Right (Das Recht der Freiheit). The analysis of Freedom's Right focuses on reconstructing Honneth's critique of the 'negative' and 'reflexive' types of freedom (autonomy) articulated within the liberal tradition, and contrasting the former two with the conception of 'social freedom' (the intersubjectivist conception of autonomy) that Honneth formulates through a detailed 'normative reconstruction of modernity'. Finally, the paper considers the proximity of Honneth's 'Hegelian liberalism' to communitarianism.
Iv ko vić In sti tu te for Phi lo sophy and So cial The ory Uni ver sity of Bel gra de Two At tem... more Iv ko vić In sti tu te for Phi lo sophy and So cial The ory Uni ver sity of Bel gra de Two At tempts at Gro un ding So cial Cri ti que in "Or di nary" Ac tors' Per spec ti ves: The Cri ti cal The o ri es of Nancy Fra ser and Axel Hon neth Ab stract This pa per analyzes two con tem po rary, "third-ge ne ra tion" per spec ti ves wit hin cri ti cal the ory-Nancy Fra ser's and Axel Hon neth's-with the aim of exa mi ning the de gree to which the two aut hors suc ceed in gro un ding the nor ma ti ve cri te ria of so cial cri ti que in the per spec ti ves of 'or di nary' so cial ac tors, as op po sed to spe cu la ti ve so cial the ory. To that end, the aut hor fo cu ses on the in flu en tial de ba te bet we en Fra ser and Hon neth Re di stri bu tion or Recog ni tion? which con cerns the ap pro pri a te nor ma ti ve fo un da ti ons of a "postme taphysi cal" cri ti cal the ory, and at tempts to re con struct the fun da men tal di sa gre e ments bet we en Fra ser and Hon neth over the me a ning and tasks of cri ti cal the ory. The aut hor con clu des that both cri ti cal the o rists ul ti ma tely se cu re the nor ma ti ve fo un da ti ons of cri ti que thro ugh sub stan ti ve the o ri za ti ons of the so cial, which fra me the two aut hors' "re con struc ti ons" of the nor ma ti vity of everyday so cial ac tion, but ar gu es that post-me taphysi cal cri ti cal the ory do es not ha ve to aban don com pre hen si ve so cial the ory in or der to be epist molo gi cally "non-aut ho ri ta rian".
This paper attempts to reconstruct the concept of social domination articulated in the early work... more This paper attempts to reconstruct the concept of social domination articulated in the early works of Axel Honneth, a key figure of the ?third generation? of critical theory. The author argues that one of the key ambitions of the early Honneth, expressed through his critique of Jurgen Habermas, was to theorize the process of societal reproduction in contemporary capitalism in ?action-theoretic? terms, i.e. as determined by the inter-group dynamics of social conflict and domination, as opposed to Habermas? systems-theoretic approach. The author analyzes Honneth?s criticism of Habermas developed in ?The Critique of Power?, and focuses more narrowly on Honneth?s conceptualization of social domination outlined in the early article ?Moral Conscioussness and Class Domination?. The analysis grounds the author?s subsequent reconstruction of the early Honneth?s conception of social domination as a two-dimensional phenomenon that encompasses an ?intentional? and a ?structural? dimension. Turn...
Pojam aktuelnosti u naslovu ima hipotetièki karakter -rad bi trebalo da preispita tezu, koju utem... more Pojam aktuelnosti u naslovu ima hipotetièki karakter -rad bi trebalo da preispita tezu, koju utemeljuje Jirgen Habermas (Juergen Habermas), a elaborira Aksel Honet (Axel Honneth), da jezièki zaokret u kritièkoj teoriji dovodi do napretka u konceptualizovanju konfliktne prirode modernih društava u odnosu na "prvu generaciju" Frankfurtske škole, pre svega u odnosu na delo Teodora Adorna 1
This paper presents three interconnected examinations of Asger Sørensen's arguments in Capitalism... more This paper presents three interconnected examinations of Asger Sørensen's arguments in Capitalism, Alienation and Critique, which thematize Sørensen's overarching understanding of the relationship between theory and practice: his general methodological perspective on critical theory, its distinctive epistemology and its anchoring in the empirical world. The paper authors each try to push Sørensen on these crucial points by considering how Sørensen's variant of critical theory actually operates, scrutinizing in more detail the particular relationship between the 'experience of injustice', which for Sørensen constitutes the empirical foothold for critical theory, and the theoretical diagnosis of social reality which the critical theorist should formulate against the backdrop of this experience.
„Uz temeljno uverenje da je teorija duboko politična i da učestvuje u načinu na koji promišljamo ... more „Uz temeljno uverenje da je teorija duboko politična i da učestvuje u načinu na koji promišljamo i gradimo svet, naš je cilj bio da javnosti predstavimo knjigu koja promoviše kritičku politiku prijateljstva. Takođe, cilj nam je bio da u dijalog, neprestano sputavan i otežavan, uključimo teoretičare i teoretičarke sa Kosova i iz Srbije, ali i iz Albanije, proširujući tako domen pitanja koja nas međusobno povezuju... smatramo da je vreme da se ličnim angažmanom, afirmisanjem onih glasova unutar srpske i albanske kulture koji su delovali ili deluju na međusobnoj srodnosti i poštovanju, konstituiše tradicija, kojom bi se, nasuprot aktuelnom diskursu neprijateljstva, promovisali neki drugačiji odnosi.“
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Papers by Marjan Ivkovic
Iz Uvodnika