There is a tendency in discussions of constituent power to focus on the groups involved, the subjectivities produced and the discursive significance of the events themselves. Revolts are full of conflict and violence, they pull down sovereign orders and generate...
Illan rua Wall
The Sense of Public Order
With the widespread social unrest unfolding in the USA following the police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, we are once again confronted by the horrifying exceptionality of public order enforcement. The problem, however, is that we understand the videos of...
Critique in times of Corona
Over the last few weeks we have received a large number of pieces on the pandemic, so we have decided to publish a small selection of them over the next few days, and then to continue to publish them as they arrive. In the past we would have called this intense blog...
New Police powers aimed at #ExtinctionRebellion?
The Metropolitan Police force have requested greater powers to deal with the threat of #ExtinctionRebellion. The exact details of the request are unclear, but some of the proposals have begun to emerge. And they are couched in what may be politely be called ‘utter...
The Mytho-Poetics of Critical Legal (secret) Society
Adieu Ammenotep, Leonora Carrington, (1960) By all accounts the secret society began before the Boston body was found. It started in many different places, small groups began to form who consumed the scraps and leftovers from other tables. Clusters of interested...
What if we really protested Brexit? Constituent Power & Unrest
No one has really protested Brexit. Sure, lots of people have gone to the streets and politely walked around their major cities. But there is no real protest, no unrest, no potential for disorder. Instead there is an endless cycle of hot-takes: hot-air continuously...
Fee Strike
The University and College Union (UCU) is going on strike. Following the refusal of the employer’s association (Universities UK – the UUK) to negotiate on their proposed cut to pensions, the UCU balloted members and 88% voted in favour of strike action. Barring a...
Trump’s Upside Down
We have not lately – not until Trump's election – seen or heard the dog whistle politics of racism, sexism, Nativism, and homophobia so eagerly thrust aside by a Presidential candidate and, with such glee: traded for openly racist invective, division, misogyny,...
Is Fascism Making a Comeback? (Part I)
Each month, the wonderful State of Nature blog asks leading critical thinkers a question. This month that question is Fascism. Chiara Bottici In fact, fascism has never gone away. If by fascism, we mean the historical regime that created the name and embraced the...
CfP: Dissecting Violence: Structures, Imaginaries, Resistance
Violence is all around us. Our everyday practices, unwillingly and unknowingly, often support cultural, social, economic, and legal structures that cause and perpetuate physical and psychological harm. These structures, whether visible or hidden, tend to privilege...