Overview

In Universal Politics, Ilan Kapoor and Zahi Zalloua argue that, in the face of the relentless advance of global capitalism, a universal politics is needed today more than ever. But rather than appealing to the narrow particularism of identity politics, the authors argue for a negative universality rooted in social antagonism (i.e., shared experiences of exploitation and marginalization). This conception of shared struggle avoids the trap of a neocolonial universalism, while foregrounding the politics of the systematically dispossessed and excluded. The book examines what a universal politics might look like in the context of key current global sites of struggle, including climate change, workers' struggles, the Palestinian question, the refugee crisis, Black Lives Matter, #MeToo, Political Islam, the Bolivian state under Morales, the European Union, and COVID-19. It also discusses the main political ingredients, gaps, and limitations of a universal politics.

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9780197607619

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Reviews

"""In a world of escalating contradictions and looming catastrophes, starkly increasing inequalities and exploitation, and devastation of the environment produced by global capitalism, what is most dearly needed is a passionate plea for universal politics provided by this book. Between the tide of identity politics, with its incapacity to address global issues, and the vicissitudes of abstract universalism, Kapoor and Zalloua develop a powerful case for a reinvention of universality that does justice to radical philosophical thought and to the invigoration of the politics of solidarity."" -- Mladen Dolar, University of Ljubljana, The European Graduate School ""Universal Politics by Ilan Kapoor and Zahi Zalloua comes at a moment that could not have been more timelyDLwhen the world seems to be exploding with particularisms and when capital appears as the only universal. Avoiding both the trap of neocolonial universalism and the narrow particularism of identity-based politics, the book develops a truly compelling concept of universal politics. An absolute must-read for anyone interested in emancipatory politics."" -- Alenka Zupan%ci%c, Institute of Philosophy at the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts ""An important intervention that opens up the problematic conceptualization of identity and ethical relationships in theories of cosmopolitanism to the alternative notion of negative universal politics and its corollary empty subject. Drawing principally on the work of the Slovenian philosopher Slavoj %Zi%zek, Kapoor and Zalloua demonstrate the importance of this universal politics through various case studies that envision a common solidarity of the excluded around the concurrent double struggle against domination and exploitation. They also prove the continued relevance of %Zi%zek's ideas to contemporary leftist struggles. A must-read for concerned political theorists, cultural studies scholars, philosophers, and leftist activists."" -- Jamil Khader, Professor of English and Dean of Research, Bethlehem University"

Universal Politics by Ilan Kapoor and Zahi Zalloua comes at a moment that could not have been more timely-when the world seems to be exploding with particularisms and when capital appears as the only universal. Avoiding both the trap of neocolonial universalism and the narrow particularism of identity-based politics, the book develops a truly compelling concept of universal politics. An absolute must-read for anyone interested in emancipatory politics. * Alenka Zupancic, Institute of Philosophy at the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts * An important intervention that opens up the problematic conceptualization of identity and ethical relationships in theories of cosmopolitanism to the alternative notion of negative universal politics and its corollary empty subject. Drawing principally on the work of the Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizek, Kapoor and Zalloua demonstrate the importance of this universal politics through various case studies that envision a common solidarity of the excluded around the concurrent double struggle against domination and exploitation. They also prove the continued relevance of Zizek's ideas to contemporary leftist struggles. A must-read for concerned political theorists, cultural studies scholars, philosophers, and leftist activists. * Jamil Khader, Professor of English and Dean of Research, Bethlehem University *

Universal Politics by Ilan Kapoor and Zahi Zalloua comes at a moment that could not have been more timelyDLwhen the world seems to be exploding with particularisms and when capital appears as the only universal. Avoiding both the trap of neocolonial universalism and the narrow particularism of identity-based politics, the book develops a truly compelling concept of universal politics. An absolute must-read for anyone interested in emancipatory politics. -- Alenka Zupan%ci%c, Institute of Philosophy at the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts An important intervention that opens up the problematic conceptualization of identity and ethical relationships in theories of cosmopolitanism to the alternative notion of negative universal politics and its corollary empty subject. Drawing principally on the work of the Slovenian philosopher Slavoj %Zi%zek, Kapoor and Zalloua demonstrate the importance of this universal politics through various case studies that envision a common solidarity of the excluded around the concurrent double struggle against domination and exploitation. They also prove the continued relevance of %Zi%zek's ideas to contemporary leftist struggles. A must-read for concerned political theorists, cultural studies scholars, philosophers, and leftist activists. -- Jamil Khader, Professor of English and Dean of Research, Bethlehem University

Author Information

Ilan Kapoor is a Professor of Critical Development Studies at the Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change, York University, Toronto. His research focuses on psychoanalytic and postcolonial theory and politics, participatory development and democracy, and ideology critique. He is the author of The Postcolonial Politics of Development (2008), Celebrity Humanitarianism: The Ideology of Global Charity (2013), and Confronting Desire: Psychoanalysis and International Development (2020); and editor of the collected volume, Psychoanalysis and the Global (2018). Zahi Zalloua is the Cushing Eells Professor of Philosophy and Literature, Professor of French and Interdisciplinary Studies at Whitman College, and Editor of The Comparatist. He is the author of Being Posthuman: Ontologies of the Future (2021), Zizek on Race Toward an Anti-Racist Future (2020), Theory's Autoimmunity: Skepticism, Literature, and Philosophy (2018), Continental Philosophy and the Palestinian Question: Beyond the Jew and the Greek (2017), Reading Unruly: Interpretation and Its Ethical Demands (2014), and Montaigne and the Ethics of Skepticism (2003). He has also published articles, edited volumes, and special journal issues on globalization, literary theory, psychoanalysis, and cultural and trauma studies.

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