
Philosophical Perspectives from and through the Global South
The volume seeks to use the theory of encryption of power (TEP) in a tight connection with the theory of archism to rethink sovereignty in at least the following manners:
- Do strong, traditional forms of sovereignty (total authority and supremacy) like those outlined by Bodin and Hobbes still exist today? If so, how do they define power and resistance? Identity and difference? The state and community?
- Inquire if shifts in sovereignty—towards supposedly softer forms as highlighted by Hardt and Negri (vaporous sovereignties) or even harder forms as established by the likes of Agamben (state of exception)—determine new forms of understanding power and the political for the 21st century.
- How is archism itself a form of colonialism and encryption, in many cases taking an internalized form even in the most powerful nation states? How does this link—if it does—allow some kinds of common struggles and strategies between the Global South and the Global North?
- Since traditional Westphalian sovereignty has become detached from the national state as its core, is the law no longer its matrix of power? What is the relationship between national law and sovereignty? international law and sovereignty? All of this considering phenomena such as perpetual war, informal wars, and soft wars.
- Independently of geopolitical shifts, does sovereignty, as a power of domination (absolute and exceptional power, archism in its most germane meaning), continue to define the shape of the world from the definition of the exceptional?
In this latter case, TEP has held that “power in coloniality depends on one thing alone: the creation of a hidden people as the exception, a feat that can only be achieved through the exercise of sovereignty. The supreme decision on the exception remains the core of the power machine as domination. What is axiomatic to the definition of sovereignty is an absolute power that decides on the exception from within the exception”.
Consequently:
What is the relationship between coloniality and sovereignty? Sovereignty and state of exception? Archism and prophecy? Archism and decryption of power?
- TEP holds “The bond between coloniality and liberalism creates the most sophisticated and impermeable machine of power in history. We can formulate it simply: ‘The people must be both the exception and the (simulated) sovereign!’. Coloniality achieves the most extraordinary exploit: it establishes the people as sovereign as it immediately seizes their sovereignty as absolute power (constituent power). All of this is done while maintaining the simulacrum of popular sovereignty as the political and legal axiom of the people. Therefore, it paradoxically merges the hidden people as sovereign and exception.
Consequently, where does constitutional theory stand? And what can it tell us regarding sovereignty and politics? What is problematic within the constitutional relationship between popular sovereignty and sovereignty?
- How does archism—as a highly centralized and hierarchical political form that is a secularization of ancient Greek and Hebrew prophetic traditions—dominate contemporary politics through a prophet’s promises of peace and prosperity or the threat of violence?
- How can we oppose archism (as the transcendent model)?
- How does “archism” subsist as subtle ways of power hierarchies within supposedly anti-authoritarian contexts?
- What is the relationship between modern/colonial sovereignty and necropolitics?
- What is the relationship between modern or colonial sovereignty and political theology?
Writers, thinkers, and activists are invited to present abstracts engaging directly with the list developed above, either to mature, complement, or critique said ideas.
Editors
James R. Martel jmartel@sfsu.edu
Ricardo Sanín-Restrepo ricardosanin@gmail.com
Important notice
The abstracts will be evaluated by the book editors, who will decide whether to ask for a complete article or not. Once the abstract is accepted, the author or authors will present an article for a book chapter that will be submitted to blind peer review. The book as a whole will also be submitted for approval by the publisher and blind peer review.
TIMETABLE
Deadline for submission of abstracts | May 20th 2024 |
Feedback to authors regarding acceptance of abstracts | July 10th 2024 |
Contributors’ deadline to submit first draft of MS | February 1st 2025 |
Review and feedback on received chapters by editors | May 2nd 2025 |
Submission of the Handbook to the publisher | June 10th 2025 |
0 Comments