Focusing on the evolution of civil society in the Arab Middle East, particularly the Palestinian context, the book critiques the effectiveness of Western donations intended to foster democracy. It highlights the unintended consequences of these efforts, revealing how they can sometimes bolster Islamist movements while undermining secular and liberal initiatives. Through this examination, the book provides a nuanced understanding of the complex dynamics at play in the region's civil society development.
Examining the histories of citizenship in Tunisia and Yemen, Benoit Challand
explains why violence is often connected to portrayals of the Arab Middle
East, arguing that the 2011 Arab Uprisings should be considered a source for
democratic theory.
Ein Feminismus der Gegenwart muss in der Lage sein, die Kämpfe und Forderungen aller bisherigen feministischen Bewegungen und Theorien zu verstehen und anzunehmen. Ein moderner Feminismus muss weiterhin die Gleichberechtigung von Frauen fordern, ebenso aber queere und trans Kritik berücksichtigen. Er muss die Idee von Geschlecht als biopolitischem Instrument vereinen mit den Kämpfen, die die Dominanz von Cisgender infrage stellen. Die intersektionalen Perspektiven von Schwarzem und dekolonialistischem Feminismus, der sein weißes Pendant als Elitefeminismus betrachtet, der seine Kämpfe auf Kosten marginalisierter und ausgebeuteter Körper austrägt, und der Ökofeminismus, der versteht, dass die Ausbeutung der Natur mit der Ausbeutung von Frauen einhergeht: Diese scheinbar unterschiedlichen Positionen müssen radikal zusammen gedacht und angewandt werden. Dem ›Anarchafeministischen Manifest‹ gelingt etwas nahezu Unmögliches: derlei vielfältige und komplexe Positionen in einer praxistauglichen Theorie zu vereinen. Anarchafeminismus setzt sich für alle ein, die unter der kapitalistischen Ausbeutung und der biopolitischen Struktur kapitalistischer Staaten leiden. Die Kämpfe von morgen werden an vielen Fronten ausgetragen: Bottici liefert mit ihrem Manifest eine theoretisch fundierte Gebrauchsanweisung.
Chiara Bottici brings fresh perspective to the formation of political and
power relationships and the paradox of a world rich in imagery yet seemingly
devoid of imagination. She identifies the imaginal's critical role in powering
representative democracies and its amplification through globalization.
In this book, Chiara Bottici argues for a philosophical understanding of political myth. Bottici shows that myth is a process, one of continuous work on a basic narrative pattern that responds to a need for significance. Human beings need meaning in order to master the world they live in, but they also need significance in order to live in a world that is less indifferent to them. This is particularly true in the realm of politics. Political myths are narratives through which we orient ourselves, and act and feel about our political world. Bottici shows that in order to come to terms with contemporary phenomena, such as the clash between civilizations, we need a Copernican revolution in political philosophy. If we want to save reason, we need to look at it from the standpoint of myth.
Part I. Bodies in plural and their oppression -- Intersectional struggles, interlocking oppressions -- Anarchism beyond Eurocentrism and beyond sexism -- Within and against feminism: queer encounters -- Intermezzo: Stabat mater -- Part II. The philosophy of transindividuality -- From individuality to transindividuality -- The philosophy of transindividuality as transindividual philosophy -- Women in process, women as processes -- Intermezzo: Intinerarium in semen -- Part III. The globe first -- The coloniality of gender: for a decolonial and deimperial feminism -- Somatic communism and the capitalist mode of (re)production -- The environment is us: ecofeminism as queer ecology.
A Feminist Mythology takes us on a poetic journey through the canonical myths of femininity, testing them from the point of view of our modern condition. A myth is not an object, but rather a process, one that Chiara Bottici practises by exploring different variants of the myth of “womanhood” through first- and third-person prose and poetry. We follow a series of myths that morph into each other, disclosing ways of being woman that question inherited patriarchal orders. In this metamorphic world, story-telling is not just a mix of narrative, philosophical dialogues and metaphysical theorizing: it is a current that traverses all of them by overflowing the boundaries it encounters. In doing so, A Feminist Mythology proposes an alternative writing style that recovers ancient philosophical and literary traditions from the pre-Socratic philosophers and Ovid's Metamorphoses to the philosophical novellas and feminist experimental writings of the last century.
